Adams, Robert

Robert Adams was convicted in September 1977 of murder, false imprisonment, and assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. Mr Adams received a sentence of life imprisonment.

The CCRC received an application for review of the conviction in August 1999.

Mr Adams’s conviction was based solely on a confession statement to police. At trial, there had been no challenge to the admissibility of this confession evidence.

A CCRC investigation found that Mr Adams, who was then aged 16, had been intensively interrogated.

He had also been denied the support of an adult during that interrogation in breach of the Judges’ Rules, his father only being permitted to be present at his final interview when he made the confession statement.

In addition, there was evidence that the police had re-written interview notes.

Inconsistencies were found between the details of the confession statement and verifiable facts. There were also discrepancies between information in the custody log and police officers’ statements.

During review, the CCRC also obtained new expert evidence indicating that Mr Adams would have been a vulnerable and suggestible suspect, liable to comply with suggestions put to him by police officers.

The CCRC concluded that this new evidence therefore affected the reliability of the confession evidence.

The CCRC referred the conviction in March 2003.

The Northern Ireland Court of Appeal quashed the conviction in September 2005.