A miscarriage of justice. For both victim and convicted

This is intended for any lawyers who may help but is open to all to read. Those lawyers who remember me I will know that I would not wish to waste your time with nonsense. Those who do not know me I crave your indulgence for a few moments. This is a serious request. I have retired now from legal practice but I am bothered by an old case and appeal to my former colleagues in the profession for help.

 I once acted for a suspect accused of 2 serious violent assaults. His name is Colin Ash-Smith. He was the son of well known local politicians. After some initial hesitation he admitted these offences. The forensic evidence on one of the assaults was compelling and he accepted his guilt on both. But then the investigation spun off into an entirely different direction. He was accused of the murder of young Claire Tiltman. This Colin denied with a vehemence that was wholly different from his manner previously exhibited by him. Whereas before his attitude I would describe as solemn he was almost beyond distress and anger at the suggestion he murdered Claire whom he knew a little and liked. He denied her murder.

The investigation was one of the toughest I have ever dealt with in a police’s station. There were quite offensive mind games attempted against me by senior police. (Called out of the interview by a senior officer who expressed contempt at the way I was fighting so hard for my client, because, after all, I had ‘children of my own’. I replied I was ‘anxious there should not be a miscarriage of justice and the real assailant remaining at large, and ‘would you mind please leave my children out of this’)

Despite the pressures and largely because of the absence of any credible evidence the defendant was not charged with murder.

He was sent to prison for life and whilst serving his time in prison, Ash-Smith allegedly confessed to the killing of Claire to a fellow inmate, it was a dubious confession but this confession was crucial in eventually bringing charges against him. so was the change in the law on the admissibility of prior convictions enabling his two prior convictions to be admitted.

I should emphasise that neither firm or me personally had any involvement in this second trial. At the time I was a little miffed not to have been contacted having already fought off the charge the first time around but that happens sometimes and so I did not act. Now due to retirement it is too late other than to hope those that know me will hopefully know that I am not wasting anyone’s time here.

The trial of CAS for the murder of Claire was regarded by some as perhaps flawed but I am not going to comment here on the conduct of any lawyers involved but invite you to read the account set out in this book ‘Who Really Killed Claire?’

It is authored by Alan Jackaman and published by Waterside Press. ( I have no financial interest in this) .

As the Sun (well known legal journal I know) put it recently ‘RACHEL Nickell’s killer should be investigated over the 1993 murder of a teenager, says the detective who nailed him.

‘Ex-Detective Sergeant Alan Jackaman suspects Robert Napper may have killed Claire Tiltman, 16.’

Alan Jackaman is the officer who brought Napper to conviction for  and is convinced that Napper also killed Tiltman. 

Vincent Wright an investigator has doggedly pursued this issue so convinced is he that the wrong man has been convicted and he has also made a video podcast about the case. 

I have been contacted by Vincent because I previously acted for CAS. But I explained I am now retired and busy volunteering on this and that. I tried to engage a former colleague but on balance as the firm in one iteration or another represented both CAS and Napper it was felt that they were not a good choice for further involvement. I am hosting his summary below.

I have no axe to grind here at all. My motivation is purely because I have a sinking feeling that although CAS is certainly guilty of the crimes he admitted he did not kill Claire. That the evidence points firmly away from him to another. That the DNA issue needs revisiting.The ID evidence is poor. The confession dubious, the forensics even more dubious There are so many questions in this case that it is troubling that it is likely that the wrong man has been convicted of this murder. That the killer not brought to justice, That Claire remains without justice.

I am told that there is likely to be a further documentary of this whole issue, but at the moment there seems to be a legal dead end and because I have retired, I cannot offer any further assistance. Obviously this would be a high-profile case. I hope some lawyer out there out there will have the interest drive integrity and personality to become involved in what may well be a celebrated footnote in legal history. It cannot be right, even for a serving prisoner for that prisoner to remain convicted of a murder he did not commit and for another to be unaccountable.

Below is a summary from the excellent Vincent Wright and I commend you to read it. If you can help, please contact him directly or if you wish replying to me and I will forward it on.

Ends 

Robin Murray.

Robin Murray is a former Solicitor and founder of Robin Murray and Co. He was vice chair of the CLSA during the struggle to save legal aid and client choice. He is a former winner of the Legal Aid Lawyer of the year award, plus a Kent Law Society Outstanding Achievement Award. He has written and broadcasted a little on legal and political matters.

See below. 

A Miscarriage of Justice for victim and convicted. By Vincent Wright.

This report summarises the case of Claire Tiltman, murdered in January 1993, in Greenhithe, Kent.

Twenty one years later, in 2014, Colin Ash-Smith was convicted for her murder.

Below, I set out the key points which indicate why this conviction is a miscarriage of justice, for Ash-Smith obviously but perhaps primarily for Claire Tiltman and her family.

1. For almost three years after Claire’s murder the police did not have a clear suspect.

2. Then, in October 1995, Colin Ash-Smith (CAS) was arrested within hours of attacking Charlotte Barnard just several hundred yards from where Claire was killed. Within a few days of this arrest CAS was also found to be responsible for another attack about three miles away, on Beverley Godfrey, in December 1988. He quickly admitted both attacks. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1996.

3. From this point on CAS became suspect no 1 for the murder of Claire Tiltman. Prior to his arrest he was not known to police. He was not even on their ‘radar’ as a possible suspect for the murder of Claire.

4. The conviction of CAS is unsafe because:

1. There is no forensic evidence.zero forensic evidence.
2. There is zero witness evidence to place him at or near the scene.
3. His alibi has not been discredited. 

5. Also, there is a much stronger candidate for this act of murder. A man called Robert Napper. In the year leading up to Summer 1992 he was found to be the Green Chain Rapist of south east London. Then, in July 1992, he murdered Rachel Nickell on Wimbledon Common. In November 1993 he murdered mother & child Samantha & Jasmine Bisset in Plumstead.

The convictions for the above crimes were in 1995 for the Bisset murders & the Green Chain Rapes but it wasn’t until 2008 that Napper was convicted for Rachel Nickell’s murder. Napper was only known as a low level offender in the early nineties. 

In 1994, after Napper’s arrest for the Bisset murders the Kent Police did run checks on his name. They thought he was in prison at the time of Claire’s murder. In fact Napper had been released early from a short custodial sentence for relatively minor crimes. He was freed at Christmas 1992, about three weeks before Claire was killed.

6. Witnesses in the area at the time of Claire’s murder provide descriptions of a suspect in ten different locations … all following, or in close proximity to, Claire on her last walk. Similarly, there are nine sightings of Claire. The ninth is as she flees from the alley, mortally wounded and dies on the pavement.

7. Re the sightings of this suspect the following clothes and physical attributes are described by the witnesses:

1. A beige/yellowish jacket, with hip pockets & slanting side pockets, anorak style, hip length.
2. Jeans, light coloured.
3. White training boots – not training shoes. (The significance of which will be revealed later in this document at para 14 below.)
4. A noticeably stooping posture.
5. A loping gait or limping style of walk.
6. Baby faced features (in 1993.)
7. Strange facial expressions, laughing & talking to himself.

8. None of the above features or clothing summarised in a paragraph 7 above describe Colin Ash-Smith.

9. Napper is known for the following physical attributes:

1. A loping gait.
2. A pronounced stoop.
3. Baby faced features (in 1993).
4. Facial ticks or expressions. Laughing & talking to himself.
5. Thus many of the witnesses referred to in paragraph 7 about describe features similar to Napper but not at all similar to Colin Ash- Smith.

10. Napper also had a beige/yellowish hip length jacket with hip pockets and slanting side pockets. Napper had just purchased (a few weeks before Claire’s death) a pair of white training boots – not training shoes. At the Bisset murder scene the bloody imprints of these boots helped to convict him.

11. Two of the closest witnesses to Claire’s murder, just yards from the alley, gave descriptions of a suspect but when they attended identity parades after the arrest of CAS neither were able to pick him out.

12. The original forensic pathologist, Dr Michael Heath, was asked by Kent police, after the arrest of CAS, to examine the two women he did admit attacking in 1988 & 1995. He was briefed by police that the man responsible for these two attacks had just been arrested and that he was admitting to them. He was now being questioned as a suspect for the murder of Claire. One of the women was able to confirm CAS was left handed. They wanted Dr Heath to identify any possible connections in the physical nature of the attacks. 

Lo and behold, after his examination he wrote a new report. In this he clearly states that Claire was attacked by a left handed assailant. Just 8 -10 % of the population are left handed. Now, everyone involved in the investigation are convinced that CAS is guilty.

13. The attacks CAS admitted were no doubt frightening for the victims. But they were not in the same league as the violence inflicted upon Claire. She died within seconds. According to Surgeon Biswas the injuries on Charlotte Barnard were ‘superficial’, none life threatening and she was discharged from hospital the next day. Beverley Godfrey described her own stabs as ‘push’ wounds, not stabs. Both Claire Tiltman & Rachel Nickell had hilt marks on their bodies such was the brutality shown by their attacker. Their wounds were deep, hilt deep. The very opposite of superficial. Why would an assailant vary the degree of violence inflicted to such a remarkable extent?   Again, this points to an entirely different assailant.

14. In 2012, the BBC filmed the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) as they prepared a case for trial against CAS. It would be an episode in a series called ‘The Prosecutors.’ Unwittingly, they caught on film a senior lawyer from the CPS telling colleagues that he would exclude the witness Lee Delguidice from their case. Delguidice, a twelve year old out with two friends, gave a clear and certain statement about a suspect leaving the area, going straight past them. These were sightings 9 & 10. This was the suspect wearing white training boots – not training shoes. There is no evidence that CAS owned white training boots. 

15. Lee Delgiudice is a vital witness.  His account undermined a main thrust of the prosecution’s case. The police & CPS had formed an unshakeable belief that their suspect, CAS, who they name on camera, did not go the way Delguidice reported but took a completely opposite route in order to get back to his car. This is simply an act of imagination by the CPS. There are no witnesses to support it. It is a speculation at its most highest level. Yet, they dismiss this crucial witness observation. It’s an astounding omission. It’s so plainly wrong that it is deeply troubling and calls into question the integrity 

16. We have timed the routes taken by Claire. We can prove that it was not possible for Claire to be near the Corner Shop or Esso Garage as the police suggest… unless she ran the whole way up and down the hill. She did not run. All sightings of Claire say she was walking normally. She left her home just after 6 pm. The first ambulance call was recorded at 6:23 pm.

17. There is much more detail which underpins our assertion that the conviction of CAS is a miscarriage of justice. There are important missing exhibits, a blood pattern and wound pattern that indicate a right handed attack, not left handed. There is also an outstanding DNA sample from Claire’s jacket. DNA technology has come on immeasurably since 1993. It needs re submitting.

18. Two years ago I submitted a complaint to the General Medical Council regarding Dr Heath’s ‘updated’ report. They rejected it almost immediately. I appealed. I won the appeal. It went to a review. An assistant registrar agreed with me. She recommended an inquiry. Our hopes were raised. Then, a few months ago, I was informed that the Registrar over ruled her recommendation simply on the grounds that it had happened outside of their 5 year limit for considering such complaints. This is a limit which can be extended if circumstances demand. Clearly, they don’t consider the murder of a 16 year schoolgirl as serious enough. By the way, in 2009, Dr Heath was removed from the Home Office register of Forensic Pathologists for other ‘anomalies.’ He was investigated as far back as 1996. He is discredited.

19. Finally … I have all the case paperwork from the Defence. Many thousands of pages of witness statements, forensic, scientific and Post mortem reports. Colin Ash-Smith is a difficult person to support on account of his previous two attacks. But, as I have said many times … this is mainly about justice for Claire Tiltman. Whatever we think of CAS it is not right that he should be convicted of another man’s crime. His family have suffered greatly because of it.

In May we published a book about the case. ‘Who Really Killed Claire?’

It is authored by Alan Jackaman and published by Waterside Press. Open this link …

www.watersidepress.co.uk/books/jackaman-who-really-killed-claire-tiltman/ 

I have also made a video podcast about the case. Available to view on youtube here…

The situation today … Colin Ash-Smith is in HMP Frankland. He currently has no legal representation. In 2017 the CCRC dismissed his last appeal and he is unable to access further legal aid. The prison authorities only let him read our book a few weeks ago. Much of the content was entirely new to him. He has written an 8 page letter which he wanted to send to myself & Alan Jackaman. The prison censors have confiscated that letter and he has been told he cannot contact the media. Without legal representation he is in eternal limbo… and Claire Tiltman remains ill served by justice.

Thank you for reading this.

Vincent Wright. ( vinwright63@hotmail.co.uk )