Welcome to another blog post. Today I want to share with you 5 miscarriages of justice that have happened in the United Kingdom. As a law student, I have looked into various examples of miscarriages of justice and I thought I would share 5 with you today.
A miscarriage of justice is defined in relation to:
a person convicted of a criminal offence in England and Wales or, in a case where subsection (6H) applies, Northern Ireland, if and only if the new or newly discovered fact shows beyond reasonable doubt that the person did not commit the offence
Section 175 Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014
The University of Exeter have created a database of all miscarriages of justice that have taken place in the United Kingdom from 1970 to the present day. At the time of writing this post, I could see there were 466 cases.
Now that I’ve talked about a definition and the amount, let’s get into the 5 cases.
A quick disclaimer: These people have been officially declared as having a miscarriage of justice against them in a court of law. Regardless of what you believe, this is what the Courts have decided. I am also not sharing my personal opinions here either. I am merely just stating facts.
Stefan Kiszko
On 5th October 1975, Lesley Molseed was sadly abducted, assaulted and murdered. Stefan Kiszko, a 23 year old intellectually disabled man, was convicted of her murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Kiszko was brought to the attention of the police as 4 girls had claimed he had taken part in indecent exposure in front of them the day before the murder. One of the girls also said he had exposed himself to her a month after the murder had taken place.
A psychological evaluation of Kiszko showed he had the mental age of a 12 year old. This is important to note, as after 3 days of intensive questioning from the police, he confessed to the crime. It is stated that he confessed to the crime because he believed he would be able to go home if he admitted it.
After 16 years in prison, Kiszko’s conviction was overturned. It was found that a sperm sample had been left on Lesley, and Kiszko could not actually produce sperm. Therefore, he could not have been the murderer.
In 2006, a DNA match led to the arrest of Ronald Castree. He was charged with Lesley Molseed’s murder, and was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Sean Hodgson
In 1979, Teresa De Simone was murdered in Southampton. Sean Hodgson was arrested and charged for the murder after a three year investigation and he was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Hodgson came to the attention of the police when he was arrested for an unrelated offence of a theft of a vehicle. He had confessed at various times to the crime which ultimately lead to his conviction. He plead not guilty at his trial though and his defence said that Hodgson was a pathological liar.
Hodgson spent 27 years in prison before being released by the Court of Appeal. DNA analysis officially confirmed his innocence. It was revealed later in 2009 (the year Hodgson was released) that a DNA match had been found. Unfortunately, the man the DNA matched to had been dead for 21 years at that point, meaning Teresa and her family never got justice.
The Cardiff Newsagent Three
In 1987, Phillip Saunders was murdered outside of his home. Three men, Michael O’Brien, Darren Hall and Ellis Sherwood were arrested for the murder, convicted, and sentenced to prison.
In 1999, the Court of Appeal quashed their convictions and they were released. The original conviction was based largely on a confession from Darren Hall. He had stated that he had acted as a lookout in a robbery gone wrong. The Criminal Cases Review Commission ordered an appeal, and they strongly emphasised that this confession was unreliable. Hall suffered from anti-social personality disorder, and he had also since retracted his confession.
Questions of corruption within the South Wales Police force were also brought up, and Michael O’Brien actually pursued a civil case, but the judges in the House of Lord unanimously dismissed the case.
Sadly, Phillip Saunders’ murder remains unsolved to this day.
Sally Clark
Sally Clark was a woman who was convicted of the murder of her two infant sons. Her first son died just a few weeks after his birth in 1996, and her second son died in similar circumstances in 1998.
A month after her second son’s death, Clark was arrested and charged with their two murders. She was convicted in 1999. Her defence maintained that her sons had died from sudden infant death syndrome, also known as SIDS. SIDS is usually given as a cause of death to children under 12 months old who have died unexpectedly with a thorough autopsy and a detailed look at the death scene.
In 2003, her convictions were overturned on appeal. There were a few reasons given for this. Firstly, the prosecution relied on flawed statistical evidence from Sir Roy Meadow. In addition, the forensic pathologist on the case, Alan Williams knew that there was evidence that showed Clark’s son died from natural causes.
Robert Brown
In 1977, Annie Walsh was beaten to death in her flat. Robert Brown was originally arrested for a non-payment of a fine but he confessed to the murder. He was charged, convicted and sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 15 years.
Brown maintained his innocence throughout his time in prison. This resulted in him being refused parole as he would not confess to a crime he did not commit. He stated that his confession had been coerced and beaten out of him.
The Court of Appeal heard evidence that fibres found on Walsh’s coat had not matched to Brown but to another man who had been questioned at the time. In addition, the three judges looking over Brown’s appeal heard evidence which prompted them to describe the police in Brown’s case to be part of a “culture of corruption and a conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.” He was released.
I hope this post was interesting and insightful to you. Thank you for reading and I will see you soon for another blog post.
Beth
Beth Olivia 