Weerasinha Mudiyanselage Weerasinha v. Hon. Attorney General – CA 286 A-B-287/08-2008

In the case between Weerasinha Mudiyanselage Weerasinha, Rathnayaka Mudiyanselage Jayasinha Bandara, and Ekanayaka Weerasinha Athapattu Mudiyanselage Kalubanda (Appellants) and the Hon. Attorney General representing the State (Respondent), the court addressed the issue of whether convictions for kidnapping were sustainable where the judgment was based solely on uncorroborated and inconsistent eyewitness identification evidence. It was held that such convictions, reliant on a single, delayed, and internally contradictory witness account, were unsafe. The decision reaffirmed the legal principle that convictions should not rest solely on identification evidence unless it is strong and corroborated, referencing legal standards set in R v Turnbull and the recommendations of the Devlin Committee