New rule for spontaneous prior consistent statements

Today the Court of Appeal ruled on the issue of spontaneous prior consistent statements made by an accused to the police. Such may, in some circumstances, be admitted:

R. v. Edgar, 2010 ONCA 529: 

[72]          I conclude, therefore, that it is open to a trial judge to admit an accused's spontaneous out-of-court statements made upon arrest or when first confronted with an accusation as an exception to the general rule excluding prior consistent statements as evidence of the reaction of the accused to the accusation and as proof of consistency, provided the accused takes the stand and exposes himself or herself to cross-examination.  As the English cases cited above hold, the statement of the accused is not strictly evidence of the truth of what was said (subject to being admissible under the principled approach to hearsay evidence) but is evidence of the reaction of the accused, which is relevant to the credibility of the accused and as circumstantial evidence that may have a bearing on guilt or innocence.