Christofides, Jan

Jan Christofides was convicted in November 1992 of murder and received a sentence of life imprisonment.

The CCRC inherited an application for review of the conviction from the Home Office in March 1997.

During the trial, the judge had unexpectedly thrown out the case against Mr Christofides’ co-defendant, Mr Lyons, on the grounds of no case to answer.

This decision altered the case for both the prosecution and defence.

It also removed consideration of a “joint enterprise” from the jury. Consequently, evidence which had been to the disadvantage of the prosecution became to their advantage.

The CCRC considered that as a result of these developments, Mr Christofides’ ability to put forward a full and proper defence had been adversely affected.

The CCRC referred the conviction in March 2000.

The Court of Appeal quashed the conviction in March 2001.