Michael Mansfield QC  

Called to the Bar in 1967 Michael Mansfield has a BA Hons. degree in History and Philosophy from Keele University before turning to law. He soon earned the respect of colleagues, mounting vigorous defences for clients. He made his name in the Angry Brigade trial in the early 1970s before establishing Tooks Court Chambers in 1984. He took silk (became a Queen’s Counsel) in 1989. 

Mansfield has never shied away from controversial cases, especially where civil liberties are at stake. He has been involved in high profile cases such as Barry George – wrongly convicted of the murder of television presenter Jill Dando. He has also represented the families of victims of the Bloody Sunday shootings at the inquiry into those deaths and the family of Jean Charles de Menezes the entirely innocent Brasilian electrician shot dead by police in 2005.  

At inquests he represented the families of Tom Hurndall and James Miller – journalists murdered by the Israeli army. He also represented the families of the Omagh, Lockerbie and Dublin bombings. The relatives of victims of the Marchioness disaster and families of the victims of the New Cross Fire were his clients. Mansfield represented striking miners at Orgreave and also the Newham Seven and Bradford Twelve – victims of racist attacks who defended themselves. 

Miscarriage of Justice Cases: 

Mansfield has a magnificent track record in such cases. Mahmood Mattan was the last man to be executed in Cardiff. He was innocent, but hanged in 1952 for the murder of Lily Volpert. Forty-six years later Mansfield helped to clear his name on appeal. He was involved in the successful appeals of the Birmingham Six, Judith Ward, Annette Hewins, Harry Mackenny, M25 Three, Newsagent’s Three and Bridgewater Four. 

Stephen Miller, one of the Cardiff Three was represented by Mansfield at his successful appeal in 1992. It later became the first case of vindication in Britain when the real killer Jeffrey Gafoor pleaded guilty in 2003 to the murder of Lynette White, which occurred fifteen years earlier. Had Mansfield represented Miller at trial one of Britain’s most notorious miscarriages of justice may have been avoided. 

Publications and Societies: 

Michael Mansfield has written extensively in all major broadsheets and law journals and he has appeared in several documentaries. His books Presumed Guilty and the most recent Memoirs of a Radical Lawyer have been critically acclaimed. He is the President of Amicus, Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers and National Civil Rights Movement. He fully supports the work of the Fitted-In Project.

Gareth Peirce – Solicitor specialising in defence work. She has represented too many victims of miscarriages of justice to list them all.

Edward FitzGerald QC.  - Specialising in criminal defence work he has corrected several miscarriages of justice. He represented Darren Hall (Newsagent's Three) and secured an acknowledgment from a then Mr. Justice (Sir Andrew) Collins that Timothy Evans - hanged for the murder of his baby daughter in 1950 - was innocent. Tony Poole and several others were represented by the award-winning QC.
Jonathan Jones – Victim of miscarriage of justice (3 years).

Cherly Jones – Jonathan’s wife and daughter of murder victims.

David Michael – Former Detective Chief Inspector and Founder of the Metropolitan Police’s Black Police Association.

Nogah Ofer – Solicitor specialising in compensation and accountability. Clients include Michael O'Brien and 4 of the Cardiff Five.

Michael O’Brien – Victim of miscarriage of justice (11 years).

Bob Woffinden – Author specialising in miscarriages of justice.

Steven Bird – Solicitor specialising in criminal defence. Clients include Neil Sayers.

Paul Blackburn – Victim of miscarriage of justice (25 years).

Stuart Hutton – Solicitor specialising in criminal defence. He has represented several victims of proven miscarriages of justice, including Jonathan Jones and John Actie (Cardiff Five) among others.

Raju Bhatt – Solicitor specialising in compensation and accountability. He has represented many families over inquests. He assisted Gary Mills and Tony Poole to judicially review the decision of the Criminal Cases Review Commission not to refer their convictions back to the Court of Appeal. Then Lord Chief Justice, Lord Woolf, thought that ‘almost every aspect of the prosecution was tarnished.’ The convictions were quashed on appeal in 2003.

Duncan Campbell - Former Guardian reporter who has written extensively on miscarriages of justice that were subsequently proven.

Michelle Diskin – Sister of Barry George, the victim of a terrible miscarriage of justice.

Satish Sekar
Satish began working on justice issues in 1990. His greatest success is the incredible case of the Cardiff Five (Yusef Abdullahi, Stephen Miller, Tony Paris and the cousins John and Ronnie Acrie). His work contributed to the successful appeal. He then persuaded the authorities to look for the real killer, along with Lynette’s mother Peggy Pesticcio. His book (see below) had a great impact when it was published in 1998. 

 
The case continued to make history as the real murderer Jeffrey Gaffoor was caught and punished – the first time a miscarriage of justice had been resolved in Britain by the conviction of the real murderer. Witnesses have been jailed for perjury and thirteen serving or retired police officers face trial for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice in 2011.

 
Satish has worked on several other successful cases. These include the Tamil Two (Samuel Kulsaingham and Premaraj Sivalingham), Raphael Rowe and Michael Davis of the M25 Three, Gary Mills and Tony Poole and the Taylor Sisters (Michelle and Lisa).

Expertise:

• Consultancy on forensic science issues in case of Neil Sayers for Steven Bird –funding was approved by Legal Services Commission.
• Recommendations included ground breaking experiments to prove whether maggots could have survived the fire. Legal aid was granted for these experiments to be conducted. The experiments were conducted successfully in Valencia in 2009. Recommendations also included further research on forensic pathology and DNA to be conducted by renowned experts in2010.
• DNA, including data-basing
• Forensic Pathology
• Fire Issues

Current Forensic Science Research:

• Revolutionary techniques in artificially controlled fire reconstruction and forensic botany.

Books:  

Fitted In: The Cardiff 3 and the Lynette White Inquiry published independently by the Fitted-In-Project in July 1998.

This book was reviewed extensively, including in The Times Literary Supplement, among many others. It has helped to make legal history in Britain several times. Within a year of publication it resulted in the Lynette White being actively re-opened by a new unit established to resolve unsolved and unresolved homicides.

In July 2003 the real murderer, Jeffrey Gafoor pleaded guilty to Lynette’s murder. This was the first time in British history that a miscarriage of justice was resolved by the conviction of the truly guilty. It resulted in the only investigation of possible criminal conduct in a miscarriage of justice anywhere in the world. In December 2008 three original witnesses were jailed for eighteen months and in 2009 fifteen people, including thirteen former and serving police officers were charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. The trial will begin in the spring of 2011.

The Criminal Cases Review Commission – Hope for the Innocent? edited by Michael Naughton. Chapter 6: The Failure of the Review of the Possible Wrongful Convictions Caused by Michael Heath. The unabridged version is published by the Fitted-In Project as Next Time the Fire at www.fittedin.com  

Beyond Doubt to be published in February 2011
Vindication to be published in 2011
Journalism, Consultancy and Lecturing:

Satish has worked in television, film and radio, including In the Name of the Father, BBC1’s Panorama and Channel Four’s Trial And Error. His on camera appearances include BBC2’s Black Ink and Channel 4 News. His work on radio consists of Radio 4’s Beyond Reasonable Doubt (Series), You And Yours, Today, Law In Action, among others.  Print media work includes articles for The Guardian, The Independent, The Daily Telegraph, The Express, Private Eye, The Western Mail, The Guardian Online and The Times Online.  

He is the Founder and chief feature writer of the Fitted-In Project and also Empower-Sport Magazine.1 Satish is the Director of the Fitted-In Project and also Empower-Sport Ltd. both of which are not for profit companies limited by guarantee. Satish has also guest lectured at Lincoln University, Nottingham Trent University and Portsmouth University. Clients of his consultancy work includes Ken Livingstone (then Mayor of London) on police reform, police complaints mechanisms and DNA data-basing, the renowned solicitors Gareth Peirce and Steven Bird. He also worked for Birnberg Peirce and Magrath & Co. on the case of the Newsagent’s Three (Michael O’Brien, Ellis Sherwood and Darren Hall).

Research and Interests:

Satish has researched several miscarriage of justice cases. These include the Cardiff Five, Gary Mills and Tony Poole, the Newsagent’s Three and currently the extraordinary case of Neil Sayers.2 He has also researched issues of aftercare for victims of miscarriage of justice, an ignored failing in the tariff system, the use of sport in aftercare and also crime prevention.

He has a wide range of interests that include: history, current affairs, travel, films, reading, writing (fiction), football, cricket, forensic science and legal issues.