Hillman, Barry

On 24 August 2001, Barry Hillman and his co-defendant, Paul Gowans, were convicted of the murder of Vytautas Jelinskas. These convictions followed from the earlier convictions of Messrs Hillman and Gowans for causing grievous bodily harm to Mr Jelinskas during a robbery in January 2000.

On 14 August 2000, both men pleaded guilty to robbery but not guilty to causing grievous bodily harm to Mr Jelinskas during the course of the robbery. After a trial on 16 August 2000 they were convicted of causing grievous bodily harm.

On 19 August 2000, Mr Jelinskas died as result of septicaemia contracted whilst in hospital having treatment for his injuries. Messrs Hillman and Gowans were then charged with and convicted of Mr Jelinskas’ murder.

Mr Hillman received a sentence of life imprisonment with a minimum tariff of 12 years (reduced to 11 years on appeal) and Mr Gowans was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum tariff of 13 years.

On 26th September 2014 the Attorney General wrote to the CCRC stating that, following an enquiry by Mr Hillman’s solicitors, it had been discovered that, contrary to the legal requirement governing circumstances in which defendants can be charged with murder when they have been convicted of another offence in circumstances alleged to be connected to the death, the necessary consent to prosecute for murder had not been obtained from the Attorney General.

The CCRC therefore decided to refer the convictions to the Court of Appeal.

The referral was made on the basis that there was a real possibility the Court will find that the consent of the Attorney General to institute proceedings, as required by the Law Reform (Year and a Day Rule) Act 1996, was not obtained in this case and that this rendered the proceedings a nullity and that the Court of Appeal would therefore quash the convictions.

The CCRC referred the conviction in January 2015.

The Court of Appeal quashed the conviction in May 2015 and ordered a retrial.