Reprieve
Reprieve uses the law to enforce the human rights of prisoners, from death row to Guantánamo Bay.We investigate, we litigate and we educate, working on the frontline, providing legal support to prisoners unable to pay for it themselves.
We promote the rule of law around the world, and secure each person’s right to a fair trial. And in doing so, we save lives. Reprieve prioritises the cases of prisoners accused of the most extreme crimes, such as acts of murder or terrorism, as it is in such cases that human rights are most likely to be jettisoned or eroded. Reprieve focuses on cases involving the world’s most powerful governments, especially those that should be upholding the highest standards when it comes to fair trials. Watch Linda Carty, a British grandmother mother on death row in Texas, thank Reprieve for its work.
Reprieve has 25 full-time staff in London, five Fellows in the USA, two Fellows in Pakistan and countless volunteers around the world. You can read more about our team by following the links on the staff and fellows page. Our staff we were shortlisted for prestigious Charity Awards in both 2010 and 2011, achieving Highly Commended status for both. We have recently been shortlisted for a Charity Times Award.
Reprieve press office: Telephone: 0207 427 1099, Email: / . For all other inquiries: Telephone: 0207 353 4640, Email:
Justice 4 Simon
Simon Hall was convicted of the murder of Joan Albert in 2001 in Capel St Mary but he is innocent...He was jailed in 2002 on the basis of flawed evidence. It is time to get him out.
This web site provides a detailed look at the evidence, and you can see for yourself that Simon Hall quite simply did not commit murder...
Simon was convicted despite the fact that forensic and DNA evidence did not place him at the scene of the crime. They were not his boot prints in the garden. They were not his fingerprints in the house. He had no forensic traces of the scene on him or his clothes.
Simon was convicted on the basis that he may have possessed clothes made with similar fibres to those found in the house. 35,000 people in the UK also possess clothes with similar fibres to those found in the house.
Simon had an alibi throughout the night apart from a short drive home in the early hours of the morning.
Simon was convicted despite having no motive.
Simon was convicted despite not being in the area at the time of the murder.
This Campaign has the support of:
Simon's MP Chris Mole, Bob Russell MP for Colchester, Tony Wright MP for Great Yarmouth, a Forensics Expert from Oxford University, "Innocent" Organisation, MOJO, Private Eye magazine and the general public.
Simon Hall's website is now closed.
Emma Bates is Innocent
INNOCENT MOTHER OF TWO CONVICTED AS JURY SLEPT!
On 27th November 2009 Emma Bates, a loving mother of two and dedicated Nursery Nurse was convicted of murdering her partner Wayne Hill when he attacked her with a knife. And sentenced to 15 years imprisonment.
The only evidence against Emma was hear say from three people who were not even there at the time and could not even agree on the events they say happened! There were no finger prints on the weapon in fact no forensic evidence what so ever to convict. The prosecution offered to drop the murder charge if Emma pleaded guilty to Manslaughter. Emma refused as she is innocent, so how did a Jury find Emma guilty of Murder when the prosecution did not believe she was? Please log on to http://www.emmabatesisinnocent.co.uk and make up your own mind.
Some points to remember:
1. Emma’s finger prints were not on the knife.
2. All of the evidence given by Wayne’s brother Steven was disproved in court under cross examination by the defence.
3. Wayne was 4 times over the legal drink drive limit and had cocaine in his system, emma was well under the drink drive limit and never took drugs.
4. The hearsay evidence was from Wayne’s closest friends who said that Emma was a violent person so let bad character in through the back door. Emma was with her previous partner for 6 years and he gave a statement saying Emma had NEVER threatened him and so did the father of Emma’s two children who she was with for 4 years before this. Emma was only with Wayne for 8 months. If you take a look at Emma’s website there are numerous character statements from colleagues and friends saying how gentle and kind Emma is.
5. Of the two Jury members who fell asleep, one was the forman of the Jury and the other was illiterate. They also talked openly about talking to each other of an evening by phone. The Judge did nothing at all and did not even speak to them after it was pointed out by the defence.
6. Wayne’s family and friends were allowed to smoke with the Jury during breaks.
7. The prosecution hid evidence from the defence in the court room. When asked for the knife and knife block the prosecution stated that it was not present in the court room as they were concerned for the safety of the Judge! In fact it was hidden under their bench but was spotted by a police officer and Emma’s family had to point this out to the court.
There is so much more to this case it beggars believe as to how a conviction for murder was arrived at.
Please log on to http://www.emmabatesisinnocent.co.uk and see for yourself if you agree. Also there is a link at the top of the page to add your name to the growing petition for Emma’s case to be reviewed.
Preventing Deaths in Police Care - Conference - 27 Sept 2010
Preventing Deaths in Police Care - Monday, 27 September 2010Capita’s 10th National Preventing Deaths in Police Care Conference is timed to follow the recent publication of Expectations, the detailed inspection criteria for assessing the treatment and conditions for detainees in police custody.
This timely event examines ways in which forces can ensure they achieve appropriate standards and assure the safety of detainees in this high risk custodial setting.
The HM Inspectorate of Prisons and the HM Inspectorate of Constabulary began their series of joint inspections in 2008. Two years on, this important event gives delegates the opportunity to hear best practice advice and guidance on preventing harm and ensuring the custodial workforce is well equipped to effectively assess and eliminate the risk of detainee fatalities.
Expert speakers address key topics, including:
• Trends and commonalities of deaths occurring in police care
• An update from HMIC on their new inspection criteria
• Implementing effective risk assessment strategies
• Improving treatment and conditions for vulnerable detainees
• In-depth advice and guidance on the legal implications of deaths in police care
Attend this conference to assess your force’s own custodial procedures and benchmark them against those leading the way in preventing avoidable deaths occurring in police care.
Contact Richard Goddard at
Good Bye Ann
Ann Craven (Chair of Innocent) sadly passed away on the 13th of June 2010.When I started campaigning for Simon Hall in 2003, Ann was the first person to ever listen to me.
After finding the Innocent website, I wrote a desperate email to ask for help, I was lost.
I shortly received an email back, it was from Ann and she called me that evening. She immediately reassured me that I wasn’t alone and that there were things I could do.
From then on she gave me advice, she gave me strength, hope and encouragement all the way, year after year.
Everytime Ann emailed me, at the end of her message she would write, “Make sure you look after you”. Bless you Ann.
The day Ann Craven phoned me, I was sent an angel and I feel so lucky to have met her.
Ann will always be a star and an inspiration to me and my thoughts are with her family and friends.
Thank you for everything you did to help me Ann, I was alone before I met you.
You will always have a special place in my heart and I hope I did you proud.
Sleep tight our dearest Ann…xxx
Please click on the link below to read Andrew Green’s writing on Ann’s remarkable life as a true fighter of Miscarriages of Justice and find details of her funeral.
Sean Hodgson describes a year of freedom after spending 27 years in jail for a murder he did not com
Taken from the Mirror.co.uk 20/03/2010Sean Hodgson is on to his fourth mobile phone in less than a year.
"They keep falling out of my pocket," he explains in his soft County Durham voice. "I'm not used to having one.
"I've only had this one for a few days, just getting used to it. They're hard to use, anyway. So many buttons."
It's no wonder Sean is stuck in a timewarp. He's spent 27 years behind bars for a murder he did not commit.
And Britain today is a lot different to 1979 when he was first locked up.
Speaking exclusively to the Mirror on the first anniversary of his dramatic release, Sean is clearly finding the 21st century fast, complex and awkward.
"I use a laptop though," he says proudly. "I can pretty much send an email. I don't bother with Facebook though, don't see the point.
"Everything's so fast. Crossing the road is murder, there are so many cars flashing by like bats out of hell."
In the 12 months since he first tasted freedom last March, Sean is slowly returning to the man he was back in the late 70s.
He's on fewer pills and he looks stronger than the withered man who triumphantly stood on the steps of the Royal Court of Justice this time last year (above). But the trauma of not being believed haunts him constantly, nowhere more so than in his sleep which only comes in fitful bursts.
Usually, he'll wake himself up with his own voice, the shouting pleas of his innocence in his nightmares landing on deaf ears just as they had done in real life three decades earlier.
Sean, now 59, was just 27 when he was sentenced to life for the rape and murder of 22-year-old Teresa De Simone. The barmaid was strangled in the car park of the Hampshire pub where she worked.
Sean was charged after he confessed to the killing - but he'd falsely admitted 200 other crimes and soon withdrew his confession.
But police proceeded, mainly based on Sean's blood type matching that found at the murder scene - even though it was a common blood group.
He denied the crime in court but was found guilty in 1982 by a jury.
Of course, he appealed his conviction and spent time inside writing to solicitors and anyone he felt might help.
Advancements in DNA technology meant the case could be investigated further, but a request by Sean's defence team in 1998 for forensics met a dead end when they were told the evidence had been destroyed.
But one solicitor persisted and the evidence was tracked down. It finally cleared Sean and after 27 years inside, he was a free man - of sorts.
In September last year, police named Teresa's real killer - David Lace - whose remains were exhumed after he had committed suicide in 1988. His DNA matched. Lace, 17 at the time of the murder, had admitted to Hampshire police back in 1983 he killed Teresa but his confession was ignored.
Sean says the naming of Lace didn't make much difference to him. Sure, he was angry at him but it made no odds really. "No one's ever called me a killer since I've been released. Not to my face anyway," he muses.
Sean speaks quietly and in short sentences. Prison has made him used to keeping a low profile, and while he's been able to shake off some habits he picked up, this isn't one of them.
Walking out into freedom was a day Sean thought may never happen.
He says quietly: "I have nightmares. Horrific ones that go through the whole process. Getting arrested, the police station, cells, court, Wandsworth Prison. All the time I'm shouting out to people I'm innocent, but no one ever believes me. Then I get sent down forever.
"I wake myself up, shouting and I'll be sweating loads and I'm miles and miles away. I don't know exactly what I'm saying but I know I'm trying to get them to believe me. But they never do and I get sent away for ever."
Even when he's free from the nightmares, Sean only gets a couple of hours' sleep every night.
He's off the sleeping tablets, "I'm only on Prozac now", and so at night his non-medicated brain is filled with thoughts. "Thoughts of what? Of good and bad thoughts. The good thoughts are that I'm free, that I can go anywhere I want. The bad thoughts are me thinking about everything that's happened. I think 'evil b******s' and imagine myself getting revenge on the people that did it to me."
It is understandable Sean still feels angry. Being inside, he says, deprived him of marrying and having children, an idea he'd taken for granted at the time like many twentysomethings.
But he's determined to make the best of his life now, having lost so much.
He's had "about £1million" in compensation so far, and he's bought a modest bungalow and a £20,000 Golf GTI. He's not exactly splashed the cash, but having lived so frugally inside, his purchases are about as extravagant as he can be. "I was on between £3.50 and £4.50 a week inside. I'd buy fags and there wasn't much left over," he adds.
"So now I'm reluctant to spend money. I have to remind myself that it's OK, that I can afford it.
"The prices in shops... I still can't believe it. The price of a pint today - it was 32p when I went inside. And I can't bear supermarkets. I find them confusing."
One of the main legacies of Sean's miscarriage of justice is that he never plans ahead.
He spent three decades having no control over his fate, and now he doesn't bother setting anything in stone as he knows only too well that his plans could easily be shattered. He says: "I feel insecure, that anything could change at any point. I live my life one day at a time. I can't do any more than that."
Sean occupies his days fixing up cars and motorbikes "to keep me out of the pub". He's had "two or three" relationships since he's been out but he says they haven't been serious.
Surely women were the first thing on his mind following his release? "Well," he mutters, "it was always in the blood."
He's got a girlfriend who he's been with since last October but won't name in order to protect her. One of the reasons he's been so reluctant to engage in a serious relationship boils down to trust again.
"It's really hard knowing if they were after me or after my cheque book."
His current girlfriend is different. She's the daughter of family friends who, at 30, was born a year after he was remanded.
Sean spent the first few months after being released living in different places before settling in Crook, just a short distance from where he grew up.
Being back in County Durham has allowed him to reacquaint himself with people he used to know, who recognise him in the street or who he's tracked down. He finds it hard to trust though, and prefers the company of his Jack Russell Archie more than any human.
"He doesn't answer back," he says laughing, "he just nods his head. People are very different today. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one walking around. Everyone else seems like zombies, they're quite self-absorbed, people today."
But at the same time, Sean has his fair share of contact from people very much interested in his affairs.
"I get a lot of people just banging on my door asking for things, for money. I tell them where to go."
But despite his ordeal, Sean says life is getting better and better. He hasn't kept in touch with anyone from prison - he never had any friends there anyway, "just acquaintances". He wouldn't have visited them either - the thought of going near a jail fills him with dread.
For now, Sean's all about "trying to be happy, every day". He adds: "I still wake up automatically at 6.30am, like I did in prison. I'm slowly recovering. It's hard though because in my head, sometimes I'm still 27. But my body won't keep up."
And in May comes a big milestone, one he once thought would be "celebrated" in an eight-by-four cell - his 60th birthday.
"How will I celebrate?" he asks himself. "I don't know. I'll just see if I get there first."
MURDER ..TO THE TRUTH
5 DECEMBER 1979 Teresa de Simone is found raped and strangled to death.
December 1980 Sean Hodgson confesses to a prison priest to Teresa's murder. Later that month, he confesses to two more murders that never took place. Sean is charged with Teresa's murder.
January 1982 The trial begins. Sean withdraws his confession and refuses to take the stand.
February 5, 1982 Sean is convicted of murder following a 15-day trial. He is sentenced to life imprisonment.
1983 Sean's request for an appeal against his conviction is dismissed. Petty criminal David Lace, 17, right, confesses to Teresa's murder to Hampshire Police while being questioned for another crime. His confession is dismissed as fantasy.
1988 David Lace commits suicide.
1998 Solicitors ask the Forensic Science Service for evidence from the murder scene to retest because of advancements in DNA technology. The FSS say it has all been destroyed.
March 2008 After reading an article in Inside Time magazine, solicitors specialising in appeals against conviction take Sean's case on, and track the evidence down to an industrial warehouse in the Midlands.
December 2008 Initial tests suggest DNA taken from Teresa did not match Sean's, results are then confirmed in January 2009.
March 2009 Sean is released from prison.
September 2009 Police name David Lace as Teresa's killer after exhuming his body.
Human Rights Human Wrongs - 6.30 – 9 p.m. on Thursday October 9th
Human Rights Human WrongsCelebrate Human Rights and to regret Human Wrongs
Free Evening event at St John’s Waterloo Road (Near roundabout)
6.30 – 9 p.m. on Thursday October 9th
Meal available at 6 p.m. for £4
Organised by
St. John’s Waterloo
Progressing Prisoners Maintaining Innocence (PPMI)
Christians Aware
Opening Speakers:
Bruce Kent Chair of Progressing Prisoners Maintaining Innocence (PPMI)
Vice President CND and Pax Christi
Juliet Lyon Director of the Prison Reform Trust
Maseh Mother of 18 year old schoolboy, maintaining innocence, member of London Against Injustice
Chair: Terry Drummond C.A. : Chairs London and Southwark Diocesan Penal Affairs Group on behalf of the Bishop of Southwark
Workshops pick up on themes from the opening speakers in respect of human rights. This December 10th marks the 60th Anniversary of the UN Declaration of Human Rights. It is intended that the workshops will allow for in depth discussion on issues raised by the opening speakers. Resource contributors for the various workshops will include Bruce Kent, PPMI; Christopher Jones and Aisha Maniar, London Guantanamo Campaign.
Health Access: the experience and affects of imprisonment and detention on physical, mental and emotional health.
Over Tariff: prisons are not holiday camps and many prisons serve very long sentences.
The English Prison Estate: politics, practises and finances of privatisation from a global perspective.
Youth, identity, guns and knife crime: are high profile issues. What are the issues of
demography and education to be addressed? Should we be concerned by ASBOs and joint enterprise convictions?
Organised by
St. John’s Waterloo
Progressing Prisoners Maintaining Innocence (PPMI)
Christians Aware
For any further information contact
The case of Eddie Gilfoyle
In June 1992 Eddie’s wife, Paula Gilfoyle, who was eight and a half months pregnant, committed suicide by hanging herself in the garage of their home in Upton, Wirral. Despite the fact that a suicide letter was found, written by Paula herself, her family and friends were not satisfied that Paula would have committed suicide and gossip turned to rumour and rumour turned to suspicion. Four months later the Merseyside Police charged Eddie Gilfoyle with her murder and he was convicted at Liverpool Crown Court in July 1993. His family and supporters have gathered compelling evidence - never seen by the trial jury - that Paula was not killed but committed suicide.Eddie and his supporters believe that the Merseyside Police suppressed vital alibi evidence and they question the mysterious appearance of a so called ‘practice rope’ in the drawer of the garage which was not found during a previous search by a specialist police search team. The prosecution told the jury at the trial that this second rope was the one that Eddie had been using to practice making nooses to later use to kill his wife.
The Lancashire Police were called in after the trial. They re-investigated the case and also questioned the mysterious appearance of the ‘practice rope.’ After a lengthy re-investigation, the Lancashire Police could not find any evidence of a crime and were driven to conclude that Paula Gilfoyle committed suicide. Their findings revealed that the Merseyside Police had suppressed the evidence of a witness who saw Paula alive and well several hours after the Crown had alleged that Eddie had killed her. They concluded that when Paula died Eddie was well accounted for at work. The Lancashire Police Inquiry was highly critical of the inquiry conducted by their Merseyside colleagues. The Police Complaints Authority told the Home Office that ‘the Conviction was Unsafe and Unsatisfactory.’
But, an appeal in 1995 was rejected when the Judges refused to hear any evidence in respect of the Lancashire Police Inquiry and refused to consider any criticism of Eddie’s previous defence team who had conduct of the trial.
After the appeal, the television company ‘Trial and Error’ - who broadcast a documentary about the case - described the Merseyside Police Investigation as a ‘Keystone Comedy of Errors.’ World famous pathologist, Professor Bernard Knight, (responsible for literally piecing together the evidence in the Fred and Rosemary West Case in the Cromwell Street murders), concluded that medically there was nothing in the evidence to prevent this from being a suicide by hanging.
The Criminal Cases Review Commission then spent two years re-investigating the case and referred the case to the Royal Courts of Justice for a fresh appeal. This second appeal took place in December 2000, but was once again rejected. For a second time, the Appeal Court Judges ran roughshod over the evidence and their Judgement has been described as dishonest.
Eddie’s solicitor at both appeals, Campbell Malone, (who was responsible for overturning a number of wrongful convictions - including that of the tragic Stefan Kiszco), publicly stated ‘I feel embarrassed that the system has worked so badly in this case - I think it has worked even worse in this case than the Stefan Kiszco case - At every stage it has been defective.’
To date, this case has had five separate independent investigations. All of which have all concluded that Paula Gilfoyle committed suicide by hanging herself in the garage of their home and that the conviction of Eddie Gilfoyle is unsafe and unsatisfactory. Yet, Eddie Gilfoyle remains in prison. His new solicitors are working hard to overturn his conviction.
The detail of this appalling miscarriage of justice can be read on the official Eddie Gilfoyle Website at eddiegilfoyle.co.uk Please take the time to read it.
Paul Blackburn
Imagine this; you are 15, life at home isn’t great to say the least, no love or care; violence and abuse is all you know.You’re not particularly confident and often feel inadequate around people, petty crime and fighting is a way of life for you, a way to survive; eventually your name even becomes familiar down at the station.
When it comes down to it, no-one really cares what happens to you; not the most unfamiliar story really, our streets are still full of kids like Paul Blackburn.
Waiting for someone to notice them, help them, someone to show that they care.
Paul Blackburn was just 15 when the state decided that they were going to steal his life from him.
No real family support, no reliable solicitor, all alone in the world and in the hands of a cruel determined team of officers, desperate to justify their salary and lock someone up for a horrible crime; reassure “the people” that justice has been done.
Find the real perpetrator or find just anyone…? Did anyone really care on the day?
Justice didn’t come into it when it came down to Paul Blackburn and the 25 years he had to wait for his release after being convicted to life in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.
The police bullied him and they beat him up, they threatened him with other offences until, in the end, the frightened and exhausted 15 year old boy signed a confession, a worthless statement mostly dictated by the officers, the very same officers who were supposed to be keeping him safe.
Paul probably didn’t even understand half of the words on the piece of paper he had just signed and as soon as he realised what had just happened, he retracted his confession and started to claim his innocence.
He didn’t commit this crime, he was just scared of the men shouting in his face and hurting him, he was waiting for someone to walk in and make it better, someone to tell these people that they were wrong and that they had arrested the wrong person.
No-one came for him, too busy or not interested enough; on December 1978, Paul Blackburn was convicted for the attempted murder of a nine year old boy.
Still, he wasn’t there when it happened, there was no DNA to link him to the crime and he didn’t even fit the description of the alleged assailant…
I was 5 and starting out my life, for 15 year old Paul Blackburn this was the beginning of a long 25 year battle, a huge miscarriage of justice had only just started to unfold.
Paul spent 25 years at the mercy of the prison system, more violence, more threats, more beatings, drug abuse, self harming, isolation and a constant rebellious attitude towards his kidnappers.
I first met Paul Blackburn just a few months after his release at Miscarriage of Justice day in Manchester and as soon as our eyes met tears were rolling down my cheeks, I felt his crumbled insides screaming out through his eyes and my whole body turned cold, I was shocked and saddened by him and what had happened to him, I felt worried about him.
What goes on in the mind of someone who doesn’t know of the simple rules by which we all like to abide by; honesty and trust, care and love, loyalty?
Paul Blackburn was abandoned 25 years ago; they locked him up and threw away the key.
This man who was standing in front of me with a very dark look in his eyes had the softest voice and a gentleness about him which surprised me.
Was this just the outside façade of a broken man, frightened, lost and confused by the people around him?
Everyone including me was gathering around Paul to tell him that after he had suffered in the hands of the law for over 25 years, we had believed him all along…
Why did it take so long and why didn’t anyone stand up for Paul on that day, why had it taken 27 years or so for justice to be done?
In the end, the law let him go because they had ran out of excuses to keep him in, free to fight on the outside, he was released on licence in 2003 and it took another 2 years for his appeal to go through and his conviction to be overturned but it was.
Paul Blackburn was innocent all along!
27 years altogether to put this mistake right and after all this time a broken man remains alone with his past.
How much unnecessary damage had been done, how much life did the system steal from Paul Blackburn?
4 years after I initially met Paul Blackburn, I met up with him again; he still can’t sleep through being haunted by his past and the nightmares he had to survive through whilst we all lived our lives and grew up.
Anxious, frightened and depressed are understated words to describe the way Paul feels every day that he lives, panic attacks and distrust always seem in the way of his future.
Paul is still waiting to be compensated 29 years after the justice was miscarried.
After the system took away his chances of a “normal” life, growing up, finding a career, a family, love, or what ever he wished for, 29 years later Paul still awaits a simple sorry!
To describe Paul Blackburn in a few words, I would say kind, generous, dignified and honourable with a genuinely heartfelt smile, yet still so lost and lonesome.
How would anyone learn to trust or love after all this pain and deception, Paul had to survive alone for all these years against all adversities and is still fighting with himself to stop the images and the memories so that he can sit back and start really living and enjoying his life.
Paul also still struggles to believe that he deserves better than the abuse he was subjected to during all these years in prison.
The only anger that Paul still seems to retain is towards himself, for not fighting more, I say the system let him down and under the circumstances surviving was probably his only option.
To read more about Paul Blackburn’s case, please visit the links below.
Justice for Barry George 01st August 2008
Barry George - who spent seven years in jail because of an invisible speck of dust he could have picked up anywhere - has been cleared of killing TV presenter Jill Dando.
She was shot dead on her doorstep in April 1999.
Scientists matched the particle found in the pocket of his cashmere overcoat to firearms residue combed from Dando's hair.
It put George at the scene - and helped convict him of the horrific murder.
But when his lawyers fought to remove the evidence from the prosecution case there was nothing to link him directly to the shooting - and today he walked free after a second trial.
George, 48, was many things - a loner, a military-obsessed fantasist, a stalker who followed women through West London on roller skates and a sex offender.
But the jury found he was not a killer.
The celebrity's family may now have to accept the real murderer of TV's 'Golden Girl' has escaped justice.
Jill Dando was one of the most popular presenters on television.
Born in Weston-super-Mare on November 9, 1961, to father Jack and mother Jean, she became a presenter for BBC Breakfast News with Nicholas Witchell in 1988 and began reading the Six O'Clock News.
After four years at Breakfast News she went to the Holiday programme where she was working until she died.
In 1997 she started presenting Crimewatch and at the time of her death had completed a series of a new show 'The Antiques Inspectors' which was shown posthumously after consultation with Miss Dando's family.
Police initially believed the murder was an execution by a professional hitman who forced her to her knees before shooting her through the head.
The theory was those responsible had suffered as a result of a Crimewatch appeal.
More than 5,000 people were interviewed and over 2,400 statements were taken in a massive police operation.
They identified 2,000 suspects and 140 had an unhealthy interest in Miss Dando.
George was arrested a year into the investigation as detectives considered all their initial leads again.
Inquiries quickly revealed he was obsessed with guns and on the day after the killing he had asked workers at a local charity for an alibi.
Police found a now-infamous picture of George wearing a gas mask and clutching a pistol, his eyes shining with excitement.
George who was born in Hammersmith, west London, just down the road from Miss Dando's Fulham home on April 15, 1960, regularly posed as an SAS soldier, pretended to be a professional stuntman and insisted he was the cousin of Freddie Mercury.
He was once found hiding in the grounds of Kensington Palace wearing a balaclava and carrying a knife, a poem to Prince Charles stashed in the pocket of his combat fatigues.
Friends and neighbours spoke of him carrying out 'SAS' style raids on their homes bursting in wearing army fatigues, a balaclava and clutching a pistol.
And his fixation with the military and celebrities was a key strand in the circumstantial evidence against George.
During the police investigation 14 women came forward to tell how George had terrorised them over a 15 year period from the mid 1980s to shortly before his arrest.
Susan Coombes, Angela Gordon, Margaret Milorthollard, Sophia Wellington, Amanda Scriven, Claudia Casey, Elke Anderson, Fiona Maffeo, Alena Murcott, Sarah Andrew. Robin Kadrinka, Cherree Yanthnarian, Deborah Crosby, Rachel Youngman were all targeted by George.
He stalked women noting down their addresses and number plates before following them home and photographing them for his own private collection.
Police discovered hundreds of rolls of film when they raided George's home containing more than 2,000 photos of women. Most were unaware they were being photographed.
Neighbour Susan Mayes said she had seen George pretending to clean a car windscreen as he stared at Miss Dando's home hours before the murder.
She picked out George in a video parade 18 months after she saw him but was the only witness to positively identify him at the scene.
During his police interviews George contradicted himself and told a series of lies.
He denied an interest in weapons and insisted he would not even recognise Jill Dando.
But it was the scientific evidence which detectives believe proved they had the right man.
The particle removed from the three quarter length coat contained quantities of barium, aluminium and lead which matched quantities of the elements recovered from the body.
It was described as 'compelling evidence' of George's guilt at the first trial and the chances it could have been transferred accidentally were said to be 'negligible.'
On July 29 2002 the Court of Appeal dismissed George's first appeal, which challenged the identification evidence.
But after a second hearing on November 15, 2007 the Court of Appeal concluded the jury at the first trial should have been given a further direction about the conclusions which could be drawn from the firearms residue and the possibility of accidental contamination.
At the retrial Mr Justice Griffith Williams ruled the firearms evidence was inadmissible. He said the residue could have come from the rise in gun crime and armed police on the streets of London.
The judge agreed with forensic experts who claimed George could have picked up the speck on London Underground or a local bus.
He said: 'There is no statistical evidence to support the conclusion that the particle was more likely to have come from the gun that show Miss Dando than from innocent contamination.'
Before the trial actually started one senior detective privately admitted the residue evidence was crucial and 'a wheel had come off' the case.
Even if Susan Mayes was correct and George was outside the house on the morning of the murder it would have taken a huge leap of faith by a jury to convict him without the evidence of the firearms residue.
Since George's conviction the murder has spawned a series of theories, counter theories and several books.
One possible suspect was a sinister fan who identified himself as 'Julian' who approached Miss Dando days before she died.
He was around 5ft 11 inches tall, wearing a suit, with straight dark hair, collar length - a similar description to that of the killer.
Nigel Dando also told police her sister had been concerned about 'some guy pestering her.'
The presenter had received hate mail just weeks before she died following a BBC Kosovo appeal in 1998.
Michael Mansfield, QC, used the mail for his bizarre 'headline grabbing' defence in the first trial, suggesting the celebrity was murdered by Serbian warlord called Arkan.
Tragically for Jill Dando and her family, the truth will probably never be known.
Susan May is Innocent
On the 26th of April 2005 - Susan May walked free from prison after serving 12 years for a murder she did not commit. She is still fighting from the outside to clear her name and for justice to be done.
"Freed To Fight On"
"I am pleased to be free from prison but in reality I will not be totally free until this injustice is recognised and my name cleared. I was fitted up by Oldham police and I have been failed by the justice system - a system I trusted and which I have to have hope in because I believe the truth will come out.
For 13 years there are people in my area who have refused to come forward and tell what they know about Aunty's murder - they know who they are. I understand they wanted to protect their own but they have helped to keep me in prison for 12 years for a crime I am innocent of. Shame on them and shame on those professionals who perjured themselves on oath, who fabricated evidence and conveniently "lost" crucial evidence in order to convict me. My Aunty deserved much better than that, they denied her justice!
The love and support of my family, friends and many others has sustained me throughout this nightmare and I thank them all.
My fight goes on, I will not be silent and I am not going away! Read by Susan May after her release"
The case briefly:-
On the 12 March 1992 at 9.30 am Susan went, as she did every morning, to check that her aunt Hilda was out of bed, and to give her her lunch. On going into the house she found her aunt dead on her bed in the downstairs room, viciously beaten about the head and face, with the lower parts of her body uncovered. A burglar had ransacked the house, tipping out drawers and cupboards. 18 days later, Susan was arrested for the murder. 80 local people immediately volunteered character references to her kind and caring nature.
The police spent seven or eight days looking for the burglar without success. They built their case against Susan around three stains on the wall in the dining room (used as her aunt's bedroom), one of which contained Susan's fingerprint and which they said was blood. They said it had not looked like a real burglary as no money had been taken - a fact only pointed out to them by Susan herself. Her motive was said to have been to get a half share with her sister in her aunt's house to spend on her boyfriend.
Susan believed that the British Justice System was the best in the world and that, being innocent, she had no need to fear. Her solicitor must have thought the same for his preparation for this murder trial required him to call only one witness-Susan's daughter. The prosecution used several expert witnesses.
Please visit Susan's website (Below) to read more about Susan’s case and offer support
Innocence Network UK
"Educating to overturn and prevent the wrongful conviction of innocent people."
The Innocence Network UK (INUK) is the co-ordinating organisation for member Innocence Projects based in UK universities.
The INUK has three core aims :
Educate:
to encourage and support the creation and subsequent running of member innocence projects in UK universities.
Research:
to conduct and facilitate research into, among other related things:
i) the causes of the wrongful conviction of the innocent;
ii) the barriers to attempts to overturn these convictions in the Court of Appeal or by application to the CCRC; and
iii) the associated harmful consequences of wrongful conviction on victims, their families, friends and society as a whole.
Communicate:
to inform public debates about the wrongful conviction and imprisonment of innocent people, the INUK will communicate findings from the activities of member innocence projects and research, with the objective of improving the criminal justice system and preventing future wrongful convictions.
What is the INUK?
Why do we need the INUK?
How does the INUK support member innocence projects?
INUK's Culture
What is the INUK?
The INUK was launched in September 2004 because the problem of the wrongful conviction of innocent people was not sufficiently resolved by the creation of the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), the body set up in the wake of notorious cases such as the Guildford 4 and the Birmingham 6 to investigate alleged cases of miscarriage of justice.
The INUK is a university-based initiative, which draws collaborative support from all parts of the miscarriages of justice jigsaw - academics, criminal appeal lawyers, victim support groups and campaigning organisations, forensic scientists and investigative journalists.
The INUK works towards, ‘Educating to overturn and prevent the wrongful conviction of innocent people’, with our core being EDUCATION as a means of endeavouring to influence practical changes to the criminal justice system in this pressing area of public concern.
Importantly, the INUK is NOT a campaign or victim support group.
Why do we need the INUK?
1. PROBLEMS WITH THE SYSTEM:
Despite the creation of the CCRC, the problem of the wrongful conviction and/or imprisonment of innocent people is a continuing feature of criminal justice in England and Wales. Put simply, innocent people are still being convicted and find it difficult, sometimes impossible, to have their cases referred back to the Court of Appeal.
2. VICTIMS:
The wrongful conviction of innocent people inevitably results in serious financial and emotional damage far beyond harm to the prisoner only. It extends to family, friends and society itself, because the real perpetrator is still at large and justice has not been done.
3. PROGRESSING PRISONERS MAINTAINING INNOCENCE:
Life sentenced prisoners maintaining innocence are, generally, unable to progress through the prison system, with a view to consideration for parole, as they refuse to acknowledge their crimes (because they maintain innocence), which the system considers an essential pre-requisite for rehabilitation. So they are faced with the impossible decision of admitting to the crime, in the hope of release, or continuing to maintain innocence, knowing that they may never come out of prison as a result.
4. NO ALTERNATIVE ORGANISATION:
The INUK was established because there is no other organisation that can address these problems in the same way. As an independent umbrella organisation, with a firm educational base, it can provide a strong voice in a unique, collaborative way.
How does the INUK support member innocence projects?
1. It gives affiliating universities the benefit of membership of a national educationally-driven organisation, with access to wider supporters and contacts from the diverse world of the miscarriage of justice community.
2. It provides cases to member innocence projects from its central casebank, established by gathering letters from prisoners maintaining innocence over past years. The database serves to avoid different innocence projects duplicating work for the same clients, and provides a valuable and evolving central research base.
3. It provides a low cost annual national training programme, subsidised where necessary, regularly reviewed and consisting of high quality sessions and materials, designed to avoid the need for each innocence project to re-invent the training wheel. Bristol and Cardiff universities were jointly ‘Highly Commended’ by Lord Goldsmith in the Attorney General’s Pro Bono Awards 2007 for collaboration on devising and delivering the INUK national training programme.
4. It acts as a voice for the innocence project community in wider debates about clinical legal education.
5. Member innocence projects have access to key personnel within the wider INUK network for expert assistance with any queries they may have.
INUK's Culture
The INUK is striving to create a pervasive culture in everything that we do, of :
COLLABORATION: we consider that collaboration with academic and other colleagues towards our core aims will enhance rather than undermine all of our collective work and the reputations of our collaborators.
CO-OWNERSHIP: we want our collaborators to share ownership of our organisation and work together towards expanding it professionally in the wider interests of academia and improving social justice.
DEMOCRACY: we want our collaborators to share in decision-making as to the policy and future of our innocence project work and research.
INTEGRITY: at all times we will operate with integrity in endeavouring to achieve our stated aims.
For more information please visit their website below
Judge for Yourself - How many are innocent
Judge for Yourself is a book that is long overdue - a well researched lay person's guide to the British legal system's appalling number of miscarriages of justice. Even more interestingly, it is an exploration of how such mistakes are allowed to continue, and how, despite an often blatant lack of evidence against them, many people have been - and still are - languishing in jail for crimes they did not commit.
Naylor starts from an intelligent and irrefutable premise: that any system of justice, being man made, is prone to error. That is not, she argues, a problem per se; the problem lies in the fact that the Establishment, in its indifference, arrogance and/or incompetence, refuses to take any serious action to correct these errors and prevent them from happening in the future.
This is a really interesting piece of work that highlights a serious problem and questions the very nature of the democratic processes that govern our lives. It is well worth a read....
"If one really wishes to know how justice is administered in a country, one does not question the policemen, the lawyers, the judges, or the protected members of the middle class. One goes to the unprotected - those, precisely, who need the laws protection most - and listens to their testimony."
By James Baldwin
Justice for Keith Hyatt and Barri White
On the 15th November 2007 the convictions of Barri White and Keith Hyatt for the terrible murder of Rachel Manning were overturned by the Appeal Court. An retrial was pending for Barri White.
18th December 2008 - Barri White was found Not Guilty.
Barri White and Keith Hyatt have both been found not guilty of the murder of Rachel Manning.
On eve of the 9th of December 2000, Rachel Manning attended a party with Barri White; her boyfriend, they then went on to a nightclub with other friends.
The group parted at around 2.15 – 2.20 am on the morning on the 10th of December, this is the last time Rachel was seen alive.
Rachel's body was discovered on the 12th of December on a local golf course, she had been murdered.
On 5th of April 2002, Barri White was convicted of murdering Rachel Manning and Keith Hyatt of perverting the court of justice at Aylesbury crown court.
There was no evidence to link Barri or Keith at the deposition site, in fact all evidence points to them never having been there.
They were convicted on the basis of 7 particulates recovered months later from Keiths van seat and Rachels skirt.
There was no motive for this murder...
Please visit their website and show your support
Insidedoubt offers Rachel Manning's parents our sincere condoleances, we pray that one day the police will finally find the person responsible for this crime and that justice can be done for Rachel.
Save Rough Justice
The BBC recently announced that is was axing Rough Justice, a program set up to help victims of micarriages of justice overturn their wrongful conviction.
After running for 27 years and overturning some 15 wrongful convictions Rough Justice is no longer.
Further to their recent succesful appeal, the group campaigning for the MK2; Keith Hyatt and Barri White have decided to set up a petition to "Bring Back Rough Justice", please follow the link below, sign their petition and pass the message on.
