reasonable view of all the evidence that the appellants’ activities should, on the basis
of international comity, be dealt with by another country.
23.
Mr Sandiford, for the Crown, submits that the judge was correct to rule that the
“substantial measure “test was satisfied for the following reasons:
Sheppard operated and controlled the website from within the jurisdiction;
the material was uploaded, maintained and controlled from within the
jurisdiction;
the material, the subject of counts 4 – 8, was written and edited within the
jurisdiction;
the material the subject of counts 9 – 15 was collated and selected within the
jurisdiction;
Sheppard’s website included a dedicated British page (no other country had
such a page) on the website and offered books for sale with prices and postage
quoted in sterling;
Sheppard’s website and Whittle’s column in which the material the subject to
counts 4 – 9 was published were linked to websites such as that of the British
People’s Party;
E-mail traffic between the appellants revealed their intention to publish the
material on the website within the jurisdiction and they claimed to have done
so in order to satirise political correctness and redress an unbalanced media.
24.
There was in our view abundant material to satisfy the “substantial measure” test.
However, Mr Adrian Davies for Sheppard in a submission supported by Mrs Linda
Turnbull for Whittle submits that this is not the correct test and that Wallace Duncan
Smith (No. 4) is of no assistance in determining the issue of jurisdiction in the present
case. Wallace Duncan Smith was convicted of one count of fraudulent trading contrary
to section 458 of the Companies Act 1985 and two counts of obtaining property by
deception contrary to section 15 of the Theft Act 1968. Smith, a Canadian national,
was chairman and managing director of a merchant bank which ceased trading in 1991.
It was subsequently wound up owing its unsecured creditors some £92m. It also
controlled other companies based in Canada, including Wallace Smith Holdings
(WSH).
Working from this country and using a group of companies which he
controlled, Smith set up various bogus deals between the merchant bank and WSH
which boosted the size of the merchant bank’s profits. While the dishonest
arrangements were put into operation by Smith in this country, the obtaining of the
money took place outside the jurisdiction when the money was paid into a bank account
in New York.
25.
The problem faced by the court in Wallace Duncan Smith (No 4) was a conflict
between the decisions of this court in Smith (No. 1) [1996] 2 CAR 1 and R v Manning
[1999] QB 980. As the Lord Chief Justice observed at paragraph 48, the issue was an
important one and involved the extent to which it was appropriate for the court to
develop the common law as to jurisdiction in order to meet the changing requirements