Sherwood, Ellis

Ellis Sherwood was convicted in July 1988 of murder and robbery and received a sentence of life imprisonment.

The CCRC received an application for review of the conviction in June 1997.

Mr Sherwood was convicted alongside his co-defendants, Michael O’Brien and Darren Hall (whose convictions were also referred by the CCRC).

At the centre of the prosecution’s case were confessions obtained from Mr Hall in the course of police interview. Mr Hall retracted his confessions some years after the trial.

Whilst many matters were raised in the course of the CCRC’s review, the key issue was new evidence from three experts indicating that Mr Hall (who had been interviewed nine times over 48 hours) had been suggestible, compliant and a wholly unreliable witness, casting substantial doubt on the credibility of the confession evidence.

The CCRC also identified numerous breaches of the Police and Crime Evidence Act 1984 in this case.

The defendants were unreasonably denied access to solicitors for the majority of the time they were in custody and there was evidence indicating that they may have been interviewed “off the record” on more than one occasion. This was alongside other significant evidence of police misconduct.

The CCRC referred the conviction in October 1998.

The Court of Appeal quashed the conviction in December 1999.