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ROBERT DANIEL KENNEDY

Court of Appeal refuses to overturn conviction 21 December 2007

His solicitor, Maslen Merchant, said Kennedy was "distraught and devastated" by the judges' ruling. "As his solicitor, I am extremely disappointed too," told BBC News.

Kennedy's counsel, Henry Blaxland QC, told the appeal court that investigations after the murder, and further inquiries since the trial, had not forensically linked Kennedy to the murder scene. Mr Blaxland told the court that DNA tests on saliva on two cigarette ends used as evidence in the original trial pointed to unidentified suspects.
He also claimed the victim's stopped wristwatch showed the murder had occurred when Kennedy had an alibi. Delivering the ruling, Lord Justice Thomas said the appeal judges had carefully considered both the trial evidence and fresh evidence, and were of the firm view it would not have affected the jury's decision to convict.
He said the DNA evidence would have had a very limited effect in the context of the trial, while the evidence of the watch could not sustain the degree of precision needed.

Still doing time: article in

15 March 2007
flawed forensic evidence... you will have to buy a copy to read more

CONVICTION FOR MURDER REFERRED TO THE COURT OF APPEAL
BY CRIMINAL CASES REVIEW COMMISSION

On 21 st February 2007 the CCRC referred the conviction for murder of Robert Kennedy (42) to the Court of Appeal.

New evidence, including DNA evidence, casts doubt upon the conviction and has persuaded the CCRC that there is a “realistic possibility” that the Court of Appeal will overturn the conviction on appeal.

Mr. Kennedy was convicted on 13 th December 1991 at Plymouth Crown Court of the murder of Arthur James Eathorn on a day between 17 th and 22 nd September 1990.

An appeal against the conviction, based largely on Mr. Kennedy’s own grounds of appeal, was dismissed on 1 st April 1993.

An application was submitted to the CCRC in January 2001 and their review began in November 2002.

During the course of the Commission’s review of the case, it appointed officers from the original investigating force of Devon and Cornwall Police to review the original police investigation.

The police reinvestigation lasted somewhere in the region of 18 months and has been described by the CCRC as a “wholesale review” of the original police investigation. We understand that, literally, every single line of enquiry that was originally raised after the murder has been reinvestigated.

During the course of the Devon and Cornwall Police Review, they took an exceptional course of action in Launching a press release and holding a press conference to appeal for information from members of the public.

To our knowledge, this was a unique course of action for the police themselves to seek information in connection with an investigation after someone was already convicted of the offence.

The CCRC has referred the case to the Court of Appeal on the following grounds: -

1. Fresh evidence, together with information obtained by the police during the original investigation that was not disclosed, suggests that the time of death was much earlier than that suggested by the prosecution at trial. In the words of the Commission, it makes it “much more difficult to reconcile with the position that Mr. Kennedy was [the] killer”;

2. Part of the evidence at the trial related to two cigarette ends left in an ashtray in the deceased’s flat. They were scientifically examined and found to have been smoked by a “non-secretor”; [someone from whom you cannot establish a blood group from their saliva]; like 25% of the population, Robert Kennedy was a non-secretor.

The two cigarette ends have been scientifically examined and the DNA profiles do not match Mr. Kennedy but belong to persons who have not yet been identified.

This, and other, DNA profiling that has been carried out establishes that at least two unidentified visitors were in the deceased’s flat;

3. The Commission has identified a number of documents that, in its opinion, should have been disclosed to the defence prior to trial, but were not.

These documents include references to other suspects, including material relating to an anonymous telephone call received by the major incident room at the time of the investigation that named the man responsible for the offence. During the course of the recent police review of the case that same man’s fingerprint was found on an item that was originally recovered from the deceased’s flat.

We understand that the original investigation was one of the largest ever carried out by Devon and Cornwall Police.

The case has been dealt with throughout by Mr. Maslen Merchant.

Mr. Merchant spoke to Robert Kennedy to inform him of the news on the afternoon of 21 st February 2007.

Mr. Kennedy is, naturally, extremely pleased, but his reaction was obviously tempered by the ordeal that he has been through, and continues to endure.

Mr. Kennedy has been in prison for nearly 17 years and recently stated: “I do not know how much more I can handle or take. I have done 16 years now for a crime I did not commit. I’m finding it harder and harder as each and every day goes by.”

For further information please contact Mr. Maslen Merchant: -

E-Mail – MaslenMerchant@hhb-mo.co.u

source - Press release from Hadgkiss Hughes & Beal, solicitors

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