VULNERABLE: Oliver Campbell, who has learning difficulties, made the disputed confessions after his lawyer had left the station
There was no forensic evidence linking him to the scene and, standing at six foot three inches, he is considerably taller than the pair of robbers who witnesses saw fleeing the shop. He is scathing about police questioning tactics: “The police put you in a room, only one way out, and throw questions at you. And before you can answer that question, they are throwing another question. I thought to myself, ‘They’re trying to stitch me up.
His co-accused, Mr Samuel, admitted to being involved in the robbery and identified the real killer to the police, insisting that Mr Campbell had nothing to do with the murder. The jury was never told this as it was judged as “hearsay”.His lawyer Glyn Maddocks, KC, recalls a prison officer’s remark about Mr Campbell when he first arrived to meet his client.
“It shows the many inadequacies of the criminal justice system. And hence he did ten years in prison for something that he wasn’t capable of doing.” All the admissions relied on by the prosecution were made in the absence of a solicitor and some without an appropriate adult. Mr Campbell’s supporters insist he is a trusting, caring man with a sense of humour who happens to have severe learning difficulties which has left him open to people taking advantage of his good nature and his suggestibility.
It said the “full extent of his vulnerabilities was not properly understood”, meaning Mr Campbell’s admission may not constitute reliable evidence and there was therefore a real possibility that the Court of Appeal will conclude that Mr Campbell’s admissions are unreliable and that ultimately his conviction is unsafe.”
“Hard physical evidence should always trump any confession, or any hearsay, or any statements of any sort. If you’ve got ten people who swear blind that it was a Black person who committed the crime but there is actual physical evidence that it wasn’t a Black person who committed the crime, then the hard physical evidence has got to take precedence.
Terrible treatment of a vulnerable person - law is stupid and it’s procedures inconsistent in implementation - corrupt and racist policing
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Source: ShropshireStar - 🏆 98. / 51 Read more »