Circumstantial evidence

In law, circumstantial evidence differs from evidence provided by a witness who directly saw or heard something of the alleged offence; instead it is the circumstances that surround the facts that can be used to infer guilt or innocence through reasoning.

An example of circumstantial evidence is the behaviour of a person around the time of the alleged offense. If they were charged with theft of money, and were then seen in a shopping spree, the shopping spree would be circumstantial evidence of their theft.