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November 4th 2004.

Breakthrough on false confessions.

In a case called R. v Antar, published today, the Court of Appeal ruled that a trial judge had been wrong to refuse to hear evidence of an accused's suggestibility. The psychological techniques pioneered by Gisli Gudjonnson sdemonstrated that the accused tended to show acquiesce to leading questions and change his responses under pressure at a higher level. The Court of Appeal decided that this evidence should have been shown to the jury.

The Gudjonnson suggestibility scale has been a major feature of many appeals since that of Enghin Raghip in the late eighties.

It has long been argued that police should not get away with bullying such vulnerable people as the accused in this case.

This latest ruling may at last prompt police chiefs to do something about about the style of interviewing in their police stations.

August 19th 2004.

RICHARD ALLEN FREED.

Richard Allen, 38, was convicted of a murder in Chortlton, Manchester, in 1998. The victim was a store manager. The police involved were the infamous Greater Manchester Police - whose exploits are catalogued in many parts of this website. On this occasion they had the happy notion of planting one of their "grasses" in the cell with Allen. This is a common practice, where violence as well as intense persuasion is common. The grass subsequently emerged with a statement that Allen had confessed the crime to him. Experience tells us the police will not be keen to pursue the real murderer - so, store keepers of Manchester, watch out.

March 17th 2004

Campbell and Steele.

The Ice Cream Murders.

Jailed for life in 1984 for the murders, by arson, of six members of the Doyle family, including an 18-month old baby, Campbell and Steele had their convictions quashed in the Scottish Court of Appeal today. The murders were alleged to be a part of the Glasgow "Ice Cream Wars" - where ice cream vans were supposed to be covers for drug outlets.

Two previous appeals had failed - just as in the earlier Beattie case ( see this site) which is to come to the appeal court later this year.

Thomas Gray who was sentenced to 14 years for his part in the crime lost his appeal.

The central issue in the Campbell-Steele case was the reliability of the police notebooks. It is rare for the Scottish Court of Appeal to even consider that the police can lie. They prefer "human error" or incompetence.

Mark Dallagher.

Mark was convicted in 1998 of murdering a 94 year old woman. A prosecution expert told the jury at his trial that an earprint on a window at the victim's home was almost certinaly his.

That evidence has now been discredited and new DNA evidence has implicated another person as a suspect.

This case follows that of Angela Canning convicted of killing her baby - and cleared when pathological evidence was discredited ( as also in the case of Sally Clark).

Because identification evidence and confession evidence is now closely watched after so many many abuses in the seventies and eighties, forensic science evidence is now the prime cause of miscarriages of justice - juries assume that expert evidence is correct and unimpeachable.

Forensic Scientists have long acknowledged that the adversarial system forces them into presenting only one half of the truth in a case - the half being argued by the side that is paying them.

Hopefully the setting up of the Council for the Registration of Forensic Practitioners will help curb the present imbalances that occur.

January 2004

Harry Mackenney and Terry Pinfold.

This case goes back 23 years. the two men were convicted of murder and jailed for life in 1980. Both were in their early fifties and are now being relased for what must be but a few years of freedom. The irony is that the Court of Appeal actually said that the evidence of the main witness against them was "worthless". Why then did no one realise this in 1980?

GEORGE KELLY CLEARED - 50 YEARS LATE.

Reasons were finally given for the quashing of this conviction in June. George Kelly was killed by the state on March 28th 1950. He had been found guilty of the murder of Leonard Thomas the manager of a cinema in Liverpool and the assistant manager. Charles Connolly pleaded guilty to robbery and consiracy to rob in relation to the cinema incident. The trial jury did not know that another man - Donald Johnson - had confessed to the crime. They did not learn this because the police withheld the evidence. Important documents which would have helped clear Kelly and Connolly was kept secret - so that they would be hung instead of the real murderers - or maybe because the police officers involved were so stupid that they thought they had a divine knowledge about who had done the crime. So the murders in Liverpool go unpunished - a murderer got away with it. Kelly's daughter Kathleen Hughes and Conolly's widow Eileen have thus been deprived of their loved ones for half a century. Thanks you loyal officers of Merseyside police. No doubt you enjoyed a promotion and a large pension for your stupidity.

Michael McMahon and David Cooper cleared of the 1969 Luton post office murder.

This is one of the classic cases of the seventies - a precursor to the sea-change of the eighties. McMahon and Cooper, both of whom have since died, were convicted in 1970 of the murder of Reginald Stevens, a sub-postmaster who was shot dead in September 1969 during a bungled robbery by a four-man gang. A third man, Patrick Murphy, was also convicted, but released on appeal in 1973. He too has since died.

This famous case has been covered many times in books - most notably those by Bob Woffinden ( Miscarriages of Justice) and Ludovic Kennedy ( Wicked beyond belief) There is also a summary at

Innocent.org

MICHAEL SHIRLEY CLEARED

Michael Shirley was convicted in 1986 of the rape and murder of 24 year-old barmaid Linda Cooke in Portsmouth. New DNA evidence was presented to the Court of Appeal and evidence of an undisclosed witness. The conviction was quashed.

June 20th 2003.

Mills and Poole.

Gary Mills ( 43) and Anthony Poole ( 41) were jailed in 1990 for stabbing Hensley Wiltshire during a fight in a flat in Gloucester. Their convictions were quashed by the Court of Appeal. The judges said that a document had been wrongly put before the jury and that this had been unfairly prejudicial to the defendents.

June 12th 2003. The oldest miscarriage of justice - George Kelly. The current longest-oustanding case was finally cleared up in the Court of Appeal.

George Kelly was hanged in 1949 for the murder of a cinema manager in Liverpool.

Charles Connolly was alleged to have been his accomplice and was jailed for ten years. Connolly died in 1997.

The Court of Appeal, in quashing the convictions of both men pointed to the discovery of a document that proved that a key witness for the prosecution had lied in court.

The witness was a known criminal who had told the prosecutor and the court that both Kelly and Connolly had confessed their guilt to him while in jail on remand. The newly-discovered document - which had been simply pushed in between two files - showed that he had told the police the same tale some months before, but had named a different man as the culprit.

28th February 2003

Anthony Steel conviction quashed.

Steel's case is covered in detail elsewhere on this site

Tony Steel page

28th January 2003

Sally Clark innocent.

Sally Clark the solicitor jailed for murdering her two baby sons, left the Appeal Court after her conviction was overturned.

She was convicted in Chester Crown Court in 1999 of smothering her son Christopher in 1996 when he was 11 weeks old - and of murdering her son Harry in 1998 when he was 8 weeks old.

Dr.Williams, a Home Office pathologist, carried out the post mortems on these two babies. He knew that baby Harry had an infection that could have caused his death - but he did not disclose this important information. He declined to attend the Court of Appeal to explain why he had not told the jury at the trial that Harry could have died from the infection.

Dr. Williams was criticised by the Court for the non-disclosure. He is being investigated by the General Medical Council.

ROBERT BROWN FREED

He had always insisted that police bullied him into signing a false confession.. He was dramatically in the first hour of a case due to last two days. The judges who ruled that The guilty verdict against him "cannot be regarded as safe.

Lord Justice Rose, Mr. Justice Gibbs, and Mr. Justice Davis were told that, unknown to the jury and the trial judge, one of the police officers central to the case, Detective Chief Inspector Jack Butler, was "deeply corrupt'.

Senior detectives had faked notes of interviews to back up a confession and a key piece of forensic science evidence was never passed to Mr Brown's defence team

Her case was referred back to the Court of Appeal. The reference was unusual in that it is rare for a case such as this, where there has been a full and frank confession that was not later retracted, to be referred back to the court of appeal. Her sentence is likely to be reduced to manslaughter - and because she had already served 9 years she should be freed. Although she pulled the short straw in getting Lord Justice Rose on the bench ( he is not of the Bingham/Woolf school) she was lucky to have as her counsel Vera Bair QC.

The 74 year old case of William Knighton a Derbyshire miner hanged at 22 for cutting his mother's throat at their Ilkeston home is being sent referred back to the Court of Appeal by the CCRC. It is the oldest case yet referred by the CCRC.

July 2nd 2002

Sally Clarke, the solicitor who is serving a life sentence for killing her babies has had her case referred by to the Court of Appeal by the CCRC.

19th June 2002

Satpal Ram has been freed after 25 years . The European Court of Human Rights ruled that it was illegal for government ministers to annul a parole board decision.

June 12th 2002

Robert Brown Robert Brown was convicted at Manchester Crown Court in 1977 for the murder of Annie Walsh. His appeal against his life sentence was refused by the Court of Appeal in 1978. The CCRC has now referred the conviction to the Court of Appeal.

January 25th 2002

John Brannan and Bernard Murphy.

The Court of Appeal ruled that John Brannan should not have been found guilty after the three judges agreed that he could have been acting in self-defence when he stabbed Michael Pollitt. a childhood friend, to death in 1992. John Brannan was convicted with Bernard Murphy. The two men, from Manchester, maintained that Mr Pollitt had a gun, but at their trial no witnesses came forward to witnesses came forward John Brannan committed suicide at Blundestone prison in 1999 after losing an appeal. Bernard Murphy was also cleared of the murder. The solicitor was Campbell Malone - rapidly becoming the leading solicitor in Britain in dealing with miscarriages of justice.

Stephen Downing was finally freed on 16th January. See elsewhere in this newspage for details of this case. Because the work on the case was primarily done by journalist Don Hale - the local newspaper editor in Matlock where the murder took place, this case has attracted a lot of publicity. The news that various people, including the police, have threatened Mr. Hale has only increased the publicity on the case.

Stephen Downing is now said to be claiming 2 million pounds in compensation for his imprisonment - he was convicted in 1973. We shall see if the Compensation Board feels that figure is justified.

The case of Josephine Smith has been referred to the Court of Appeal by the CCRC.

She was convicted in 1993 of shooting her husband. She has always claimed justifiable manslaughter - in that she was a battered wife.

ALISTAIR LOGAN HONOURED.

The solicitor who represented Gerard Conlon and Patrick Armstrong - two of the Guildford Four - was given an OBE in the New Year's Honours List. Logan gave a particularly spirited seminar in the recent Tom Sargant series at the Inns of Court School of Law - dealing in part with the retribution meted on him by the police because he dared to contest the trial verdict. Logan is accepting the honour. Two years ago, Gareth Peirce, who also worked on the Guildford case, turned down a CBE.

15th December 2001 SUSAN MAY

The Appeal Court dismissed the appeal of Susan May this week. Convicted of murder in May 1993 on the basis of circumstantial evidence of the flimsiest nature, Susan May is in prison because she was the person who cared most for her 89-year-old blind aunt, the victim of a bungled burglary. The easiest victim of a miscarriage of justice - the caring relative or friend. Susan was found guilty of her aunt's murder despite the almost complete and utter lack of any evidence against her. Just the usual mix of suspicion, speculation and conjecture. An appeal was unsuccessful in 1997, but her case was referred back to the Court of Appeal by the CCRC at the end of November 1999. This second appeal has now been rejected.

Two men convicted of the notorious ice cream war murders are to be allowed to appeal, it was confirmed last night. The decision by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission could lead to Thomas Campbell and Joe Steele being cleared. The case of a third man, Thomas Gray, has also been referred to the appeal court. He was jailed at the same trial 17 years ago for a shotgun attack on an ice cream van being driven by one of the men Campbell and Steele were eventually convicted of killing. Neither Thomas Campbell nor Joe Steele genuinely thought they would get banged up for killing six members of the Doyle family in a massive blaze. They were stunned when they were found guilty of murder and there was uproar in the High Court in Glasgow in October 1984. Steele, then a 23-year-old tearaway, was so enraged by his treatment that he made a makeshift knife in his cell and planned to run amok in the courtroom when he returned to be sentenced. It was only the fact that officials switched his cell after the verdict which stopped him from slashing policemen and court staff. But the anger shared by Steele and Campbell would never subside. Campbell decided that a life behind bars was not worth living. He went on high-profile hunger strikes and ordered his lawyer not to intervene.

The Court of Appeal has quashed the verdict in this case. Beardmore was convicted in 1998 of rape Now the girl he was accused of raping has confessed that her evidence was a pack of lies.

Beardmore was living in farmhouse 15 miles from Stoke at the time of the alleged offences, between 1991 and 1993. The girl told her mother that between the ages of three and six she had been raped and interfered with when visiting the farm. Lord Justice Mance, sitting with Mr Justice Penry-Davey and Mr Justice Leveson, said that she was "a troubled young woman. She was confused about her sexuality. She thought she wasn't getting enough attention from her mother. She says now she never wants to see her mother again. She has expressed the wish to right a wrong which had been keeping her awake, crying at night."

30th October 2001

There is now a Minister for miscarriages of justice. Keith Bradley, MP for Manchester Withington has taken this within his remit.

This is nothing new of course, there has always been a minister who deals with such matters, but since the Crimnal Case Review Commission was created in 1997 the Home Office has stepped back from miscarriages of justice and left them to the Commission. Now, it appears, the politicians are taking a fresh interest in cases. Mr. Bradley, a junior minister in the Home Office, has a local miscarriage of justice in the form of Sally Clark. She is the solicitor who was recently jailed for murdering her babies. She and her husband live close to Keith Bradley's constituency anbd he is finding it difficult to ignore the many complaints about the case.

14TH AUGUST 2001

JUSTICE AULD REPORT.

Should the police retain the power to decide how much evidence to disclose to the defence - or should the Prosecution lawyers now have that decision?

Should the Prosecution lawyers have the right to decide just what charge to lay against someone - or should the police retain that power?

Should the right to elect jury trial be abolished?

Should the judges lose their two month summer vacation?

These, and many other such important questions are discussed in the latest report on the Criminal Justice System.

See the entire report at: www.criminal-courts-review.org.uk

http://www.criminal-courts-review.org.uk

MICHAEL STONE - A NEVER-ENDING SAGA.

Michael Stone was convicted yet again of the murder of Lin and Megan Russell on July 9th 1996. From the evidence, there seems little doubt that Stone has serious anti-social personality disorder. However, does this make him guilty? Can we really be sure that there is not a murderer roaming the streets of Maidstone, happy in the thought that Stone has been fitted up for the crime?

Stone was largely convicted on the word of Damian Daley who is, by his own account, a liar and a crook. His evidence was that Stone confessed during a whispered conversation through a quarter-inch gap surrounding a heating pipe that ran through the walls dividing their cells.

The jury actually visited the prison to determine for themselves if this might have been possible. Apparently they were convinced the sound could have been heard - but does that mean that Stone actually did make such a confession?

The witness Damian Daley claimed - as did the police - that he gained nothing from coming forward with the evidence against Stone. but when he was due to stand trial accused of affray and assault causing actual bodily harm, it transpired that closed-circuit TV tapes which could have proved either his guilt or his innocence had gone missing!

Can the police really expect us to swallow that story without question?

14th June 2001

A Rash of Scottish cases.

Whilst the English Court of Appeal has been largely dormant, the Scots are experiencing a surge of miscarriage cases in the Appeal Court. The main cases are:

Andrew Smith, then 19, was found guilty in 1977 of murdering Richard Cunningham, 29, in a bar in Larkhall, Lanarkshire. He admitted there had been an argument in the toilet and that he punched Mr Cunningham, who fell to the floor and died some hours later. Smith has been in and out of jail on licence several times. Last December the appeal court was told that new pathological evidence was that the death had not resulted from a kick but from a fall. The Crown conceded that the murder conviction and life sentence could not stand.

Raymond Gilmour ,38, was jailed for life in 1982 after two confessions were made that he raped and strangled a 16-year-old girl in woods near her home in Johnstone, Renfrewshire, in 1981.Gilmour was convicted without the corroboration normally required. The prosecution failed to produce forensic evidence or witnesses, and Gilmour retracted his confession, which was itself highly inaccurate. MPs and senior lawyers expressed doubts about the safety of his conviction after investigations in the early 1990s revealed serious weaknesses in both the confession and the police pathologists reports. Senior detectives involved in the original Hastie murder inquiry were also privately unhappy about Gilmour's conviction. Gilmour's case was the 10th to be sent back to the courts by the new seven-strong commission, which was set up by the Scottish Executive to look at alleged miscarriages of justice.

On May 16th 2001 Richard Karling, 48, was released by the Court of Appeal. He had been jailed for life in December 1995 for smothering his former girlfriend Dorothy Niven after allegedly drugging her. Blood-test results which could have cleared him were not made known either to defence lawyers or the prosecution until nearly four years later. In March 1999, the Court of Criminal Appeal ordered an inquiry into the case. In 2000 Herbert Kerrigan QC, defence counsel, informed the appeal judges of a ''startling revelation'' and ''a matter of the gravest concern'' He pointed out that a crucial part of the prosecution case was that Mr Karling gave Ms Niven Temazepam and that she was smothered after her resistance had been overcome by the drug. The defence had now learned of the existence of tests on the blood of the victim which revealed there had not been any Temazepam present.

On May 4th, 2001 Malcolm Cowan was posthumously cleared of indecency offences. He committed suicide after his conviction. In 1999, at Dunfermline Sheriff Court, Cowan denied lewd, indecent and libidinous practices and behaviour towards a seven-year-old and two nine-year-old girls. He was sentenced to 18 months in jail, but released pending an appeal. The basis of the appeal was that the sheriff had allowed evidence about ''grooming'' a practice whereby adults intent on sexually abusing children gain their trust over a period of time. The court of criminal appeal ruled that Mr Cowan, aged 31 at the time of his death, had suffered a miscarriage of justice because highly prejudicial evidence had been wrongly allowed to go to the jury at his trial

On September 8th 2000 Brian Donnelly, 21, was given a re-trial at the end of his appeal. In 1998 He was found guilty of the killing the murder of Margo Lafferty, whose naked body was found in a city centre lane in 1998. This was on a majority verdict despite his defence naming a convicted sex offender as the potential killer.

On May 2nd 2001 Duncan Edwards, 32, won his appeal. He had been accused with Craig Dundas, 39, of murdering Linda Anderson, 44, on 1 January, 1999, at a tenement in Home Street, Tollcross, Edinburgh. The Court of Criminal Appeal ruled that Edwards had suffered a miscarriage of justice at his trial in 1999 because of a misdirection to the jury by the presiding judge, Lord Philip.

What is probably Scotland's longest outstanding case, that of George Beattie is covered elsewhere in this website.
 

6th March 2001

Peter Fell cleared.

Peter Fell ,40, a former soldier, made a partial confession in 1982 about the murder of Ann Lee (44) and Margaret Johnson (65) in Aldershot. Peter had a history of making up stories - he is a fabulist - like George Beattie ( see front page of this website). He once claimed he was the Yorkshire Ripper! he pestered the police with anonymous phone calls about the Aldershot murders and when the police investigation was getting nowhere, they picked him up for questioning.

Fabulism is a well-known psychological trait - it should have been spotted by the Hampshire police. They, however, seemed too eager to get a conviction, so the real murderer of these two women went free whilst Fell spent 17 years in prison because he has this psychological weakness. Everyone knew he was a tall tale teller. And the police were told this, but they did not listen. Fabulism may be genetic, though it is usually associated with childhood enviroment. Having it and certainly not peter Fell's fault. Like others who have appeared in these pages ( such as Anne Fitzpatrick in the Mycock case) Peter Fell may well not have been able to separate truth from untruth.

The treatment Peter Fell received at the hands of the police was hardly likely to help anyone in the investigation. When he was arrested, he was held in custody for three days, denied access to a solicitor and for 56 hours was refused food. This sounds very like many miscarriage cases - but particularly that of of Anthony Steel ( see also the main index page of this website).

12th February 2001

Eddie Gilfoyle judgement.

As already noted, Eddie Gilfoyle's appeal was dismissed by the court of appeal. This case, reported elsewhere on this website, was about the death of Gilfoyle's wife who was found hanging in their garage. She was pregnant. Had she committed suicide - or had her husband killed her?

Michael Mansfield QC represented Gilfoyle. Campbell Malone was his solicitor. They introduced novel evidence at the appeal - attempting to prove suicide by introducing pyschological evidence about the woman's state of mind. This was presented by Professor Canter - who had never seen the woman.

The judges said that Psychiatric evidence as to the state of mind of a defendant, witness or deceased, falling short of mental illness, might be admissibile in some cases when based on medical records and/or recongnised criteria, but eh present academic status of pyschological autopsies was not such as to permit them to be admitted as a basis for expert opinion before a jury. They pointed out that this was the first time Professor Canter had ever "embarked on the task which he set himself in this case". There was not sustantial body of academic work approving his methods. His conclusion, they though was speculative. They also thought that this evidence was one-sided, for it was based on interviews with Gilfoyle's own family. Lastly, they thought that happiness or sadness ( in Gilfoyle's wife in this case) could be assessed by a jury just as well as by an expert.

8th February 2001 George Kelly case referred.

This is another ancient case that the CCRC has decided to refer. This one dates from 1950 when Kelly was hanged for a murder in Liverpool. It was alleged to have shot the manager of a cinema when he raided it.

This case had the classic element of two trials - the jury had been unable to agree on a verdict at the first. the cae was based on the the evidence of two self-confessed accomplices in planning the raid. There was nothing to corroborate their stories - and no scientific evidence linking Kelly with the crime.

7th February 2001

Stephen Downing is bailed.

The Court of Appeal allowed Stephen Downing bail today - about 3 months before he appears before the court in his appeal on reference from the CCRC. Stephen has done 27 years for a crime he claims he did not do - the murder of Wendy Sewell in Bakewell Yorkshire. It is rare, though not unknown for the appeal court to bail persons such as Stephen - but the comments from the Prime Minister in the Commons in the afternoon after Stephen was bailed are quite unprecedented.

Tony Blair specifically praised the people behind the re-investigation of the case - primarily Don Hale editor of the "Matlock Mercury". It's not so long ago that journalists who brought new evidence to light on miscarriages were hauled before the court and harangued by the Lord Chief Justice for doing the work that the judicial authorities should rightly do ( but never did). The reason for the judge giving baiul was interesting - Stephen Downing - like many others - was not allowed a solicitor whilst making a false confession. He was kept in the dark about his status - whether he was under arrest or not, and was not cautioned before he made the confession. The Steel case ( front of this this web site) is a similar case. This is a retrospective view of the propriety of the police actions in this case - and significantly, the local police chief gave a statement disassociating himself from the actions of the officers in 1974.

7th February.

Michael Stone case.

Michael Stone, convicted of the 1996 murder of Dr. Lyn Russell and her daughter Megan near Canterbury is in the court of appeal. STone's appeal was upheld, but this is going to be a protracted case because the Home Secretary made it fairly clear that his view was that Stone was guilty of something. However, the case against Stone was always a classic example of a miscarriage of justice.

Stone's lawyers have a tape of one of the main prosecution witnesses admitting to being a paid police informer. Other witnesses against Stone, testifying to hearing a"confession" were prisoners with him whilst he was on remand - a common police ploy.

Stone was sent to a retrial. After the vast amount of publicity on this case and the tragic circumstances of the deaths of the victims, it seems unlikely that this second trial can be a fair one. It will take a remarkable jury to keep public opinion out of the deliberations.

February 2nd 2001

Stephen Craven case dismissed. Wrongful non-disclosure set aside.

Stephen Craven was convicted of murder in Newcastle in 1991.

This case was effectively a re-trial of the original case because on the one hand apparently important evidence had come to light - and had not been properly disclosed to the defence at the time of the trail. However, the Crown had also used DNA techniques to strengthen its case against Craven in the meantime.

The court decided that it could strike the balance in this matter - it could ignore the wrongful non-disclosure in the context of the all the information now available - particularly the DNA evidence. It was necessary, said the judges, to determine whether unfairness as the non-disclosure, should render a conviction unsafe and it was necessary to have regard to the particular vice which was said to constitute unfairness.

This seems a strange decision, for wrongful non-disclosure often suggests a determination on the part of the police to get a conviction regardless of the weakness of their case. When non-disclosed documents come to light it is often by sheer accident and there is usually a feeling among the appeal team that others are either still not disclosed - or are even destroyed. The Craven case exemplifies the prosecution position on this situation. They are determined to uphold the decision and will continue fighting the case. IN Craven's case this took the form of DNA evidence whihc is generally reliable - but the most common form of such persistence is the "enforced confession" that prisoners are required to make before they can obtain parole.

In the 1993 Runciman Royal Commission report, Professor Michael Zander wrote a dissenting opinion on this very subject.

He wrote: "The moral foundation of the criminal justice system requires that if the prosecution has employed foul means the defendant must go free even if he is plainly guilty. Where the integrity of the process is fatally flawed the conviction should be quashed as an expression of the system's repugnance at the methods used by those acting for the prosecution."

22nd December 2000

Eddie Gilfoyle loses his appeal.

The Court of Appeal threw out the Eddie Gilfoyle case today - saying that the victim, Gilfoyle's wife, was suspended too high for the death by hanging to have been suicide. They did not think the supposed suicide note was genuine.

See further down this page for more details.Or go to:

http://www.scandals.org/

22nd December 2000

Iain Gordon Hay case - Innocent at last!.

It has taken nearly 50 years for Gordon, a Glaswegian serving in the RAF in Northern Ireland, to be cleared of the murder of Patricia Curran, the daughter of a Northern Ireland High Court Judge. Gordon was found "guilty but insane" and detained in a mental hospital. After extensive investigations, solicitor Hugh Pierce demonstrated that the conduct of the police investigations, particularly a three day interrogation leading to Gordon's confession to the murder, with no corroborating evidence, could have contributed to a miscarriage of justice. Pearce died two years ago, aware that hiis cause was going to be successful.

Click here for details.

15th November 2000

Stephen Downing case referred to the Court of Appeal.

After 27 years of protesting his innocence, Stephen Downing is finally to get his day in court. Stephen is one of those who has refused to confess in order to obtain parole. The person behind the campaign for Stephen is Don Hale, the editor of the local newspaper "The Matlock Mercury".

In July this year a police re-investigation team questioned witnesses in Bakewell at the behest of the CCRC. There are now new witnesses in the case. One of them has told the police how the victim, Wendy Sewell, had said she was on her way on the night of the murder to meet a lover - a married man in the town. He was said to have arrived at the scene of crime with another man. Now, 30 years on, one of the men has allegedly changed his story.

The lessons of the Downing case are simple: a) Police should take great care when interviewing people with a mental age of 11 - as Downing had at the time of the murder. b) Prisoners should not be subjected to the pressure of having to confess in order to get parole - it means that the guilty go free when the innocent remain in jail. c) Prosecution witnesses should be put under greater scrutiny than they are. if any are subsequently found to have lied to the court they should automatically be prosecuted.

Although Stephen Downing's case is currently being hailed as remarkable for its length and thinness of evidence, The George Beattie case - on the front page of this website - is equally as long as Downings'. Beattie too had a low mental age. The Neil Edginton case - covered in the Tom Sargant Memorial site - is another case where a prisoner refuses to admit his guilt and is kept in jail as a result. In Edginton's case he has done 20 years.

Click here for details on the Edginton case.

11th October 2000

Harold Williams dies.

Harold William's case was referred back to the Court of Appeal only some six weeks ago ( see later in this news page). Harold is one of the many who was required to confess before he could obtain parole.

For 12 years he held out against the pressures put on him to confess - and he lived to see his case referred back to the Court of Appeal. But at 68, after 23 years in prison, he died of a stroke.

Harold Williams was jailed for life in 1977 for the murder of Dorothy Davies, his former girl friend, in Tupsley, Hereford.

His case highlights the simple fact that you can die before you get justice in England.

It's not unusual for an innocent man to refuse to confess even though he is told he can get his freedom through parole if he does as he is told. But it is unusual for such a person to die in prison - normally if a prisoner in these circumstances is ill, as Harold was, he is let out to die. It seems that your name has to be Kray and you have to be the "Peoples' Murderer' to be accorded this privilege.

The CCRC has announced that there is nothing to stop Harold being declared innocent even though he has died. His family believe that will be a great consolation to him. No doubt the Court of Appeal, with its immense powers will be able to raise him from the grave to listen to their judgement.

Press to go another case where a prisoner refuses to confess to obtain parole

11th August 2000

Harold Williams referred to court of appeal.

This is another ancient case that still hurts. Harold Williams, now sixty seven years old, was convicted in 1977 for murdering his former girl friend.

For twelve years he was offered parole if he agreed to confess - he refused to do so and has so far served 34 years. He has three children whom he has hardly seen.

24th July 2000

Anthony Steel case referred.

After fifteen years of investigation and three years of waiting for the CCRC to deal with the case, the Anthony Steel case ( Bradford) was referred to the Court of Appeal this morning. This is one of the most protracted of modern cases - beginning in 1977. Extensive details of the case can be found on this website.

21/07/2000

Iain Gordon Hay case referred to the CCRC.

This case is forty years old! The remarkable story of how one man dedicated all his spare time to it can be read in the article about the case published at last year's Tom Sargant memorial lecture.

Click here for details.

17/07/2000

M25 Trio cleared.

The M25 Three had their convictions quashed in the High Court today. Michael Davies, Randolph Johnson and Raphael Rowe spent more than a decade in jail for a series of robberies that led to a man's death in 1988. For details on this case go to the website at:

http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/3027/update.html

06/24/2000

REFERENCE IN CASES OF DUDLEY AND MAYNARD.

The CCRC has referred one of the longest-running of miscarriage of justice sagas back to the Court of Appeal. This is the case of Reg Dudley and Robert Maynard who were convicted in 1974 of two gangland murders. Both men are from London

Dudley, 75, was paroled three years ago. Maynard, who is 61, is still in jail.

This case has been followed by the "Guardian" - and more particularly by journalist Duncan Campbell - since they received evidence in 1980 from one of the key witnesses against Dudley and Maynard. He said that he had made his story up to get a lighter sentence on another non-related charge.

Michael Mansfield Q.C. appeared for Dudley during the 1977 appeal on this case. He has always believed that the charges against the two were "hostile" in that the impression given at trial was that the jury should "approach their task on the basis that it would be utterly wrong if at the end of the trial they were to reach a conclusion that no one was to be punished for these murders".

Current campaigners should note that another constant campaigner for justice in this case was Bob Maynard's wife Tina. In 1977 she organised a protest march when about a hundred people marached from Camden Town to Hyde Park - wearing specially-designed tee shirts and handing out badges. More recently, Dudley's daughter, Kathleen Bailey, has figured in campaigns.

This case is covered at some length in Bob Woffinden's Book "Miscarriages of Justice"

06/20/2000

European Court Judgements.

Two important ECHR judgements have been published. Both are Irish cases and are primarily concerned with how prisoners are treated during interrogation.

Averill v United Kingdom upheld the principle that access to a lawyer should be guaranteed to a prisoner before an interrogation begins.

Click here to go to Averill v UK press release

Click Here

http://www.echr.coe.int/eng/Judgments.htm to go to the full judgements pages of the ECHR

Magee v United Kingdom upheld the principle that to deny access to a lawyer for a long period and in a situation where the rights of the defence were irretrievably prejudiced was incompatible with article 6 of the Convention.

Click here to go to Magee v UK press release

Click Here

http://www.echr.coe.int/eng/Judgments.htm to go to the full judgements pages of the ECHR

26th May 2000

Public Meeting Tuesday 6 June 2000, 7 P.M.

M25 Justice Campaign And Freedom and Justice For Samar and Jawad

"Justice Denied: can Public Interest be Served if Evidence is Withheld?"

Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London WC1 - Nearest tube: Holborn

Speakers:

Mary Cuneen Liberty

Suresh Grover National Civil Rights Movements

Paul Foot Investigative journalist

Valerie Davies M25 campaign

Daniel Guadella FJSJ

The Appeal Of The M25 Three Is on 12 June at the Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand, London. Raphael Rowe, Michael Davies and Randolph Johnson have already served 11 years in prison. On 16 February 2000, ( see later in this news page) the European Court of Human Rights ruled that their right to a fair and open trial had been breached.

Samar and Jawad were convicted in December 1996 in connection with the bombings of the Israeli embassy and Balfour House in 1994.

CONTACTS:

M25 Justice Campaign; 138 Curtis Francis House

Carshalton

Surrey SM5 2LE

www.M25Three.co.uk

Freedom and Justice for Samar and Jawad

BM FOSA

London WC1n 3XX

www.freesaj.org.uk

6th May 2000

Justice for Eddie Gillfoyle Campaign.

There wasa public meeting on Saturday 3rd June at 2:00pm in the Haig Building, Liverpool University.

It centred on recent events in the Gillfoyle case. For more information, email John O at JusticeUk@appleonline.net The Gillfoyle case was covered by Trial and Error - more details can be found on the Scandals in British Justice link on the links page.

Scandals in British Justice - an excellent site which includes cases from "Trial and Error".

http://www.scandals.org/

John O's web site is at http://www.appleonline.net/justiceuk/jus.html

Links and general information

26/04/2000

STEEL CASE GETS PRIORITY AT CCRC!

The case of ANTHONY STEEL (see elsewhere on this site) has been assigned a case worker at the Criminal Case Review Commission. The petition was sent to the CCRC in August 1997 since when Steel has been let out of jail on parole - primarily because he had to go into hospital to have a heart bypass operation. This however, is not the reason for the prioritisation. Apparently the CCRC thinks that there are "significant concerns" in the case.

click here to go to the Case of Tony Steel

26/04/00

News from the Justice for Jhumat Family Campaign.

Following the Tony Martin case in Norfolk, this case has interesting connections The campaign organiser is currently circulating the following email:

Demonstration

For information contact: John O 0121-554-6947 Messages of Support to: JhumatFamilyCampaign jfc@ncadc.demon.co.uk

14/02/00

SEAN JENKINS TO GO TO STRASBOURG.

Sean Jenkins, convicted of murdering Billie-Jo Jenkins ( see elsewhere on this site) in Hastings, and who lost his appeal, is now taking the case to Strasbourg because one of the judges at his appeal, David Penry-Davey, not only attended the school as a boy where Billie-Jo had attended, but had continued his association with it throughout his life.

In 1997, the year in which Jenkins was convicted, Penry-Davey presented prizes at the school's speech day. Might he possibly have discussed the case with the school - and concurred with those present that the publicity had had a bad effect on the school's image?

In Jenkin's appeal the judge concerned did not declare his interest. Jenkin's solicitor is Neil O'May. He believes that a European Court judgement may decide new rules concerning the declaration of interest by judges.

12/02/00

ROY BURNETT - THE CRIME THAT NEVER WAS.

Roy Burnett, 56, a gardener, from Bromley spent 15 years in jail for a crime that never happened. He was convicted of rape and serious assault against a nurse. In 1998 she made similar false statements to the police in Devon, who passed the information on to the Metropolitan Police.

There is now discussion at the Crown Prosecution Service about whether the woman should now be charged.

This case is very similar to the notorious case of Anthony Mycock ( freed in 1985) who was falsely accused by Anne Fitzpatrick of aggravated burglary. She attended the Appeal Court hearing and gave lying evidence in front of Lord Lane. Such was the atmosphere of those days however, that Lord Lane let Mycock go free whilst upholding much of the evidence of the lying witness before him!

Click HERE to read a brief synopsis of the Mycock case.

Click HERE for an article by Peter Hill on Lying Witnesses in the New Law Journal.

05/04/00

JOHN KAMARA - VERDICT QUASHED.

This is one of the oldest cases in the current annals of miscarriage of justice. Even Tom Sargant worked on this one!
John is now 44 - he was jailed for life in the very early eighties. The Court of Appeal accepted that the prosecution had withheld evidence which could have supported his plea of innocence. What is remarkable is that it has taken so long to get this case through to the Court of Appeal - but see the Tony Steel case on our main front page - that actually pre-dates Kamara. And George Beattie ( same location) goes even further back.

22/02/00

New web sites.

Lord Justice Auld is reviewing the criminal justice system. He has opened a website so that you may send comments,

You will find it at: http://www.criminal-courts-review.org.uk

Lord Williams of Mostyn QC has opened a website where you will find the draft guidelines on disclosure of evidence that may become law by the end of the year. This is at

http://www.lslo.gov.uk

Click HERE to read the Attorney General's Tom Sargant Lecture from December 1999.

Click HERE to read the Michael Mansfield Tom Sargant Lecture on Disclosure.

16/02/00

M25 Murders.

The European Court of Human Rights has decided that two of the M25 Three ( Raphael Rowe and Michael Davies) did not get a fair trial. We shall see what happens now - will their appeal be hastened, and upheld, or will the Court of Appeal decide on a new trial? The Director of Public Prosecutions is currently deciding whether to oppose their release or not.

The European court judgement site is on

http://www.dhcour.coe.fr/eng/Judgments.htm -

The M25 murder site is on

http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/3027/update.html

16/02/00

CARDIFF THREE CONVICTION QUASHED.

An important precedent was set in this judgement which was delivered on January 25th. In allowing the appeals of Michael O'Brien, Darren Hall and Ellis Sherwood, convicted in 1988 for murder. The case was allowed because of fresh evidence from experts about Hall's personality - even though it was admitted he was not suffering from a recognised mental illness, nor ( as in Ward) from a personality disorder so severe as properly to be characterised as mental disorder.

In this case, Hall's confession was an important part of the entire case. A summaryof this case can be found on the CCRC website at http://www.ccrc.gov.uk/

09/02/00

EDDIE BROWNING

Eddie Browning was convicted of the M50 murder of Marie Wilkes. Freed in 1994, after 6 six years in jail, he has now been awarded £600,000 in compensation.

This case was dismissed by the Court of Appeal ( see below). Jenkins has now been refused an appeal to the House of Lords. Appeals to the House of Lords are, of course, rare in criminal cases since they can rely on points of law only. In the Jenkins case, he argued that he cannot have had a fair trial when one of the judges on his case was involved in the school where he had taught prior to being tried for murder.

There are, perhaps parallels here with the Pinochet case - where a Law Lord, sitting in judgement, was found to have been a member of an organisation which was adverse to Pinochet. In that case there was a re-hearing of the case, but Jenkins is not be granted that. He is now considering taking this to Strasbourg.

15/01/00

GERARD KAVANAGH

Gerard Kavanagh was jailed for life in 1990 for the murder of his wife in Wythenshawe, Manchester. The noted appeal solicitor Campbell Malone has persuaded the Criminal Case Review Commission to refer the case back to the Court of Appeal. Kavanagh said at trial that he found his wife dead with a dressing gown belt tied around her neck. Near the body was a note which read " I set you free". The Greater Manchester Police, who have several notable miscarriage of justice cases on their record, decided that Kavanagh had manually strangled his wife and faked what they said was a suicide note.

Kavanagh not only went to jail - he lost his three children as well as his wife.

07/01/00

YARD UNDER PRESSURE.

An article in the TIMES today reports on a study drawn up by senior detectives in regional forces which, with another report by the Inspectors of Constabulary, is to be published next week.

The report criticises the Met in particular for having under-manned murder squads which are over-stretched and often with inexperienced detectives.

It reports that the Yard's training school was virtually closed for two years and promotions frozen. There was a loss of many experienced detectives because of an early-retirement policy. Inspectors from uniformed posts have been transferred to CID with only a few weeks' training.

Those involved with miscarriages of justice will know what this will mean. The Commanders will have the Supers and Inspectors in for a chat. They will go to the DCs and "rouse" them with dire threats if the figures don't get better. The lowly DCs will be told they are to blame by the DSs - and they, with their inexperience, will take it out on innocent people.

Watch out therefore for a rash of miscarriages of justice in London - starting very soon.

04/01/00

Stephen Jackson Case.

Though this may seem a minor case, the details of it are important to those interested in miscarriages of justice.

Stephen Jackson was convicted in March 1999 of possessing heroin with intent to supply. There was a Public Immunity decision taken in chambers in which prosecution counsel for the Crown showed the judge certain evidence which the judge then decided should not be disclosed to the defence.

Subsequently in court there was a dispute. Defence made an assertion about the case against Jackson which actually pertained to the material that had been shown to the judge, but which counsel could not have known about. A police officer involved in the case then told the court that this assertion was untrue.

Jackson was found guilty. However, the barrister representing the Crown in the case subsequently went onto a case which was related to Jackson's - and discovered that the allegation made by Jackson's lawyers was true.

So what had happened? Certainly, it seems that important material had been withheld from the Defence somehow. How had the judge come to allow the police officer's assertion, when he must have known it was not true?

We shall never know, because the Court of Appeal simply ordered a retrial and stated that it is imperative that in all cases the Crown should be scrupulously accurate in the information provided in public interest immunity hearings without notice to the other side.

The judge in this case was Judge Anthony. We will never know what went on in chambers - whether the police lied, prosecution expressed themselves ambiguously - or whether the judge simply did not understand what he was being told and what he read. What is clear however is that important material was not disclosed to the defence - and a police officer then mis-led a jury about that material.

Click HERE to read the Michael Mansfield Tom Sargant Lecture on Disclosure.

21/12/09 Sion Jenkins.

The former deputy-headmaster convicted of killing his foster daughter Billie-Jo had his case dismissed in the appeal court today.

The Court said: "The fresh evidence, though relevant and credible, adds so litle to the weight of the defence case as compared with the prosecution's case that a doubt induced by the fresh evidence would not be a reasonable doubt."

There are many sites devoted to this case - but for an idea of the original story, go to some of the following:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_116000/116036.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_121000/121139.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_112000/112952.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_119000/119229.stm

http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/chs19/thefrontpage/billiejosfosterdadrearrested.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_107000/107323.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_111000/111090.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_109000/109210.stm

Samar and Jawad ( see other pages, particularly the links page)

Supporters have announced that they are going to hold a candlelit vigil outside Dwoning street - probably in the last week of January. A petition will be given to Tony Blair at the same time. The email for the Samar and Jawad Newsletter is: postmaster@freesaj.org.uk The web site is at http://www.freesaj.org.uk

17/12/99

CARDIFF THREE - CONVICTION QUASHED.

Darren Hall, Michael O'Brien and Ellis Sherwood were convicted in 1988 of murdering Cardiff Newsagent Philip Saunders.

BBC Wales made a programme on their case soon after their first appeal in 1990.

After the case was referred in 1998 by the CCRC, the court of appeal quashed the verdict - the court's reasons are to be published in the New Year.

For more details on this case - see later in this page.

Parsons case dismissed.

The appeal of Brian Parsons was dismissed by the Court of Appeal on Friday December 17th.

In a short summary of the judgement, Lord Justice Beldam stated that although there was a failure of the police to make proper disclosure in this case, the evidence of serious misconduct by the police, that was alleged at the appeal, was not to be believed. He rejected evidence that the police had planted incriminating fibres in Parson's car. The court, he said, had not believed the witness who claimed that a Mrs Griffiths had told him that she had taken part in a conspiracy with the police about this. Mrs Griffiths herself denied she had ever made such statements. The police officer who appeared at the appeal also gave credible evidence.

===========================

Such a dismissal fits in with a general trend in the Court of Appeal which makes going into Court no 4 reminiscent of the bad old days under Lord Lane.

It is not the first time that their Lordships have rejected evidence from a witness, who was said to have told the defence side, or a TV programme, something that cast doubt on the verdict. It is not the first time that such a witness has suddenly changed the story - then accusing the TV reporters of distorting or lying about the evidence. Did this witness have relatives who are "known to the police", or children who "might be put into care"? These are the usual reasons for the change of story given by such witnesses after the dust has settled.

It is not the first time that their Lordships have trusted the evidence of a police officer in a certain area of evidence, when evidence in other areas of the case have suggested, or even proved lying and perfidy on the part of the police.

In the Parsons case the Criminal Case Review Commission re-investigation revealed well over a hundred instances where the police had not disclosed evidence to the defence, as they should have, which would have helped Parsons. This demonstrated clear determination by the police to get a verdict, no matter the morality of how it was done. Why then should Lord Justice Beldam be confident that the police officer from the same investigation told the whole truth about the alleged planting of the incriminating fibres?

This is the same Judge who dismissed the appeal of Paul Malone a couple of years ago. In that case Malone's solicitor asked for six police officers to be brought to the Court of Appeal for questioning. Lord Justice Beldam would hear none of the officers. He dismissed Malone's case. Some three months later these same officers were disciplined within the force for their actions in the case against Malone.

When the police find their own men guilty, they really are guilty. In the Malone appeal Lord Justice Beldam was aware that a police report was already prepared about the conduct of these officers. He could have asked for a copy. He didn't, indeed he refused to ask for the report, just as he refused to have the officers questioned before him.

Darren Hall case in the Court of Appeal.

Darren Hall was a young murder suspect with a vulnerable personality. He made a false confession to police after being "maltreated" by detectives who showed a systematic disregard for the rules governing interrogation, the Court of Appeal was told. Darren Hall, then 18, was at times handcuffed to a radiator during repeated questioning and was initially denied access to a lawyer, said Edward Fitzgerald QC.

The "confession" formed the basis of the prosecution's case against Hall and two others he implicated - Michael O'Brien, now 31, and Ellis Sherwood, now 30 - and led to the conviction of all three on a charge of murdering Cardiff newsagent Philip Saunders.

The trio - known as the "Cardiff Newsagent Three" - were jailed for life more than 11 years ago. Their first appeal against conviction was turned down in March 1990.

In December 98 they were released on bail pending a fresh challenge, after the Criminal Cases Review Commission referred their case back to the Court of Appeal.

Mr Fitzgerald said there was now a body of evidence from independent witnesses and experts showing that Hall suffered from a mental disorder to such a degree that his evidence was unreliable. After apologising on Hall's behalf for the trouble caused by his confession, Mr Fitzgerald said he was "not the only person to blame in this sorry history". He told the court:

"This whole train of events was set in motion by a system of oppressive treatment and questioning by the police of a vulnerable 18-year-old suspect. "His behaviour throughout the interviews suggested there was something wrong with him, yet the police had no investigation of his mental state conducted by a police surgeon. He was denied access to a solicitor for the first 36 hours of his first detention and the crucial initial period of his second detention during which he made the admissions."

The Criminal Cases Review Commission had drawn attention to many breaches of interrogation rules under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE). The Commission stated: "These breaches indicate a systematic disregard of the requirements of PACE by the officers involved in the murder inquiry and caused the Commission to question the integrity of the police investigation."

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