Kennedy, Simon

Simon Kennedy was convicted in November 1997 of manslaughter and received a sentence of five years’ imprisonment.

The CCRC received an application for review of the conviction in September 2003.

Mr Kennedy had been convicted of manslaughter after he had supplied Marco Bosque with a syringe containing a solution of heroin and water which Mr Kennedy had prepared. Mr Bosque paid Mr Kennedy for this.

Mr Bosque injected himself with the solution and stopped breathing, after which an ambulance was called.

Mr Bosque was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Mr Kennedy was convicted because simply supplying the heroin was a sufficiently unlawful act to constitute manslaughter.

However, it was subsequently ruled in the similar case of R v Dias (2001) that the act causing death was the self-injection, which was not an offence under the Misuse of Drugs Act.

The possession and supply of a drug in such circumstances was a separate act and not causative of death.

The CCRC referred the conviction in February on 2004 on the basis of this change in law.

The Court of Appeal upheld the conviction in March 2005.

The conviction was subsequently overturned following successful appeal to the House of Lords.