her behalf. Without being allowed to know if the anonymous witnesses knew Davis or his ex-girlfriend, and forbidden to ask any questions that might reveal who they were, defence counsel had been so hindered in his attempts to probe their evidence that Davis had not received a fair trial. The House reviewed all of the major cases in which anonymous witnesses had been allowed, and concluded that the law had developed incrementally in such a way that while no single step towards trials with anonymous witnesses had been obviously wrong, their cumulative effect had now gone too far. As Lord Brown put it: However the House did not go so far as to say that anonymous witnesses can never be used in a trial, and listed some examples where they would still be permitted. The effect of the judgement is that witnesses may not give evidence anonymously if to conceal their identity from the defendant and his lawyers would hinder cross-examination or other challenges to their credibility. (Also R v Davis does not affect the rules on concealing the identity of witnesses from the public but not from the defence.) Lord Mance concluded the judgement by saying: Reaction The reaction of the police to the decision was negative; John Yates, Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police described the decision as a cause for grave concern and said The Justice Secretary, Jack Straw, announced that there would be an immediate review of the law, with the possibility of legislation to reverse the principle established by the decision, and on 4 July 2008, the Criminal Evidence (Witness Anonymity) Bill was introduced in the House of Commons. The bill became law on 21 July 2008, 33 days after the Lords' ruling. Cases cited United States Kirby v. United States 174 US 47, 55 (1899) Alford v. United States 282 US 687 (1931) Pointer v. Texas 380 US 400, 405 (1965) Smith v. Illinois 390 US 129, 131 (1968) Coy v. Iowa 487 US 1012, 1015 (1988) Alvarado v. Superior Court of Los Angeles County 23 Cal 4th 1121, 1137-1140 (2000) Crawford v. Washington 124 S Ct 1354, 1359 (2004) New Zealand & Australia R v Hughes [1986] 2 NZLR 129 R v Hines [1997] 3 NZLR 529 South Africa S v Leepile (1-3) 1986 (2) SA 333; (4) 1986 (3) SA 661; (5) 1986 (4) SA 187 S v Pastoors 1986 (4) SA