Druhan, Mary

Mary Druhan was convicted in June 1989 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.

Ms Druhan had not been the only suspect and at trial the prosecution had put considerable weight on the evidence of a witness.

This witness provided a statement to police, and later gave evidence in similar terms at trial, that Ms Druhan had uttered threats to kill during an altercation in a public house shortly before the offence was committed.

After Ms Druhan’s conviction, this witness was approached by television journalists and gave to them an account which was considerably more uncertain than the account given at trial.

The witness suggested that some of the language in their police statement was not actually language they would have used.

The witness also claimed they had been encouraged by police to put their evidence strongly against Ms Druhan.

Following review, the CCRC concluded that this new evidence, along with a number of other concerning features of the case, created a significant sense of unease over the safety of the conviction, raising a real possibility the Court of Appeal would not uphold it.

The CCRC referred the conviction in January 1998.

The Court of Appeal quashed the conviction in July 1998.