Doubt over murder trial evidence

Thomas TC Campbell was convicted of the murders

An expert witness has called into question evidence given by police at the trial of two men jailed for life for murdering six people.

Professor Brian Clifford, from the University of East London, said the recollection of officers in the "ice cream wars" case was too exact.

He was speaking on Tuesday at the appeal hearing into the case of Thomas TC Campbell and Joe Steele.

They were jailed 20 years ago for the murders in Glasgow's east end.

The pair have tried to appeal their conviction in the past.

This latest hearing was allowed after the case was reviewed by the newly-created Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission.

Not one of the participants even came close to the recordability achieved by the police officers in the case under review Prof Brian Clifford

Prof Clifford, who is a professor of cognitive psychology, told the Appeal Court in Edinburgh that "the reliability of the officers' evidence must be called into doubt, into question".

He was referring to a 24-word statement, allegedly uttered by Campbell, written in the notebooks of four police officers at the time.

The statement included the phrase "There was a fire at Fat Boy's" and ended with the words: "It was only meant to be a frightener, which went too far."

It was written in the notebooks of all four officers with a high degree of similarity, the appeal court heard.

Prof Clifford said there was serious doubt surrounding the possibility that all the officers would have been able to recall that particular sentence in such an identical manner.

The expert, who specialises in memory and psycholinguistics, was asked to carry out a study in 2001 into a number of statements relating to the case by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission.

Perfect memory

Prof Clifford carried out two studies, one in Scotland and one in England, using 131 participants in total.

He tested their immediate ability to recall verbatim a phrase which they had just heard.

The study found that those people were, on average, able to recall verbatim between 30% and 40% of the words they heard.

Even the highest-scoring participant was only able to recall 17 out of the 24 words accurately.

Fourteen police officers were also included in the Scottish survey and the results showed that their ability to recall phrases was not significantly different from that of the other participants.

Joe Steele says he is innocent

Nobody was able to remember 100% of the words they heard, the professor added.

On this basis, the professor concluded in his survey, it was "improbable" that the police officers would have been able to record Campbell's statement in such an identical manner.

Under questioning by Graham Bell QC, who is representing Campbell, Prof Clifford said his studies "strongly suggested that it was not at all likely" that the four officers would be able to note the statement "in such similar terms".

His study also showed that it was unlikely the officers would be able to obtain such similar recall in the absence of any comparison or collaboration between them, the court heard.

Prof Clifford said: "Not one of the participants even came close to the recordability achieved by the police officers in the case under review."

Campbell and Steele were convicted of the murder of six members of the Doyle family, including an 18-month-old baby, in a fire which swept through a flat in Ruchazie, Glasgow, in April 1984.

After a 28-day trial, which heard the killings took place against a background of a battle for control of the ice cream business, they were convicted of the murder of the family and jailed for life.

The turf war was said to be connected with a lucrative trade, distributing drugs on various routes in Glasgow.