A rape trial collapsed after a witness used AI to prepare for court, and the Court of Appeal says this won't be the last time it happens

[Diane82]

The Court of Appeal's criminal division has called for police, prosecutors and the Criminal Procedure Rules Committee to formally address and regulate the use of AI in criminal proceedings, after overturning a ruling that had stayed a rape trial at Lewes Crown Court. The case, Rex v FGD, arose after the sole prosecution witness was found to have used AI on their phone to help prepare for the hearing, generating a summary of their recollection of events followed by a series of practice cross-examination questions with suggested answers. The original trial judge, Recorder Hay, ruled this amounted to impermissible witness coaching and stayed the proceedings as an abuse of process

The Court of Appeal, comprising Lady Justice May, Mr Justice Griffiths and His Honour Judge Picton, allowed the prosecution's appeal and reversed that ruling, ordering a retrial to be listed at the earliest opportunity. Lady Justice May said the court would have wanted to understand why the original judge concluded a fair trial was impossible, when questions about the witness's reliability and credibility could arguably have been safely left for the jury to weigh rather than treated as grounds to halt the entire case. The judges explicitly stated this case is unlikely to be an isolated example, given how widely available AI chatbots have become

This ruling adds to a growing body of UK case law grappling with AI's role in the justice system, spanning both witnesses using AI to prepare testimony and legal professionals citing entirely fictitious cases generated by AI tools. A separate Civil Justice Council consultation is already examining proportionate transparency requirements for AI use in witness statements, and courts have previously found litigants in person using AI chatbots for legal guidance without any way to independently verify whether the information those tools provided was actually accurate. With no existing statutory regulation specifically governing AI use in criminal proceedings, this case puts renewed pressure on the relevant bodies to establish clear rules before the problem becomes even more widespread

Court of Appeal calls for AI regulation in criminal proceedings after trial collapseswww.lawgazette.co.uk