they dont need video evidence

the word of a single rosser is enough to convict

Not here in Scotland it isn't .

Corroboration is properly required by law ; eliminating the possibility of a mistaken or bent copper .

Good on Scotland.

Not the case for certain road traffic offences, including failure to comply with a red light.

Cat

So you can envisage no circumstances where a single witness would be sufficient proof?

So if someone you know (or even you) gets killed and a policeman is the only witness you dont think it should stand up i court then ?

Well there would be a body and perhaps a weapon and perhaps the suspect has blood on his hands or whatever. There will be a full and vigerous investigation and a trial.
That's a bit different than a red light offence where there may be no other evidence except what the Officer believes he saw.

It is a basic principle of Scots law that the essential elements of a charge should be corroborated.

In effect this means that there must be at least 2 separate sources of evidence - the evidence could be from witnesses, forensics, confessions, circumstantial, etc. The important point is that the evidence must come from independent sources.

In the example you give if there was no other evidence to corroborate the identity of the attacker then they could not in law be convicted of the offence.

At the end of the day in Scots law a single piece of evidence, no matter how compelling, is never sufficient to even charge someone let alone convict.

The requirement for corroboration is very much a double edged sword - on the one hand it raises the evidential threshold and helps to protect those who are innocent; on the other it can allows the guilty to walk free - this is particularly the case with domestic abuse where there are frequently no other witnesses or other corroborative evidence.

Cat

ps - as posted earlier there are a small number of minor statutory offences (including some road traffic) which do not require corroboration.

And them few seconds looking in the mirror when they are behind you with the blue lights in the grill and you start thinking oh st!
Happened to me 2 years ago after many years of a clean license.

Moral of the story, don't speed or be very observant to others around you when you do!
If you pass a car at speed and then this overtaken car accelerates rapidly, and appears to want to join you on you on your high speed run, back off!

He got me at 90 he said.

Was parked up a slip road in a black car (but marked!) Marking don't stand out quite so well on black.