Court of Appeal, Criminal Division

Published January 3, 2008

Regina v R (Gloves, Offensive weapon)

Leather gloves with a padding of lead/sand over the knuckle area were capable in law of being an offensive weapon.

The Court of Appeal (Lord Justice Laws, Mr Justice Mackay and Mr Justice Lloyd Jones) so held on November 15, 2007, when allowing an appeal by the Crown, under section 58 of the Criminal Appeal Act 2003, against a terminating ruling of no case to answer by Mr Recorder Owen Davis, QC, in Harrow Crown Court on August 30, 2007 at the trial of R on a single count of possessing an offensive weapon, that a pair of combat gloves containing powdered lead/sand in the knuckle area were not capable in law of being an offensive weapon.

LORD JUSTICE LAWS said that the prosecution contended that the construction of the gloves, with a padding of sand over the knuckles, together with the fact that they were advertised on the internet as self-defence gloves, was sufficient to establish that they were made or adapted for use as an offensive weapon.

The defence argued that the nature of the gloves was at least consistent with a design to protect the hands when, for example, motorcycling.

In their Lordships’ judgment, there was material from which a reasonable juror could infer that the gloves were designed or adapted as an offensive weapon. There was, accordingly, a case to answer.

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