News

A new legal clause which would have allowed a person to be convicted of murder or manslaughter on the basis of their silence has been defeated in the House of Lords.

During the third reading of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Bill, the Lords voted 128 to 110 in favour of an amendment to withdraw the clause.

The clause would allow a jury or court to draw inferences of guilt about a defendant charged with murder or manslaughter in the case of a death of a child or vulnerable adult in their care from their failure to give evidence or refusal to answer a question.


Lord Thomas of Gresford, who put forward the amendment, told the Lords that silence did not necessarily indicate guilt. "Love, fear, loyalty, family solidarity are all reasons from which it would be unsafe to draw the inference of a person's guilt where there is no other evidence," he said.

However, the Lords backed a clause that will create a new offence of "causing or allowing the death of a child or vulnerable adult". The offence would carry a maximum penalty of 14 years' imprisonment and a fine.

The bill will now go to the House of Commons.