I've just been looking through the Crown Court Compendium which is a pdf file found linked on this page
Crown Court Compendium - June 2022 - Courts and Tribunals Judiciary, concerning jury directions about
defendant's lies.
file:///C:/Users/Admin/Downloads/Crown-Court-Compendium-Part-I-June-2022.pdf starting at page 362
1. A defendant’s lie, whether made before the trial or in the course of evidence or both, may be probative of guilt.888 A lie is only capable of supporting other evidence against D if the jury are sure that: 889
(1) it is shown, by other evidence in the case, to be a deliberate untruth; i.e. it did not arise from confusion or mistake;
(2) it relates to a significant issue;
(3) it was not told for a reason advanced by or on behalf of D, or for some other reason arising from the evidence, which does not point to D’s guilt.890
2. The direction should be tailored to the circumstances of the case, but the jury must be directed that only if they are sure that these criteria are satisfied can D’s lie be used as some support for the prosecution case, but that the lie itself cannot prove guilt.891 It is important that care is taken to make clear these criteria.892
3. If the issue for the jury is whether to believe the prosecution witnesses rather than D, and doing so will necessarily lead them to conclude that D was lying in the account he/she gave, such a direction is not necessary.893 This was reiterated in the case of LW. 894
4. Similarly, a lies direction is not needed where D’s explanation for his/her admitted lies can be dealt with fairly in summing-up.895
[...]
9. Whether a direction should be given to the jury in respect of any admitted or proved lie/s should be the subject of discussion with the advocates before speeches. 901 In particular, care should be taken to identify with the advocates the lie/s in respect of which the direction is to be given.
10. Before the jury may use an alleged or admitted lie against D, they must be sure of all of the following:
(1) that it is either admitted or shown, by other evidence in the case, to be a deliberate untruth: i.e. it did not arise from confusion or mistake;
(2) that it relates to a significant issue; and
(3) that it was not told for a reason advanced by or on behalf of D, or some other reason arising from the evidence, which does not point to D’s guilt.
11. The jury must be directed that unless they are sure of all of the above, the [alleged] lie is not relevant and must be ignored.
12. If the jury are sure of all of the above, they may use the lie as some support for the prosecution case, but it must be made clear that a lie can never by itself prove guilt.
