Beckles, Keith

Keith Beckles was convicted in May 1997 of robbery, false imprisonment, and attempted murder. Mr Beckles received a sentence of 15 years’ imprisonment.

The CCRC received an application for review of the conviction in November 2002.

Following his arrest and prior to his police interview, Mr Beckles gave a detailed and exculpatory account to his solicitors.

The solicitor advised Mr Beckles to give a “no comment” interview to police. Mr Beckles followed this advice.

At trial, Mr Beckles gave the same account that he had given to his solicitor (but had not given when interviewed by police).

The judge told the jury that they could draw an adverse inference from the fact that Mr Beckles had not given his trial account to the police when he had the chance to do so.

The trial judge failed to warn the jury in the required terms that if they were satisfied that Mr Beckles had made no comment to the police because he had been genuinely relying upon legal advice, they should not draw the adverse inference.

Following his conviction, Mr Beckles made an application to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) against the United Kingdom under Article 34 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Mr Beckles argued that he was denied a fair hearing on account of the manner in which the trial judge left the jury with the option of drawing an adverse inference from his silence during police questioning.

The ECHR held that Mr Beckles had been denied his right to a fair trial as a result of the judge’s misdirection.

The CCRC referred the conviction on the basis of this judgment in October 2003.

The Court of Appeal quashed the conviction in October 2004.