English version of the judgment delivered by
The Court‑‑ After a trial before a judge of the Court of Sessions of the Peace sitting without a jury, appellant was convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to eighteen years in prison. His appeal to the Court of Appeal was dismissed, but not unanimously: one of the three judges would have acquitted him. Of the two judges in the majority, who considered that his appeal should be dismissed, one rendered his judgment as follows:
[TRANSLATION] Like my brother Montgomery J.A., I am of the view that appellant had a fair trial. The jury did not believe him.
I would therefore dismiss the appeal.
Did the judge think this was a trial by jury? Or, realizing that the trier of fact was a judge of the Court of Sessions of the Peace, did he simply make an error in describing the trier of fact?
The accused raised this as one of the arguments in support of his appeal to this Court.
We are all of the view that it is in the interests of the proper administration of justice that this Court allow the appeal and direct that the appeal of the accused be heard de novo by the Court of Appeal.
In view of this conclusion, it would be inappropriate for us to rule on the other arguments made by the accused in this Court.