In an action for defamation in which the question whether F1the pursuer did or did not commit a criminal offence is relevant to an issue arising in the action, proof that, at the time when that issue falls to be determined, F1he stands convicted of that offence shall be conclusive evidence that he committed that offence ; and his conviction thereof shall be admissible in evidence accordingly.

In any such action as aforesaid in which by virtue of this section F1the pursuer is proved to have been convicted of an offence, the contents of any document which is admissable as evidence of the conviction, and the contents of the complaint, information, indictment or charge-sheet on which F1he was convicted, shall, without prejudice to the reception of any other admissable evidence for the purpose of identifying the facts which constituted that offence, be admissable in evidence for the purpose of identifying those facts.

For the purposes of this section a person shall be taken to stand convicted of an offence if but only if there subsists against him a conviction of that offence by or before a court in the United Kingdom or F3(in the case of a service offence) a conviction (anywhere) of that service offence.

Subsections (4) to (6) of section 10 of this Act shall apply for the purposes of this section as they apply for the purposes of that section, but as if in the said section (4) the reference to subsection (2) were a reference to subsection (2) of this section.

The foregoing provisions of this section shall apply for the purposes of any action begun after the coming into operation of this section, whenever the cause of action arose, but shall not apply for the purposes of any action begun before such commencement or any appeal or other proceedings arising out of any such action.