Allan, Alexander

Alexander Allan was convicted in June 1991 of robbery and received a sentence of eight years’ imprisonment.

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

At trial, the prosecution had presented two confession statements.

One was said to have been made by Mr Allan after he had been subdued by police at the time of his arrest, and the other was said to have been made in the police custody cell.

Following investigation, the CCRC concluded that both statements were taken in circumstances which breached the Police and Crime Evidence Act 1984 (PACE).

Mr Allan was not cautioned on arrest or before questioning; a record of interview was not made as soon as practicable after completion of the interview; the interview record was not timestamped or signed; no opportunity was provided to Mr Allan to read or sign the “record of admission”; and the record of interview did not state the place or time it began and ended, nor did it record the names of all present.

Rather than merely being procedural irregularities, the CCRC considered that the police’s failure to follow PACE’s Code of Practice caused substantive unfairness.

Mr Allan’s alleged admission was the most important prosecution evidence at trial but the CCRC considered there to be a real possibility the Court of Appeal would find that the admission should have been ruled inadmissible.

The CCRC referred the conviction in November 1998.

The Court of Appeal quashed the conviction in June 2001.