The applicant is aggrieved at the dismissal by a magistrate of a complaint containing six counts of stealing by the respondent from her employer. The prosecution case consisted, essentially, of admissions made by the respondent to a person who was engaged by the employer as a store detective, of the recovery by police officers, accompanied by the store detective, from the respondent's home, of articles belonging to the employer and of further admissions to the police in a video recorded interview. Counsel for the respondent at the trial in the Court of Petty Sessions, objected to the reception of all that evidence and a voir dire was conducted. At the conclusion of the voir dire the learned magistrate, without inviting submissions, purported to exercise a discretion to exclude all of that material and thereupon dismissed the complaint.

The respondent, an 18 year old female, was employed as a sales assistant in a store which sold fabrics. The first witness called, Miss Ringin, said she spoke to the respondent at the store in the presence of the store manager, Mrs Cook, on 11 September 1996, in respect of six incidents in the preceding six weeks or so in which certain goods had allegedly been removed from the store by the respondent, without her paying for them, and without her having permission to take them. Miss Ringin compiled, from the question and answer discussion, a statement in narrative form in her handwriting, invited the respondent to read it, and asked her to acknowledge the correctness of its contents by signing it. She was asked if she had administered a caution to the respondent and in a convoluted answer said: