Portal:Law/Selected quotations/6

“

Throughout the web of the English Criminal Law one golden thread is always to be seen, that it is the duty of the prosecution to prove the prisoner's guilt ... No matter what the charge or where the trial, the principle that the prosecution must prove the guilt of the prisoner is part of the common law of England and no attempt to whittle it down can be entertained.

”

— Viscount Sankey, stating the principle of the presumption of innocence in Woolmington v DPP (1935)

Source[edit]

Woolmington v DPP [1935] UKHL 1 (23 May 1935), House of Lords from BAILII