The Use of Fabricated Out-of-Court Exculpatory Statements
There is a distinction between an out-of-court exculpatory statement that is disbelieved and therefore rejected and such a statement found to be concocted or deliberately fabricated. The former has no evidentiary value. The latter can constitute evidence from which an inference of guilt may be drawn. In order to constitute a fabricated out-of-court statement, disbelief of the statement by the trier-of-fact is not sufficient; there will need to be independent evidence of concoction. In R. v. Hafeez , 2016 ONSC 769, for instance, the need for evidence of concoction was satisfied as the accused admitted in testimony that he told out-of-court lies to the police about material issues. The Disbelieved Statement In analyzing the evidentiary value of a disbelieved statement, the court will need to have regard to the content of what it is that is disbelieved and the connection of the disbelieved statement to the offence charged. R. v. O’Connor , (2002) 2002 CanLII 3...