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May

Malice Afore-thought

Written by Satish Sekar

Continuing Injustice
Michael Stone has not had a fair trial and it should have been obvious that he could not have one. He was convicted at his first trial in October 1998 by majority verdict of the murders of Dr Lin Russell and her daughter Megan as well as the attempted murder of her elder daughter Josie. Stone has an extensive criminal record, including an attack with a hammer and mental health problems too.

The appalling attack on the Russell family occurred on July 9th 1996. Stone was arrested a year later and was sentenced to life imprisonment by Mr Justice (Sir Ian) Kennedy. An appeal succeeded in February 2001, but a retrial was ordered before Mr Justice (Sir David) Poole. It began in Nottingham in September 2001, ending in conviction again by majority verdict on October 4th.

In February 2004 new lawyers asked Mr Justice (Sir Colman) Treacy if Stone could appeal the convictions because the 'inherent unreliability' of the prosecution's star witness, Damien Daley, had prejudiced Stone's right to a fair trial. Permission was granted, but in January 2005, the Court of Appeal, headed by the then Vice-President of the Court of Criminal Appeal, Lord Justice (Sir Christopher) Rose, sitting with then Mr Justices (Sir Alan) Moses and (Sir Robert) Walker dismissed the appeal in controversial circumstances.

Inherently Unreliable
A fair trial always was impossible for Stone, because the crimes were notorious and facts in the public domain made fabricating a cell-confession simple, and the quality of evidence against him was pathetic. Stone had been convicted previously on the word of three prison informers who claimed he had confessed to them at his first trial. Barry Thompson had retracted and Mark Jennings had been rewarded for his evidence by a newspaper, leaving the prosecution dependent on the testimony of Damien Daley, a habitual self-confessed liar, criminal and heroin addict.

“I lie to get by in life,” Daley said. “I'm a crook. That's what crooks do.” However, despite the numerous lies, he denied lying about Stone's alleged confession. Nigel Sweeney QC admitted that the prosecution had to prove that Daley was telling the truth, but how could that be achieved? Tests in the cell area established that Daley could have heard a conversation through the heating pipe between the adjoining cells. The jury experienced it as well.

So what. It did not prove that Stone had said the incriminating words that Daley claimed he had. Daley claimed that it would have been like winning the lottery for him to have been able to invent what Stone had allegedly said, but there was nothing in Daley's statement, which was made three days after the alleged confession, that could not already have been gleaned from press coverage and police knowledge of the crime, or questions put to Daley by investigating officers.

Daley had won the lottery by being believed again without a shred of corroborating evidence. Police contact with Daley was not tape-recorded – a safeguard that would have protected the integrity of such evidence. Sadly, it was not required then.

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