Mark Barnsley

The Pomona Incident

On the morning of the 8th of June 1994 Mark Barnsley a 33 year old writer, could not have been happier. He had become the father of a third daughter only 6 weeks earlier, his career was going well, and he would shortly be going on holiday to the Lake District with his young family. After working for a few hours on books he had recently been commissioned to write, he invited a family friend, Jane Leathborough, to call in and see the baby. His partner, Samantha, had to go out for an hour or so, and before leaving suggested that, as it was a bright, sunny day, Mark and Jane might take the baby, Daisy, for a walk and perhaps stop for a drink. It seemed like a good idea, but little did Mark Barnsley know that within an hour his life would be changed forever, and that he was about to be caught up in a nightmare that continues to this day.

At round 3.30pm that day a number of police patrols were alerted to a disturbance at 'The Pomona' public house in Sheffield. When they arrived at the scene they found that 5 university students had received serious injuries. The headlines of the local newspaper, 'The Star', the following day read: "Five stabbed for poking fun at girlfriend. Knifeman slashes students at pub."

When Mark Barnsley was subsequently arrested for what had quickly become known as "The Pomona pub stabbings", and charged with 5 counts of "wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, contrary to section 18 of the Offences Against the Person Act" there was total surprise from everyone who knew him. Friends, neighbours, and colleagues expressed complete disbelief.

Mark Barnsley has absolutely no history of violent or aggressive behaviour, quite the opposite, he was described as a kind and caring man by all who knew him. Nor has he ever suffered from any form of mental illness, indeed in the words of a psychiatrist: "He seems to have always enjoyed a very stable, mature, responsible, and pleasant personality." Yet the Prosecution case was that he 'took on' a group of some 15 people who he had never seen before, deliberately inflicting knife wounds on five of them , because he took exception to an innocent remark , made in Barnsley's absence, by one of the group, (who was not injured at all), about the sunglasses being worn by Jane Leathborough.

More than a year later, during which he was remanded in custody, and after a trial which lasted nearly 3 weeks, Mark Barnsley was acquitted of 3 of the 5 offences with which he had been charged, but convicted on 2 counts. He was also convicted of 3 lesser alternative offences, (unlawful wounding), with which he was never charged.

After waiting a further 5.1/2 months Mark Barnsley received sentences of 12 years concurrent on each of the section 18 convictions, and 5 years concurrent for each of the 3 lesser offences. The Pomona case has been characterised throughout by lies, perjury, the with-holding and 'planting' of evidence, and a biased and highly inaccurate local press campaign. The FACTS are very different. Anyone who bothers to look further than the lurid and sensationalist headlines can surely reach no other conclusion that Mark Barnsley is the victim of a gross miscarriage of justice.

25 FACTS.
1. Mark Barnsley was sober at the time of the attack upon him. The students on the other hand, were not only drunk but a number of them had taken drugs.

2. Mark Barnsley was outnumbered by his attackers by as many as 15 to 1.

3. Bizarrely, the defence case is supported by every single independent prosecution witness, and every single detail of the defence case is supported in each instance by at least two student witnesses.

4. One of the students "Big" Simpson, who is 6ft 51/2 in.tall, and who said, "I'd like to f- - k your baby", has a conviction for making obscene telephone calls.

5. Although there were sixty witnesses to the incident, not one of them claimed to have seen Mark Barnsley stab or threaten anyone with a knife.

6. Not one single witness saw Mark Barnsley produce a knife.

7. The first person to be injured with a weapon (a bottle or heavy glass), was Mark Barnsley who was struck over the head from behind.

8. The first person to be cut with a knife was Mark Barnsley.

9. During the attack upon him Mark Barnsley sustained a large number of
substantial injuries, including a 3cm. Long head wound caused by a bottle or heavy glass, a broken nose, a 3cm. Cut over the left eye, broken and damaged teeth, a knife wound to his hand, one or more broken ribs and in fact injuries covering his entire body area.

10. From the very first moment of the attack upon him Mark Barnsley was clearly trying to escape the violence (he did not even retaliate), but he was pursued around 150yds. By a large mob of attackers who were punching and kicking him the whole time. He was actually knocked to the ground on at least three occasions, and even then the students continued to assault him.

11. Contrary to ill-informed reports in the Press, Paul Shepherd, who led the attack on Mark Barnsley, did not chase after him to "make a citizens arrest". Shepherd dismissed this idea himself when giving evidence; Saying that he would not know how to make one. He went on to say , "I have no idea why I chased after him, whether from frustration or for a laugh. I just went after him".

12. In his Police Statement, Paul Shepherd said of his own behaviour, "I must admit I went apeshit ."

13. At least three students involved in the Pomona Incident (friends of the others, who are named in a number of police statements), fled the scene prior to the arrival of the Police (within minutes), and despite numerous applications by the Defence, the Police say they are unable to locate them.

14. During the trial every single student witness gave contradictory evidence. In contrast to the testimony of all the defence witnesses, which was entirely consistent, as was the testimony of all the independent prosecution witnesses (which supported the Defence ).

15. Four of the five main prosecution witnesses clearly committed perjury whilst giving evidence. This was acknowledged by the judge, but kept from the jury, and no legal action has ever been taken against them.

16. All of the student witnesses admitted discussing the incident with others prior to making statements and before giving evidence. Many of them were forced to concede under cross-examination that they had described events that they had not actually seen, and that they had been influenced by gossip, the media, and even by the police.

17. Despite evidence from an independent expert that there was enough evidence to prosecute four of the five main prosecution witnesses for drug use, no action has ever been taken against them. The evidence of this expert was not disclosed to the Jury.

18. As in the case of many miscarriages of justice, the Prosecution with-held a great deal of evidence from the Defence prior to the trial, and they are continuing to with-hold it even to this day.

19. There is already evidence from an independent witness, a microwave engineer who arrived in the car-park of The Pomona at the time Mark Barnsley was being attacked, that the two offences of wounding with intent that Mark Barnsley was actually convicted of, could not have happened in the way the jury were led to believe by the Prosecution. According to this witness, at the time the first of these students, Mark Thomas, was injured, Mark Barnsley was actually on the ground. Prior to being injured, the second student, Darren Thursfield, was seen chasing Mark Barnsley across the car-park shouting, "Come back here you f- - -ing bastard" .According to Thursfield's evidence in court, he had merely approached Mark Barnsley saying, "There's no need for any trouble."

20. At the time he was chasing Mark Barnsley across the car-park (see above) Darren Thursfield was seen by an independent witness (a building worker on a site over-looking the car-park) to be carrying a glass. His injury was a 3cm.long, 2cm.deep, cut to his stomach. The Prosecution told the jury that this was a stab wound, but this is contradicted by other medical evidence. The shape of the wound also indicates that rather than being caused by a knife, it could have been caused by a glass.

21. According to a forensic report that was not submitted to the court, all the wounds sustained by the students would have required only minimum to moderate force to cause them. This totally supports Mark Barnsley's assertion that the injuries of the students were caused without intent (after he had disarmed one of them) during the sustained attack on him by a large number of people.

22. Despite the circumstances Mark has always expressed regret at the injuries sustained by the students. For their part though, the students, even in the face of overwhelming evidence, much of it from their friends and fellow students, have never admitted causing any of the injuries clearly sustained by Mark Barnsley (see 9 above) Only Shepherd admitted assaulting him at all. Simpson, for example, faced with irrefutable evidence that he had punched Mark Barnsley in the face, knocked him to the ground and jumped on top of him continually assaulting him, said that he had merely lost his footing and slipped on top of Barnsley. Like the others, he pleaded loss of memory to explain away his other actions, while still denying that he was the least bit drunk or under the influence of drugs.

23. Despite being acquitted on three of the five charges against him, and importantly on count 1, which indicates that the jury accepted that he did not instigate the violence, and that the knife belonged to one of the students, Mark Barnsley received a prison sentence of twelve years. This is so high as to be practically unknown for this type of offence. Even in cases of manslaughter, where the knife is deliberately carried and used to kill, the established tariff is four to seven years.

24. On the same day, (April 1st 1996) that Mark Barnsley was denied leave to appeal against his convictions, three students involved in separate attacks upon two men (one a disabled man who later died ) were convicted of two counts of wounding with intent (the same as Mark Barnsley ) as well as other offences , and sentenced to between 18 months and 2 years. Like the Pomona students they had been "celebrating their exams"

25. Mark Barnsley currently has an application before the European Court which lists more than seventy three violations of Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights (Right to a fair trial).

For more information on the case of Mark Barnsley and offers to help the campaign please write to:

Justice for Mark Barnsley, Press Office, 145-9 Cardigan Road, Leeds, LS6 1LJ. UK.

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