JURIES should be told of an accused’s past criminal convictions in court, The Daily Telegraph’s readers say.

A large number of readers have responded to the call by Solicitor-General Michael Sexton SC that jurors should be told if a person on trial has committed previous similar crimes.

“This is naturally very frustrating to victims and their families in, for example, cases where the accused is charged with rape or a serious assault and has a long history of similar conduct,” Mr Sexton argues in his new book On The Edges of History.

The state’s leading law officer said Australia should adopt the British system where jurors are expected to be informed if a defendant has prior convictions for the same offence.

Many of the Daily Telegraph’s readers also agreed.

“Facing a court should be no different to applying for a job, where you (or in this case the police) have to supply a resume of your past “employment” before a decision is made,” Laurie said online.

Reader Margie also agreed with Mr Sexton.

“Having been on juries, I found it frustrating not to be given all the facts until the jury made its decision of guilty or not guilty,” she said.

While Peter, who said he has served on juries, said: “Unfortunately you were not allowed to know in advance that the accused person has done the crime ten times before! We are apparently under this system not grown up enough to be trusted to weigh up the evidence on all the known facts.”

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However some readers disagreed.

“A person’s previous convictions can, at best, be only hearsay evidence,” Phil wrote.

“In our justice system, a person is tried only for the crime of which he, or she, is accused, not for what he/she has done — and been punished for — in the past.

“This is taking us back to the draconian consorting laws where you could be arrested for simply being in the same pub as someone the police deemed to be ‘a person of ill repute’.

“Let’s not give the police all the rights the Gestapo had. Let’s remain ‘innocent until proven guilty’.”