Abuse victim wins murder appeal

Abuse victim wins murder appeal

A young man jailed as a teenager for bludgeoning to death a 75-year-old who had sexually abused him has had his murder conviction quashed.

The man, now 23, was just 17 when he was ordered to be detained at Her Majesty's Pleasure in 1997 at Chelmsford Crown Court.

But Court of Appeal judges heard fresh evidence that he had endured "significantly greater abuse" than he had felt able to reveal at his trial.

Judges replaced his conviction with one of manslaughter and gave him a seven-year jail term.

The man, who comes from the Harwich area of Essex, has already served that time and was freed immediately.

Metal cosh

Lord Justice Rose, sitting with Mr Justice Andrew Smith and Mr Justice Leveson, said the teenager was twice indecently assaulted by the pensioner in late 1996.

In early 1997 he went to the pensioner's home to ask him to stop molesting him, but the pensioner tried once again to touch him.

The teenager hit his victim with a metal cosh, causing fatal injuries.

Lord Justice Rose said that further investigations showed the pensioner had indecently assaulted two other children.

At the teenager's trial, it was accepted that the pensioner had made indecent approaches towards the teenager.

But the jury did not hear the full details of the abuse, and the teenager's lawyers did not run a diminshed responsibility defence.

'Taboo-laden subject'

An application for leave to appeal was refused in 1998.

But the Criminal Cases Review Commission - the government body set up to investigate alleged miscarriages of justice, referred the case back to the Court of Appeal in 2001.

The Commission also ordered a doctor's report which showed the teenager was suffering from a psychiatric condition at the time of the attack.

Lord Justice Rose said the Crown's medical expert agreed with that report.

He added that the teenager had not confided all he had suffered to his lawyers because the subject was so "taboo-laden".

He concluded: "In the light of all those considerations, we have no doubt that the conviction for murder cannot be regarded as safe."