Singapore legislation

Section 378

Admissibility of out-of-court statements as evidence of facts stated

(1)

In any criminal proceedings a statement made, whether orally or in a document or otherwise, by any person shall, subject to this section and section 379 and to the rules of law governing the admissibility of confessions, be admissible as evidence of any fact stated therein of which direct oral evidence by him would be admissible, if —

(a)

being compellable to give evidence on behalf of the party desiring to give the statement in evidence, he attends or is brought before the court but refuses to be sworn or affirmed; or

(b)

it is shown with respect to him —

(i)

that he is dead, or is unfit by reason of his bodily or mental condition to attend as a witness;

(ii)

that he is beyond the seas and that it is not reasonably practicable to secure his attendance; or

(iii)

that, being competent but not compellable to give evidence on behalf of the party desiring to give the statement in evidence, he refuses to give evidence on behalf of that party.

(2)

Where a person makes an oral statement to or in the hearing of another person who, acting at the instance of the maker of the statement, reduces it (or the substance of it) into writing at the time or reasonably soon afterwards, thereby producing a corresponding statement in a document, the statement in the document shall be treated for the purposes of this section (and sections 379 and 381 so far as they have effect for the purposes of this section) as having been made in the document by the maker of the oral statement, whether or not it would be so treated apart from this subsection.

(3)

In this section and in sections 379 to 385 —

Definition

“document” includes, in addition to a document in writing —

(a)

any map, plan, graph or drawing;

(b)

any photograph;

(c)

any disc, tape, sound-track, or other device in which sounds or other data (not being visual images) are embodied so as to be capable (with or without the aid of some other equipment) of being reproduced therefrom; and

(d)

any film, negative, tape or other device in which one or more visual images are embodied so as to be capable (as aforesaid) of being reproduced therefrom;

Definition

“film” includes a microfilm;

Definition

“statement” includes any representation of fact, whether made in words or otherwise.Any reference to a copy of a document includes —

(a)

in the case of a document falling within paragraph (c) but not paragraph (d) of the definition of “document” above, a transcript of the sounds or other data embodied therein;

(b)

in the case of a document falling within paragraph (d) but not paragraph (c) of that definition, a reproduction or still reproduction of the image or images embodied therein, whether enlarged or not;

(c)

in the case of a document falling within paragraphs (c) and (d), such a transcript together with such a still reproduction; and

(d)

in the case of a document not falling within paragraph (d) of which a visual image is embodied in a document falling within that paragraph, a reproduction of that image, whether enlarged or not,

Definition

and any reference to a copy of the material part of a document shall be construed accordingly.

(4)

For the purposes of this section and of sections 379 to 385, a protest, greeting or other verbal utterance may be treated as stating any fact which the utterance implies.[377

Read in full context — Criminal Procedure Code →