Criminal law – Fair trial. A decision to proceed in circumstances where a defendant who wished to give evidence was understood not to be in a fit state to give evidence should be taken, if at all, only after the most full and careful consideration. The Court of Appeal, Criminal Division, in allowing the defendant's appeal against conviction for causing serious injury by dangerous driving, held that the judge had erred in requiring the trial to proceed without intermission after the defendant had suffered fits in court, even if that meant that the defendant did not give evidence.