§ MR. GINNELL (Westmeath, N.)To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, in view of the desire of policemen to obtain convictions, and the injustice occasionally resulting there from, as illustrated in the Bock and Edalji cases, whether it is proposed to issue any special instructions on this matter to police authorities, or to make independent corroboration essential to the admission of police evidence in every case affecting human life or human liberty.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Gladstone.) I do not understand the hon. Member's allusion to the Beck case. Mr. Beck was 956 wrongly convicted, not because of any evidence given by the police, but because of a mistake in identification made by ten independent witnesses. I have no reason to think that the police generally, or in the cases referred to, have been actuated by any undue desire to obtain convictions, or that their evidence is for any such reason loss reliable than that of other people, and I do not propose to issue any special instructions in the matter.