Johnson, Harold

Harold Johnson was convicted in May 1968 of aggravated robbery and received a sentence of eight years’ imprisonment.

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

Mr Johnson had been unrepresented at trial and the case against him was based almost entirely on witness identification.

However, Mr Johnson did not receive the major part of this evidence until part way through his cross-examination of the key prosecution witness.

In reviewing the identification evidence, the CCRC found numerous discrepancies in the witness’s various statements.

In addition, no warning of the dangers of relying on identification evidence was then required or given by the judge at trial and, being unrepresented, Mr Johnson had no counsel to impress these dangers upon the jury.

The CCRC referred the conviction in November 1999.

The Court of Appeal quashed the conviction in October 2000.