[6] These words came back negatively when, in Rupasinghe v. Attorney General the defence counsel in this case about violation of the right to silence, used the report in contrast to Sir Norman's 1972 role as a member of the eleventh Criminal Law Revision Committee.
[7] In 1972, Skelhorn gave bank robber Bertie Smalls, Britain's first true supergrass, immunity from prosecution in light of the amounts and detail of his Queen's evidence.
Edward Heath, Prime Minister since 1970, had banned sensory deprivation in light of the report by Sir Edmund Compton into internment and interrogation techniques used by the British Army and the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
In the House of Commons that afternoon, six MPs led by Liberal David Steel, called for the resignation of Sir Norman Skelhorn, over the Hain case.
Skelhorn retired from the post before the publication of the critical report by Lord Devlin published in 1977 recommended statutory prosecution safeguards, on which the Government took no action.