Singapore legislation
Clause 6
Clause 6
Repeal and re-enactment of section 122
Section 122 of the Code is hereby repealed and the following substituted therefor —“Circumstances in which inferences may be drawn from accused’s failure to mention particular facts when questioned, charged, etc.122.—
Where in any criminal proceedings against a person for an offence evidence is given that the accused —
at any time before he was charged with the offence, on being questioned by a police officer trying to discover whether or by whom the offence had been committed, failed to mention any fact relied on in his defence in those proceedings; or
on being charged with the offence or officially informed that he might be prosecuted for it, failed to mention any such fact,being a fact which in the circumstances existing at the time he could reasonably have been expected to mention when so questioned, charged or informed, as the case may be, the court, in determining whether to commit the accused for trial or whether there is a case to answer, and the court, in determining whether the accused is guilty of the offence charged, may draw such inferences from the failure as appear proper; and the failure may, on the basis of such inferences, be treated as, or as capable of amounting to, corroboration of any evidence given against the accused in relation to which the failure is material.(2) Subsection (1) shall apply in relation to questioning by persons (other than police officers) charged with the duty of investigating offences or charging offenders as it applies in relation to questioning by police officers; and in that subsection “officially informed” means informed by a police officer or any such person.(3) Nothing in subsection (1) or (2) shall in any criminal proceedings —
prejudice the admissibility in evidence of the silence or other reaction of the accused in the face of anything said in his presence relating to the conduct in respect of which he is charged, in so far as evidence thereof would be admissible apart from those subsections; or
be taken to preclude the drawing of any inference from any such silence or other reaction of the accused which could be drawn apart from those subsections.(4) Subsections (1) and (2) shall not apply as regards a failure to mention a fact if the failure occurred before the date of the coming into operation of the Criminal Procedure Code (Amendment) Act, 1975.”.