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Jordan Towers
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Another conviction under the joint enterprise law |
Jordan was out with two friends when one of them produced a knife and stabbed someone. He didn't realise what had happened, but the victim died later. All three were convicted of murder. This case is covered by a clear and well written website, which also explains how the joint enterprise law is applied in practice: click here to visit Justice for Jordan Towers BBC report: Stab-death youths jailed for life 23 November 2007 Northumbria police version: Three get life sentences for killing father |
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Meeting at House of Commons about the Joint Enterprise Law
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Tuesday 23 March 2010 |
The Joint Enterprise Law is currently being extended and applied in such a way that innocent bystanders are being convicted of involvement in serious violent crimes on totally inadequate evidence. London Against Injustice have organised this meeting so that the dangers of this law can be exposed and challenged. |
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Neil Hurley
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CCRC decision made on legal technicality rather than innocence of a life prisoner? Neil Hurley was convicted in 1994 and given a life sentence for the murder of Sharon Pritchard,
who was bludgeoned to death and left naked in a playing field near her home in
Croeserw, South Wales. He applied to the Criminal Cases Review Commission for his case to be referred to the Court of Appeal after some of the witnesses retracted their evidence, but the CCRC rejected his application. |
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West Yorkshire
Michael Bunting |
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Michael Bunting, a West Yorkshire uniformed police opfficer, was convicted of an assault after he defended himself against a viscious assault by a man he was arresting. The evidence against him, mainly from a fellow police officer, was inconsistence medical evidence, and other evidence that would have helped him was never used. Click here to read more in the Batley & Birstall News 17 December 2009, article by Rebecca Draper |
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11 December 1999 - 11 December 2009 10 years of reporting on miscarriages of justice, and the situation is getting worse - INNOCENT |
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Edinburgh
Desmond Uttley: rape conviction overturned after analysis of DNA evidence which police chose not to obtain |
10 December 2009: Desmond Uttley went to the help of a drunk 14 year old girl, but she repaid him by alleging he raped her. He was convicted and given a six year sentence. and article by Mark McLaughlin in |
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| Northern Ireland
Diplock (no jury) court convictions overturned |
3 December 2009: Diplock courts were courts where non-jury trials were held in Northern Ireland. Alleged terrorist suspects were tried in them from 1973 until they were abolished in 2008. In the early 80s the courts processed hundreds of cases every year in "supergrass" trials in which informers gave evidence against former companions in return for immunity. According to Jim McVeigh of ex-prisoners’ group Coiste na n-Iarchimí, 'Many hundreds of young men and women were sent to prison for long periods of time on the basis of statement evidence that was extracted either through torture or threats. Others were sent to prison on the basis of statement evidence alone that was simply fabricated by RUC [Royal Ulster Constabulary] detectives.' Now Eric Wright, Seamus Brown and Peter McDonald, all convicted in a Diplock court over 30 years ago, are to have their convictions quashed after lawyers for the crown said they would no longer seek to uphold them. Their cases are likely to be followed by hundreds of others wrongly convicted by judges sitting without juries. |
article by Laura Friel Murder conviction ruled unsafe 16 June 2009 Convicted of murder of Alf Wilkins in Grimsby in 2001 on evidence that he had confessed while drunk, Ian Lawless, 47, has had his conviction overturned after the Court of Appeal heard fresh medical evidence about his mental condition at the time. Ian Lawless is represented by solicitor Mark Newby of Jordans LLP Read more in the Grimsby Telegraph 8 April 2009 |
Stupid mistake in expert report led to life sentence Mr McCreight, 37, was found guilty of murdering mother-of-three Yvonne Davidson in 2002. |
1 April 2009 |
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On Monday 22nd November 1993, two Department of Transport Inspectors, Alan Singleton and Simon Bruno, were shot dead while carrying out a routine inquiry at a garage in Stockport. Thomas Bourke, a man without a criminal record and without a motive for the killings, was convicted of their murder. There was no forensic evidence to link Thomas to the murders, the corpses, the
murder scene or the alleged getaway car. There was, however, clear forensic evidence to implicate the key prosecution witnesses, Mitchell and Ridgeway, both of whom received substantial payments for giving evidence. These payments were dependent upon Thomas being found guilty on their evidence. Despite their admissions of complicity in murder, these witnesses were given immunity from prosecution. |
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Riot murder convictions quashed
BBC News, Thursday 11th December 2008
Three Asian men who were jailed for life for murdering a 23-year-old black man during riots in Birmingham in 2005 have had their convictions overturned.
Waqar Ahmed, 28, Azhil Khan, 25 and Afzal Khan, 25, denied murdering Isiah Young-Sam during the rioting in Lozells. They were convicted in 2006. The Appeal Court judge said their convictions should be quashed because evidence was wrongly used. A retrial has been ordered for the men, who had denied murder. Mr Young-Sam was stabbed to death during the riots. The three men convicted of his murder had always maintained that a fourth man was to blame. The Court of Appeal quashed their convictions saying a secret recording of one of the men encouraging another man to confess was not disclosed to the defence. The judges said this meant the conviction of this man was unsafe and consequently those of the other two men.
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Brendan Dixon and Patrick Docherty |
The Privy Council has ordered an appeal in this case. Crucial witness statements, which they claim could have cleared Dixon and Docherty, were not disclosed to the defence at his trial. Dixon, 38, and his co-accused Patrick Docherty, 42, were found guilty in May 2005 of Margaret Irvine's murder in Galston, Ayrshire, despite no forensic evidence linking them to the crime. |
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David Shale |
David Shale and accomplice Andrew Short were given life sentences at Bristol Crown Court in 2001 for the murder of Robert Huggett. The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) said it believed there was enough fresh evidence to refer the conviction to the Court of Appeal. Read more in |
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The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) faces a crisis of confidence after a network of more than a hundred lawyers who specialise in handling police complaints resigned from its advisory body |
Many people challenging wrongful convictions are relying on the police complaints system to show up defects in the original police investigation of their cases. But an investigation by Nick Davies of the Guardian has revealed:
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Chris Nudds |
Chris Nudds was convicted in February 2006 of the murder of a traveller by the name of Fred Moss who went missing from home on 30th November 2004. Although no body was ever found Fred Moss's disappearance was treated as murder. |
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Charlie McMenamin |
 Charlie McMenamin before his arrest in 1978 |
Charlie McMenamin,45, was only 16 when he was convicted of terrorist offences in the city and was in custody for three years. His case was referred to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission. During the hearing it was revealed that on the day the then schoolboy was alleged to have been involved in a gun attack on soldiers in the Bogside he was in a training school after running away from home. That information led to an official in the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions telling the RUC that the charges were not to be proceeded with. But the direction was never communicated to the prosecuting lawyer and the teenager was convicted on statements of admission he made to avoid more ill-treatment while in Strand Road police station. source: Charlie McMenamin was questioned illegally, beaten during interrogation and convicted in a non-jury court. Crucial alibi evidence was suppressed and the 16-year-old was bullied into signing a false confession and pleading guilty. While in detention fear and despair drove the Derry teenager to attempt suicide.
In 1980 McMenamin was convicted in a non-jury Diplock court of conspiracy to murder British soldiers and jailed for three years. Last week Belfast’s Court of Appeal finally quashed McMenamin’s conviction. The case had been referred by the Review Commission, set up to investigate possible miscarriages of justice. Three judges declared a “sense of unease” about the conviction and upheld the appeal. The McMenamin case is one of a number of cases involving forced confession evidence and the Diplock court system where false convictions have been recently overturned. Other cases have included the conviction of Raymond McCartney, Eamon MacDermott also from Derry and John Boyle from Belfast. During the McMenamin appeal hearing the court heard vital evidence that was not put before the court during the original trial 27 years ago. The evidence revealed that on the day the schoolboy was alleged to have been involved in a gun attack, McMenamin was in a juvenile training centre after running away from home. Rules broken Prior to the 1980 trial, on the basis of this evidence an official for the Director of Public Prosecutions decided that all charges against McMenamin should be dropped. The RUC in Belfast and Coleraine were informed of the DPP’s decision by letter but the directive was not communicated to the Crown prosecutor and the trial went ahead. Speaking at the Appeal, barrister Eilish McDermott told the court that rules had been broken when the teenager was interrogated alone over a three-day period. McMenamin was a juvenile and the law required a parent or solicitor to be present. McDermott told the court that at the time the teenager had told a doctor that the RUC had kicked him and he had only signed a confession to avoid further mistreatment. Appeal Judge Campbell said it was appropriate to announce immediately that the convictions should be quashed. |
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10 April 2007 |
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Danny Major |
A Leeds police officer convicted of assault on a prisoner in a police cell - but he was not the officer responsible for the assault... |
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Keran Henderson |
  Shaken Babies: BBC Panorama's John Sweeney investigates this case and the problem of expert evidence about 'shaken baby syndrome': is it possible to shake a baby to death? 10 March 2008 |
"There’s no way my wife could shake a baby to death", Iain Henderson tells Sian Griffiths of "On this frosty morning, with yards of yellow ribbon fluttering from the telegraph poles, villagers sport T-shirts printed with “We care 4 Keran”, a slogan repeated on their website Carers 4 Carers, where thousands of pounds have been pledged to pay for a legal appeal. In and out they pop, hugging Iain, offering to talk to journalists, fielding phone calls. |
Juror queries baby death verdict "I will never know as long as I live whether the verdict was right or not because I haven't, we haven't, got all this medical expertise, and I think if the medics can't even decide between themselves, what chance do we have?" Read more on Childminder jailed for baby death 13 November 2007 |
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Robert and Lee Firkins |
Bothers' Murder Convictions Questioned, by Andy Greenwood |
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Stephen Marsh |
Leave to appeal granted 17 June 2008from the Justice for Stephen Marsh website: The media repeatedly reported that 'evidence showed' that Stephen sent texts saying the words 'Do It' and 'Just Do It' and anyone could be forgiven for believing that those words must have been physically recovered from a mobile phone. No texts from Stephen to anyone saying any such thing were ever recovered from anywhere - they exist only in the version of events given by the murderer Rebecca Harris... And as for the dog, well, read more on the Appeal to be launched Swansea Evening Post 22 October 2007 |
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David Carrington-Jones |
| 16 October 2007 - David Carrington-Jones, convicted of rape and indecent assault against two sisters, had his conviction overturned following a referral by the CCRC. Sir Igor Judge, sitting with Mr Justice Pitchford and Sir Richard Curtis, said it was "a profoundly troublesome case." A false allegation not only had a "dreadful consequences for the innocent man", but "an insidious effect on confidence in the truth of genuine complaints of rape". David Carrington-Jones said: "My heart goes out to other men and women who have been put inside because of false allegations they just can't challenge." Read more on the BBC report  |
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Frank Wilkinson |
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Frank Wilkinson was found guilty of murder in January 1987. He has now served more than 20 years for a crime he did not commit. Had he lied and admitted guilt, he would have been released years ago. Today, Frank Wilkinson (B.A., M.A., PhD, and winner of several Koestler awards) remains determined to prove his innocence. For more information, visit the website dedicated to achieving |
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Sam Hallam |
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Actor Ray Winstone is backing Sam's campaign to overturn Sam's conviction. Sam was convicted of the murder in 2005 of Ethiopian refugee Essayas Kassahun. A gang of youths attacked Mr Kassahun's friend, and when he went to help, Mr Kassahun was stabbed. Sam was convicted only on very poor identification evidence. But the Court of Appeal upheld his conviction. A website set up by supporters including veteran campaigner Paul May explains his case. Please visit and judge for yourself whether Sam should have been convicted. Seven new witnesses say Sam Hallam was not at the scene, by Mark Hughes, Crime correspondent FREE TEEN ‘MURDERER’ by Simon Wroe, Hoodie murderers jailed for life
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Kevin Nunn |
Convicted of the murder of Dawn Walker near Bury St Edmunds in 2006, on slight and inconclusive evidence. MP backs Kevin's appeal bid 23 September 2009Late last year, Nunn's sister Brigitte Butcher asked Suffolk police for material relating to the conviction which was not shown to the court during his trial in 2006.Almost a year later, the force is yet to comply with her request - despite being instructed to do so by the Information Commissioner's Office. Bury St Edmunds MP David Ruffley said he was keen to help the family get the documents they needed because he felt there were “unanswered questions” surrounding the case... click here to read more 
A website has been set up by supporters to explain his case. Please visit and judge for yourself whether this man should have been convicted. |
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Were you fitted up by this conman posing as an expert? |
Gene Morrison, of Hyde, Greater Manchester, pretended to be a 'forensic investigator', conned money out of defence lawyers and gave evidence in many cases. He was jailed for 5 years for deception, perjury and perverting the course of justice. Read more in |
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Quality Applications: article on the CCRC in Inside Time |
Dr Andrew Green advises those considering taking their cases to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) to ‘take control’ and to leave no stone unturned in ensuring the application is complete in every detail. or read the full advice provided on the UAI web site |
Scotland: fuller information on this case 
by Eddie Barnes,19 February 2006
