MODERN INVESTIGATIONS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 22, 11 September 1911, Page 8

MODERN INVESTIGATION S .

rNRELTABLE EVIDENCE. Modern investigations into tlie powers of observation of ordinary people have shaken belief in the value of eyewitnesses’ evidence, and occasionally a Court ease occurs that shakes it still more. Extraordinary conflict of evidence among people who were apparently telling the truth as it appeared to them, marked the hearing of an appeal in Melbourne the other day by a footballer who bad been convicted and fined for assault. 'I he alleged assault arose from an incident which took place on the Melbourne Cricket Ground, when Victor Tread, a University player, was rendered unconscious. In the Court of Petty Sessions Cota war; convicted of having struck "'rood, and lined £lO. He appealed on the ground that he was not guilty, and that the conviction was wrong in law, and against the weight, of evidence. There were fourteen witnesses for Cots and six or eight for Trood, and so conflicting was their evidence that the judge said, in giving his decision, that there were nearly as many different accounts as there were witnesses, and that “there were contradictions, in almost, every witness called.” Eye-witnesses for Trood tieposed to seeing Cota knock 'Trood down, and it was stated tint the mm that struck the blow was covered with a blue sleeve. Witnesses for the appellant were just as i,sure that the blow was struck by one Wells, and that Gets was not near enough to hit "rood. These latter witnesses deposed to seeing a hare, arm deliver the blow. All the witnesses were honest, says the “Argus,” all were reputable, aval all gave their evidence with sincere conviction. Yet “twenty men, all intent, on the game, had twenty soparte and distinct recollections, and the only man without positive convictions in the matter was the man whoso jaw took the blow. . . Every day brings some warning against the weakness of circumstantial evidence. But this case shows that, the direct evidence of eye-witnesses is also liable to bewildering error.” The Magistrate, who acknowledged the honesty of the evidence, quashed tire conviction, expressing himself as almost convinced that Gets did not hit Trend.