Hagans, Christopher

Christopher Hagans was convicted in December 1983 of robbery, conspiracy to rob, and unlawful possession of a firearm. Mr Hagans received a sentence of 14 years’ imprisonment.

The CCRC received an application for review of the conviction in February 2001.

Evidence against Mr Hagans had come from a police informant connected to the same robberies.

During review, the CCRC considered that this informant had subsequently been discredited in several Court of Appeal judgments, resulting in a number of convictions in cases similar to that of Mr Hagans’ being quashed.

The informant was handled by police officers from the West Midlands Police Serious Crime Squad who had relied on an admission to the offences said to have been made by Mr Hagans (but which Mr Hagans denied having made).

The police officers who received the alleged confession were later discredited and criticised for misconduct. Their evidence was also rejected in a number of Court of Appeal judgements.

Significantly, these officers had been shown to have used oppression to extract confession statements from suspects.

The CCRC referred the conviction in November 2001.

The Court of Appeal quashed the conviction in October 2003.