Robert Brown is a Scottish man who spent 25 years in jail for a crime he did not commit, the murder of worker Annie Welsh.
In January 1977, Annie Walsh was beaten to death in her home in
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
. Brown signed a confession and was found guilty at trial. He maintained his innocence throughout his prison sentence even going so far as denying himself parole by not admitting to the crime. He was released on appeal in 2002.
Background
On 31 January 1977, factory worker Annie Walsh, who was 51 at the time, was found battered to death in her flat in Charles Barry Crescent,
Hulme
Hulme () is an inner city area and electoral ward of Manchester, England, immediately south of Manchester city centre. It has a significant industrial heritage.
Historically in Lancashire, the name Hulme is derived from the Old Norse word ...
,
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tam ...
by a man who had come to read the electricity meter.
She had been hit over the head sixteen times and her blood was splattered over the furniture, walls and ceiling.
A
Home Office pathologist estimated that she had lain undiscovered for two to three days after the murder, (she was last seen alive on 28 January 1977).
Police were so concerned about the frenzied nature of the attack that they consulted mental units in case someone had escaped.
In May 1977, the police went to the flat that Brown shared with his girlfriend Cathy; it was in the same block of flats where Annie Walsh had lived and been murdered.
He was originally arrested for non-payment of a fine and was taken in for questioning without his rights being read to him and held for 32 hours without legal representation.
[Some sources state 36 hours.] At the trial, Brown stated that the confession was beaten and coerced out of him and when he did ask for a lawyer, he was told by the policemen that "only guilty men need a lawyer".
The trial was presided over by
Judge Helenus Milmo who directed the jury's attention to the fact that it came down to whether or not they believed the police, or whether they believed Brown was innocent. The jury convicted Brown of murder and Milmo sentenced him to life with a minimum term of 15 years.
Appeals
Brown appealed the sentencing in 1978, but the appeal was turned down.
An appeal was lodged again with then
Home Secretary
The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national s ...
,
Michael Howard in 1993, but this was also denied in the following year.
Whilst in prison, Brown was caught in what
Simon Hattenstone
Simon Hattenstone (born 29 December 1962 in Salford, England) is a British journalist and writer. He is a features writer and interviewer for ''The Guardian''. , writing in
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
, describes as "the Miscarriage of Justice
Catch-22
''Catch-22'' is a satirical war novel by American author Joseph Heller. He began writing it in 1953; the novel was first published in 1961. Often cited as one of the most significant novels of the twentieth century, it uses a distinctive non-ch ...
" (the
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 n ...
); because he would not admit his guilt in the crime for which he was imprisoned, he could not be rehabilitated and be deemed fit to be put in front of a parole board.
Brown refused the chance of parole from a point of view that investigative journalist Eamonn O'Neill called a point of logic; "how could he be paroled for a crime that he did not commit?".
Whilst in prison, Brown shared a cell with
Paul Hill, one of the
Guildford Four
Guildford ()
is a town in west Surrey, around southwest of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The name "Guildf ...
, who, after having his conviction quashed and then released, later campaigned against Brown's miscarriage of justice. The case was again referred to the
Court of Appeal in 2002 by the
Criminal Cases Review Commission
The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) is the statutory body responsible for investigating alleged miscarriages of justice in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. It was established by Section 8 of the Criminal Appeal Act 1995 and bega ...
(CCRC).
Release
An appeal court in November 2002 decided that Brown should be allowed to go free after declaring his conviction unsafe. The appeal was due to be heard over two days, but the judges at the
Royal Courts of Justice
The Royal Courts of Justice, commonly called the Law Courts, is a court building in Westminster which houses the High Court and Court of Appeal of England and Wales. The High Court also sits on circuit and in other major cities. Designed by Ge ...
in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, quashed the conviction within minutes when the Counsel for the Crown explained that he could not argue the case on the evidence presented before the court; the appeal lasted only 18 minutes before it was deemed an "unsafe conviction".
The appeal court had heard evidence that the fibres on Walsh's coat had not matched to Brown, but to another man who was questioned about the murder at the same time. This evidence was not given in court. Linguistic analysis of Brown's confession was given in evidence stating that it could not have been dictated to the police officers by Brown as the police had said. A pair of blood-soaked jeans had also been used against Brown in his interrogation with the police claiming they were the ones that Brown had used in the murder. In fact, they belonged to a woman who had suffered a miscarriage in them and the police knew this.
The sight of the jeans being presented in court made Brown burst into tears as he had known the woman who had had the miscarriage in them; this was misinterpreted as guilt of the murder on his part by the people in the court.
The three judges presiding over Brown's 2002 appeal heard evidence which, in their summing up, prompted them to describe the arresting officers in Brown's case to be part of a "culture of corruption and a conspiracy to pervert the course of justice".
Detective Superintendent
Superintendent (Supt) is a rank in the British police and in most English-speaking Commonwealth nations. In many Commonwealth countries, the full version is superintendent of police (SP). The rank is also used in most British Overseas Territories ...
Peter Topping of Greater Manchester Police had written a report in the 1980s detailing corruption practices within the force during the 1970s and beyond. Despite the report containing circumstantial evidence that could have alleviated Brown's time in prison, it was not made available to his legal team until a few days before the Court of Appeal quashed his conviction because of a
Public-Interest Immunity Public-interest immunity (PII), previously known as Crown privilege, is a principle of English law, English common law under which the English courts can grant a court order allowing one litigant to refrain from Discovery (law), disclosing evidence ...
certificate concerning the report.
Aftermath
Since his release, Brown has been campaigning for reforms to the legal system.
He was also given compensation for his 25-year prison sentence, of which the government demanded back £100,000 for which they deemed payment for bed and board whilst he was in prison.
Brown is believed to be one of the longest serving victims of a miscarriage of justice in the United Kingdom.
Cathy Shaw, Brown's girlfriend in 1977, died in 1992 at the age of 35 from alcohol poisoning. Brown and Shaw's family both attribute her death to how his conviction affected her.
It was later revealed that Brown could not take legal action against any of the police officers who were responsible for his fake confession or beatings. An investigation found "insufficient evidence" of misconduct in relation to Brown's detention, interviews or arrest.
Detective Chief Inspector Jack Butler was sentenced to four years in jail after being found guilty of accepting bribes and perverting the course of justice in 1983, but that was in relation to another case not related to Robert Brown's. At Brown's Court of Appeal hearing in 2002, his defending counsel said of Butler that "not only was he involved in corruption himself but he presided over a conspiracy of corruption amongst other officers at Platt Lane police station
n_Fallowfield,_Manchester.html" ;"title="Fallowfield.html" ;"title="n Fallowfield">n Fallowfield, Manchester">Fallowfield.html" ;"title="n Fallowfield">n Fallowfield, Manchesterbetween 1973 and 1979." Butler resigned from the police force in 1983.
In September 2004, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) informed Robert Brown that there would be no prosecution of the police officers involved in his arrest and interrogation. In the same year, Channel 4 screened a documentary about Brown's case which was entitled ''Picking Up the Pieces''. A review in The Guardian described it as "searing stuff".
In early 2005,
Greater Manchester Police
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement within the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester in North West England.
, Greater Manchester Police employed 6,866 police officers, 3,524 memb ...
announced that they had reopened the investigation into Annie Walsh's murder.
Notes
References
External links
''Picking Up the Pieces'' on YouTube
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Robert
1977 in British law
2002 in United Kingdom case law
Overturned convictions in England
Court of Appeal (England and Wales) cases
False confessions
Overturned convictions in the United Kingdom