Ali, Idris

Idris Ali, along with co-defendant Alan Charlton, pleaded not guilty but was convicted in February 1991 at Cardiff Crown Court of the murder of Karen Price. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a tariff of 15 years.

Mr Ali and Mr Charlton appealed against their convictions. In November 1994 the Court of Appeal upheld Mr Charlton’s conviction and quashed Mr Ali’s conviction and ordered a retrial.

In December 1994, prior to the retrial, Mr Ali pleaded guilty to manslaughter. He was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment; because of the time he had already served, he was released from prison at the end of those proceedings. Mr Ali did not appeal against his manslaughter conviction.

In February 2014, the CCRC referred Alan Charlton’s murder conviction to the Court of Appeal. Following its referral of Mr Charlton’s murder conviction, the CCRC invited Mr Ali to make an application; he did so in March 2014.

Having reviewed the case in detail, the CCRC decided to refer Mr Ali’s conviction for manslaughter to the Court of Appeal.

The case was referred primarily on the same basis that Mr Charlton’s case was referred. Namely, that there was a real possibility the Court of Appeal would conclude that the conviction was unsafe because of the risk of the prosecution amounting to an abuse of process.

The referral was also based on a range of other issues including:

· Breaches by officers in the case of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) and of PACE Code of Practice C (regarding the detention, treatment and questioning of persons by police officers).

· The credibility of a number of prosecution witnesses.

· Concerns about oppressive handling by the police of key witnesses which arguably meant that the trial amounted to an abuse of process.

· The veracity of Mr Ali’s guilty plea.

The CCRC referred the conviction in March 2015.

The Court of Appeal upheld the conviction and sentence in March 2016.