THOMAS CAMPBELL v. HER MAJESTY'S ADVOCATE

[1] On 4 February 2013, the appellant was convicted by the jury of a charge of assaulting Tahir Hamid at Annette Street, Glasgow on 25 November 2011, with a knife, to his severe injury and permanent disfigurement. The jury returned a verdict of not proven in relation to a second charge in which it was alleged that he had assaulted another man on the same date at about the same time in the same place.

[3] Turning to the circumstances at trial, it was evident that the charges concerned were two serious and random attacks, in the street, on strangers. They occurred on a November evening, at about 5pm or 5.15pm. The evidence was that two young men were involved but only one of them carried out the attack. It was not disputed that the attacks occurred. The issue was as to the identity of the perpetrator, it being the Crown case that both assaults were so similar as to have been committed by the same person.

[6] The prosecutor's questions inviting Mr Wallace to identify the perpetrator on oath, in court, were not objected to. Detective Constable Cuthbert said that the image taken and used for the VIPER parade would be more current but it is not entirely clear from the sheriff's report whether that meant current as at December 2011 or current as at November 2012.

[8] There are two grounds of appeal. The first ground of appeal is that the refusal by Sheriff Swanson of the devolution minute and minute of objection at the first diet was wrong in law and resulted in the denial of the appellants right to a fair trial. In the notice of appeal and case and argument the following points are made in support of that ground:

� that Duncan Wallace had told the police that he had not seen the attacker's face;