http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=323482&in_page_id=1770
JAMES CHAPMAN
"David Blunkett is facing another row with the judiciary over plans to allow defendants' previous convictions to be revealed to juries.
The Home Secretary's reforms, due to come into force in six weeks' time, will mean criminal records being disclosed as a matter of course during trials.
In most cases, convictions will only be made known if they are similar to the current charge.
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However, in child sex and theft trials, judges will be able to order that a much broader range of previous offences are revealed to the jury. In exceptional cases, they will even be told if a defendant has been acquitted of a 'strikingly similar' offence in the past. "
