Group sighting could not support this murder conviction

Kenneth Pottinger’s murder conviction was quashed and an acquittal entered on 1 July. Reasons published on 16 October explain why the Court of Appeal considered the sole eyewitness’s identification too weak to put before a jury.

A police witness described seeing groups of men, first crossing a road and later during a shooting. But his evidence did not identify a distinct period of focused observation of Pottinger, who was previously unknown to him. During the second encounter, the officer was also returning fire and seeking cover.

The court stressed that a period spent watching several people is not automatically an equivalent observation of each individual. Daylight and a later identification parade did not cure the missing foundation. The parade tested recollection; it could not repair an unreliable original sighting.

The judges also found shortcomings in the jury directions and an unbalanced treatment of a defence point. They held that the no-case submission should have succeeded. The outcome was an acquittal, not an order for another trial; the sentencing challenge therefore required no determination.

Report based on the full official judgment and the identified passages. Later appeals, variations and subsequent treatment were not checked.