Stephen Downing Case
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Stephen Downing Case
The Stephen Downing case involved the conviction and imprisonment in 1974 of a 17-year-old council worker, Stephen Downing, for the murder of a 32-year-old legal secretary, Wendy Sewell, in the Market town, town of Bakewell in the Peak District in Derbyshire. Following a campaign by a local newspaper led by Don Hale, in which Sewell was purported to be promiscuous and dubbed "The Bakewell Tart", his conviction was overturned in 2002 after he had served 27 years in prison. The case is thought to be the longest miscarriage of justice in British legal history, and attracted worldwide media attention. Downing remains the prime suspect, prime (and only) suspect in the case, with police reinvestigations finding that all the alternative suspects suggested by Don Hale could be eliminated from inquiries. Downing, meanwhile, was the only suspect who could not be eliminated, and new forensic evidence indicated that he had committed the murder. He was also recorded confessing to the crime aft ...
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Wendy Sewell
The Stephen Downing case involved the conviction and imprisonment in 1974 of a 17-year-old council worker, Stephen Downing, for the murder of a 32-year-old legal secretary, Wendy Sewell, in the town of Bakewell in the Peak District in Derbyshire. Following a campaign by a local newspaper led by Don Hale, in which Sewell was purported to be promiscuous and dubbed "The Bakewell Tart", his conviction was overturned in 2002 after he had served 27 years in prison. The case is thought to be the longest miscarriage of justice in British legal history, and attracted worldwide media attention. Downing remains the prime (and only) suspect in the case, with police reinvestigations finding that all the alternative suspects suggested by Don Hale could be eliminated from inquiries. Downing, meanwhile, was the only suspect who could not be eliminated, and new forensic evidence indicated that he had committed the murder. He was also recorded confessing to the crime after he was released, although ...
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Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or against a person who is incapable of giving valid consent, such as one who is unconscious, incapacitated, has an intellectual disability, or is below the legal age of consent. The term ''rape'' is sometimes used interchangeably with the term ''sexual assault.'' The rate of reporting, prosecuting and convicting for rape varies between jurisdictions. Internationally, the incidence of rapes recorded by the police during 2008 ranged, per 100,000 people, from 0.2 in Azerbaijan to 92.9 in Botswana with 6.3 in Lithuania as the median.
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In Denial Of Murder
''In Denial of Murder'' is a two-part British television crime drama series, written by Neil McKay and directed by David Richards, that first broadcast on BBC One on 29 February 2004. The series follows investigative journalist Don Hale (Stephen Tompkinson) as he attempts to prove that convicted murderer Stephen Downing (Jason Watkins) was wrongly convicted for the murder of Wendy Sewell (Caroline Catz) in 1973. The series was based upon Hale's book ''Town Without Pity'' (which was later reprinted under the title ''In Denial of Murder'' in 2014). Hale sold television rights to the book to Hat Trick productions in November 2000. The series marked the second time that Tompkinson and Catz co-starred together, having previously appeared in ''All Quiet on the Preston Front'' and later going on to star together in ''DCI Banks''. Notably, the series has yet to be released on DVD. Criticism Don Hale himself criticised the production, stating that "It is NOT a factual documentary and has ...
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Pedophilia
Pedophilia ( alternatively spelt paedophilia) is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although girls typically begin the process of puberty at age 10 or 11, and boys at age 11 or 12, criteria for pedophilia extend the cut-off point for prepubescence to age 13. According to DSM-5-TR, a person must be at least 16 years old, and at least five years older than the prepubescent child, for the attraction to be diagnosed as pedophilic disorder. Pedophilia is distinguished from pedophilic disorder in the current version of the '' Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders'' (DSM-5-TR) . The DSM-5-TR defines it as a paraphilic disorder involving intense and recurrent sexual urges, fantasies or behaviors about prepubescent children that have either been acted upon or which cause the person with the attraction distress or interpersonal difficulty. Similar to DSM-5-TR, the ICD- ...
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The Rt Hon
''The Right Honourable'' (abbreviation: ''Rt Hon.'' or variations) is an honorific style traditionally applied to certain persons and collective bodies in the United Kingdom, the former British Empire and the Commonwealth of Nations. The term is predominantly used today as a style associated with the holding of certain senior public offices in the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, and to a lesser extent, Australia. ''Right'' in this context is an adverb meaning 'very' or 'fully'. Grammatically, ''The Right Honourable'' is an adjectival phrase which gives information about a person. As such, it is not considered correct to apply it in direct address, nor to use it on its own as a title in place of a name; but rather it is used in the third person along with a name or noun to be modified. ''Right'' may be abbreviated to ''Rt'', and ''Honourable'' to ''Hon.'', or both. ''The'' is sometimes dropped in written abbreviated form, but is always pronounced. Countries with common or cu ...
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Matlock Mercury
The ''Matlock Mercury'' is a weekly newspaper published on a Thursday in the United Kingdom which serves Matlock, Darley Dale, Wirksworth, Bakewell and smaller villages in the Derbyshire Dales area of Derbyshire. The ''Matlock Mercury'' began life in the late 1940s as ''Coming Events'', an entertainments guide published by Ella Smith from her house on Bakewell Road, Matlock which remained as the newspaper's home until October 2000 when a new office opened on Firs Parade in the centre of the town. The name ''Matlock Mercury'' was adopted in the mid-1950s. Much of the newspaper's archive was destroyed when four feet of water struck during flooding in 1965. The printing works, which shared the same building until 1996, were also badly damaged. Ella Smith sold the Mercury to John Uprichard a successful journalist and TV news reporter in the mid-1970s. Uprichard modernised and updated the facilities and printing works to provide a modern newspaper aided by his wife Beryl Uprichard. T ...
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Court Of Appeal
A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of the world, court systems are divided into at least three levels: the trial court, which initially hears cases and reviews evidence and testimony to determine the facts of the case; at least one intermediate appellate court; and a supreme court (or court of last resort) which primarily reviews the decisions of the intermediate courts, often on a discretionary basis. A particular court system's supreme court is its highest appellate court. Appellate courts nationwide can operate under varying rules. Under its standard of review, an appellate court decides the extent of the deference it would give to the lower court's decision, based on whether the appeal were one of fact or of law. In reviewing an issue of fact, an appellate court ordinaril ...
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Parole
Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or else they may be rearrested and returned to prison. Originating from the French word ''parole'' ("speech, spoken words" but also "promise"), the term became associated during the Middle Ages with the release of prisoners who gave their word. This differs greatly from pardon, amnesty or commutation of sentence in that parolees are still considered to be serving their sentences, and may be returned to prison if they violate the conditions of their parole. Modern development Alexander Maconochie, a Scottish geographer and captain in the Royal Navy, introduced the modern idea of parole when, in 1840, he was appointed superintendent of the British penal colonies in Norfolk Island, Australia. He developed a plan to prepare them for event ...
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Innocent Prisoner's Dilemma
The innocent prisoner's dilemma, or parole deal, is a detrimental effect of a legal system in which admission of guilt can result in reduced sentences or early parole. When an innocent person is wrongly convicted of a crime, legal systems which need the individual to admit guilt — as, for example, a prerequisite step leading to parole — punish an innocent person for their integrity, and reward a person lacking in integrity. There have been cases where innocent prisoners were given the choice between freedom, in exchange for claiming guilt, and remaining imprisoned and telling the truth. Individuals have died in prison rather than admit to crimes that they did not commit. United States law professor Daniel Medwed says convicts who go before a parole board maintaining their innocence are caught in a catch-22 that he calls "the innocent prisoner’s dilemma". A false admission of guilt and remorse by an innocent person at a parole hearing may prevent a later investigation provi ...
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At Her Majesty's Pleasure
At His Majesty's pleasure (sometimes abbreviated to King's pleasure or, when the reigning monarch is female, at Her Majesty's pleasure or Queen's pleasure) is a legal term of art referring to the indeterminate or undetermined length of service of certain appointed officials or the indeterminate sentences of some prisoners. It is based on the proposition that all legitimate authority for government comes from the Crown. Originating in the United Kingdom, it is now used throughout the Commonwealth realms, Lesotho, Eswatini, Brunei and other monarchies (such as Spain, the Netherlands, and Oman). In realms where the monarch is represented by a governor-general, governor or administrator, the phrase may be modified to be ''at the Governor's pleasure'', since the governor-general, governor, lieutenant governor or administrator is the king's personal representative in the country, state or province. Service to the Crown People appointed by the sovereign to serve the Crown and who have no ...
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Nottingham Crown Court
Nottingham Crown Court, or more formally the High Court of Justice and Crown Court, Nottingham is a Crown Court and meeting place of the High Court of Justice on Canal Street in Nottingham, England. The building also accommodates the County Court and the Family Court. History Until the early 1980s, the Crown Court sat in the Shire Hall on High Pavement. However, as the number of court cases in Nottingham grew, it became necessary to commission a more substantial courthouse for criminal matters. The site selected by the Lord Chancellor's Department on Canal Street was occupied by a row of shops (including a baker's shop owned by the amateur astronomer, Thomas Bush) and an old canal-side factory. The new building was designed by architects, P. Harvard, K. Bates and J. Mansell, on behalf of the Property Services Agency and faced with buff stone. The building was opened in two phases: the first phase opened in 1981 and the second phase opened in 1988. The design involved a glass a ...
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Virgin
Virginity is the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. The term ''virgin'' originally only referred to sexually inexperienced women, but has evolved to encompass a range of definitions, as found in traditional, modern and ethical concepts. Heterosexual individuals may or may not consider loss of virginity to occur only through penile-vaginal penetration, while people of other sexual orientations often include oral sex, anal sex, or mutual masturbation in their definitions of losing one's virginity. There are cultural and religious traditions that place special value and significance on this state, predominantly towards unmarried females, associated with notions of personal purity, honor, and worth. Like chastity, the concept of virginity has traditionally involved sexual abstinence. The concept of virginity usually involves moral or religious issues and can have consequences in terms of social status and in interpersonal relationships.See her anpages 4 ...
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