Andrew Davies

Scream mask killer preparing to appeal

Evening Chronicle (Newcastle, England), May 10, 2003, from the article by Ron Kennedy

Andrew Davies,33, was convicted of the murder of Andrew Lansdown in Killingworth, North Tyneside, in 2001. The killing became notorious because the gunman wore a mask like that used in the horror film Scream.

The conviction depends on the evidence of Steven Wemyss, who was also shot. He said he had seen Davies's eyes through the slits of the mask and that he recognised his voice.

Davies was convicted on the basis that he was part of a joint enterprise.

Davies told the Evening Chronicle: "I am serving a prison sentence for crimes of which I am totally innocent. I have strongly protested my innocence from the day I voluntarily attended my local police station to eliminate myself from inquiries. Evidence which would have convinced the jury that I was innocent was withheld from my trial."

His mother Claire Ayre told the Evening Chronicle: "I know my son and I know he's innocent. There was no forensic evidence and they said in the trial the shooter was right-handed but Andrew is left-handed."

The jury cleared his co-defendant David Powell, 34.

from the Evening Chronicle, Newcastle, 8 October 2004:

At his appeal before Lord Justice Mance, Mr Justice Newman and Mr Justice Fulford, Davies' barrister Vera Baird, QC, argued the jury should never have heard voice and visual identification evidence given by Wemyss and that the Scream mask Davies was alleged to have been wearing could not have allowed any witness to identify him. She argued Davies' trial counsel should have challenged the admissibility of Mr Wemyss' identification evidence.

Mr Wemyss was unable to say for certain that Davies was the man behind the mask. He had been drinking and was two-and-a-half times over the drink drive limit and had only seconds to identify his attacker, whose facial features were fully covered.

Vera Baird added a similar mask produced during the trial had wire mesh across the eye holes, casting further doubts that Wemyss could have recognised Davies' eyes. His aural identification evidence should have been ruled out by the trial judge.

He picked out Davies from one of 10 tape recordings he heard but the QC said he was crucially asked by officers not to pick out the attacker, but Davies himself.

Vera Baird claimed the evidence of an eye-witness, who said he saw two white men hanging around outside the house where the shooting happened, should have been admitted. Davies is of mixed race.

The appeal was unsuccesful.