1. My Lords, the following point of law has been certified as of general public importance: whether a wife is a compellable witness against her husband in a case of violence on her by him. It arises on the appellant's appeal, by leave of this House, against his conviction for wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm.

2. The appellant was charged at the Central Criminal Court inter alia (i) with assaulting one Bailey thereby occasioning him actual bodily harm, and (ii) with wounding Janis Ann Scrimshaw (sic) with intent to do grievous bodily harm. The woman concerned was so described because at the date of the alleged wounding and at the date of the committal proceedings she was not married to the appellant and that was her maiden name. The marriage only took place on 2nd October 1