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Robert Brown - to Court of Appeal - 13th November 2002 Robert Brown 895839 True Confessions This is my true confession, not a prisoners poetic quip I was abused and humiliated by what seemed like a posse of men One said sign a statement son or continue this little caper Robert Brown an Innocent Man Sorry folk for leaving it so long, there has been development in relation to Robert's appeal date, Robert Browns' Appeal will be heard on the 13th November, at the Royal Court of Appeal, 10.30 am in Court 5, Fleet St. It would seem they have speeded up a date, we could see this as a positive move, but after what happened at this bail hearing we can't count on it. We have to in the mantra of Paddy Hill, "prepare for the worst, hope for the best and take what comes". We are still trying to get Robert extended home leave, he has now been declassified to a D-cat prisoner, and will soon be moving to Kirkham in Lancashire. However even though they have stated that after a fortnight he will be allowed out to Blackpool or Stockport for two days a week. Which is of no use to Robert as all he wants is to be with his mum. The Home Office seem incapable of joined up thinking when it comes to doing the right thing in helping Robert re-integrate back into society. His mother is dying and they want him to go to the Pleasure Beach. As my 12 year old daughter would say 'get real'. So if everyone could have a push ahead on the petitions as we are still going ahead with them. However about his appeal what is concerning us is the use of Public Interest Immunity orders (P.I.I.'s) that have been placed in two crucial parts of evidence. P.I.I.'s are used to prevent the disclosure of evidence and are, according to the Home Office " served by attaching a conditional immunity from disclosure, known as "PII", to certain documents or information whose disclosure or use in evidence might be damaging to the public interest, These documents can be government material, or they can belong to a non-government body such as a police force " In Robert Brown's case they have already put P.I.I.'s on the internal investigation into D.I. Jack Butler, which will be used to protect D.I. Jack Butler (see attachments), and that he had been under investigation from 1975 up until he was convicted in 1983. What is even more worrying is the P.I.I. Order that has been put on the report written by Detective Superintendent Bethell, who was in charge of the investigation, on the original suspect, Robert Hill. The C.C.R.C. Have uncovered evidence that D.S. Bethell rewrote the report that Christopher Handoll, the forensic scientist at the Home office forensic science laboratory at Chorley, had made in relation to Mr. Robert Hill. The original report, by Handoll, had read that " one green acrylic fibre recovered from the surface of the coat (exhibit RCW3 recovered from Annie Walsh at the crime scene) was found to agree in colour and microscopic detail with fibres constituting the green jersey (exhibit PDR4 Robert Hill's jersey). The presence of this green acrylic fibre on the coat belonging to Annie Walsh could be due to a previous contact between this coat and the green jersey. However it could be a chance occurrence and I do not consider it alone to be strong indication of an association between Annie Walsh and Robert Hill" Mr. Handoll however had no knowledge to the fact that Robert Hill had been positively identified in a Police line up by Mrs. Margaret Jones, a neighbour of Annie Walsh, within two month of the murder, and that he fitted the description of a rough looking 20/30 year old man who had been seen with Annie Walsh just hours before her murder, Robert Hill was 37. Why then did D.S. Bethell's report in relation to the forensic evidence of Robert Hill write " all clothing traced to (Mr. Hill's) possession was forensically examined. Nothing of value was found except one fibre found on the deceased was similar to fibres found on a pullover of Hill's. This fibre did not help the case against Hill, as it is of common use. Hill was eliminated from the enquiry". According to the C.C.R.C. Report "Nowhere does Mr. Handoll state that the fibre was of common use. He also describes the fibre as being closer match than merely "similar" as related by Mr. Bethell". This evidence will be suppressed on the 13th November by the Crown and sanctioned by the appeal court judges. Just for the record Annie Walsh was murdered on Jan. 1977 Robert Hill was questioned in Mar. 1977 Christopher Handoll wrote his report in April 1977 Robert Brown confessed? In May 1977 D.S Bethell wrote his report in June 1977 Robert Brown was convicted in Oct.1977 It would seem they knew they had made a mistake even before Robert Brown went to court, 25 years on Robert Brown 45, is still fighting for justice. What is seriously worrying is how the appeal court is covering up the corruption of the perpetrators of miscarriages of justice by refusing all the evidence coming out in court. By either stopping the appeals halfway through and upholding the appeal on technicalities, or refusing the evidence to be disclosed (P.I.I. orders). Two recent cases where those of Stephen Downing (Jan 2002) and Frank Johnson (July 2002), both served 27 years each, the former was released because the Police broke procedure whilst taking his statement, the latter because he was suffering from paranoid psychosis and therefore was unfit to stand trial. Both these appeals where stopped into the second day, in Downing cases what never came out was a whole succession of corruption and collusion, catalogued by Don Hale in his excellent book a "Town Without Pity'. In Frank Johnson's case what those bastions of justice at the appeal court managed to cover up, by stopping the appeal early, was evidence showing that the victim, Jack Sheridan, who Frank was convicted of murdering, had lived for almost two weeks, and had made three statements to the Police. Statements that the Police had denied for 20 years had existed, until uncovered by the caseworker at the Criminal Case Review Commission, and in each statement Jack Sheridan had reiterated that Frank Johnson had nothing to do with the attack. "Who then to blame for all these miscarriages of justice that is a question I put to you the public? If our leading role models go unfurnished for their crimes its no wonder our social structure is falling apart around us, when the administrators of law have no integrity, when we as a society, are being whipped to death by a one sided morality". Robert Brown "Quis custodes ipsos custodiet? Who will guard the guards? Police the Police, Prosecute the prosecution, Judge the judges When an administration becomes an establishment such as this, it becomes a law unto itself. It will always close ranks and defend itself as a body, and will not prosecute any of its lower minions for reasons of internal morale-regardless of considerations of justice or morality". T.C. Campbell Glasgow Two still fighting for justice How you can help? We are looking to attract as many people as possible to attend Robert's appeal, the only weapon we have, except for dismantling their whole corrupt system, is that of embarrassing them, and unfortunately our fourth estates are not willing, at this moment, to challenge these corrupt institutions. Spread the word, I'll keep you informed Yours in solidarity John McManus Miscarriage of Justice Organisation (MOJO Scotland) |