INNOCENT - Sean Hodgson

New charges

On 17 December 2010 Sean was remanded in custody, charged with rape and sexual assualt. His barrister Julian Young said: "This is a man who has already suffered one terrible miscarriage of justice and he could now suffer another. I would hate to see that happen to Sean Hodgson again."

Like all high profile miscarriage of justice victims who have their convictions quashed, Sean has no doubt remained on the police list of usual suspects, vulnerable to allegations of the kind which led to their original wrongful conviction. We hope his name will be cleared if this matter comes to trial, which would probably be in May 2011.

Meanwhile he faces yet another Christmas in prison.

Click here to read the Press Association report 17 December 2010

Sean Hodgson served 27 years for a crime he did not commit and was released when DNA evidence proved he could not have raped and murdered Southampton barmaid Teresa de Simone in 1979.

Original samples from the crime scene retested for DNA traces revealed that the actual murderer was David Lace. Lace committed suicide in 1988, four years after his confession to the crime was ignored by police and not disclosed to Hodgson's lawyers.

Sean Hodgson's fight for justice continues

Police identify murderer as David Lace, who confessed to the murder in 1983 - this confession was not disclosed to him or his lawyers. Forensic Science Service told lawyers that exhibits were destroyed - but they were later found and used to prove that Sean was not the killer.

CCRC to review rape and murder cases from before 1990

A spokesman for the CCRC said forensic evidence will be used to investigate cases where doubt has been cast on convictions:"The scope of our trawl through our case history was any rape or murder before 1990 about which an application has been made, beyond that we would not be able to look.

"That involves somebody who has been convicted of either rape or murder, they will have already sort to appeal that case and either had the appeal heard and dismissed or not been granted leave to appeal. We have identified 240 that we are now in the process of looking at. We will be working our way through each of those and look back to see if the circumstances around Mr Hodgson's referral means that we need to revise our conclusion about those cases."