Appeal starts after 1975 murder

A convicted killer who has spent 26 years protesting his innocence was suffering from a mental disorder during his trial, the Court of Appeal has heard.

Frank Johnson, 66, always maintained he did not murder shopkeeper Jack Sheridan by setting him on fire in east London on 3 February, 1975.

He is urging three judges to find his conviction "unsafe".

On Tuesday, his barrister Edward Fitzgerald QC, told the court, sitting in London: "The appellant was unable to participate effectively in his trial by reason of his mental state."

Psychiatric evidence

He submitted Johnson was "suffering from a significant mental disorder at the time of trial" in 1976.

Mr Fitzgerald told Lord Justice Longmore, Mr Justice Wright and Sir Richard Rougier the "key issues in our submission are likely to be at what stage did the psychosis develop" and "what the legal consequences of that are".

Whenever the psychosis developed, Mr Fitzgerald said, it was sufficiently present to "handicap him at crucial stages of the trial".

The judges are expected to consider new evidence that, if disclosed, might have prevented Johnson from facing trial.

It is understood the material before the judges includes a statement taken from Jack Sheridan shortly before he died in which he dismissed suggestions Johnson was involved in the attack.

Mr Sheridan, 60, died three weeks after being attacked in his shop in Whitechapel.

'Unsafe verdict'

Johnson was convicted of murder in September 1976. His two co-accused have since been released.

Professor Michael Kopelman, a consultant neuro-psychiatrist at St Thomas's Hospital, told the court he was "confident" Johnson did have paranoid psychosis during his trial.

Mr Fitzgerald said: "The end product of a trial in which the defendant was disabled by mental disorder, at least during very significant phases of the trial, is not a safe verdict.

"On that basis we submit that it should be quashed."

The hearing continues.