Summary of R. v. Oickle

 

Summary of R. v. Oickle

R. v. Oickle, 1998 NSCA 59 (CanLII)

The appellant was charged with seven counts of arson. After a lengthy voir dire, the trial judge concluded that two written statements taken from the appellant by the police, after he had submitted to a polygraph exam which had produced a negative result, were voluntary and admissible, along with a subsequent re-enactment, video-taped by the police, of the appellant at the site of the alleged offences describing his actions. The appellant was convicted. The only evidence directly implicating him were the two statements and the video taped re-enactment. The appellant alleged that the statements were not made voluntarily, but under an atmosphere of oppression, where the police failed to make it clear to the appellant that the results of the polygraph test were inadmissible at trial and where they claimed that the test was infallible.Allowing the appeal and entering acquittals on all counts, that the police misled the appellant about certain critical facts respecting the polygraph test in order to induce a confession. The statements were therefore inadmissible, as was the video-taped re-enactment, which was induced by the inadmissible statements.