The claimant appealed, on reference by the Criminal Cases Review Commission, against convictions in 1978 for robbery. He said that the conviction was based on confessions, later denied, taken by members of a police serious crime squad members of which later came to be severely criticised for malpractice.
Held: The appeal succeeded. The simple involvement of the squad was not enough to support an appeal. There had to be sufficient material such that had it been available at trial, a cross examination might have put a conviction at doubt.
Pitchford LJ, Dingemans, William Davis JJ
[2014] EWCA Crim 2047
Bailii
England and Wales
Crime
Updated: 22 December 2021; Ref: scu.537731