Jones, Adrian

Adrian Jones was convicted at Swansea Crown Court in July 2008 for the murder of Kelly Hyde who was killed while walking her dog in September 2007.

The prosecution case was that Mr Jones, who was aged 16 at the time, was responsible for the murder. Mr Jones claimed that he did not know the victim and had had no contact with her.

Because of his age at the time he was sentenced to detention at Her Majesty’s pleasure with a minimum prison term of 11 years and 79 days.

Mr Jones tried to appeal against his conviction but his appeal was dismissed in October 2009.

After his appeal Mr Jones accepted his responsibility for the killing. He applied to the CCRC for a review of his case in September 2015.

The CCRC conducted a detailed review of the case which included considering reports from a number of psychiatric experts and commissioning its own psychiatric expert evidence.

The CCRC decided to refer Mr Jones’ conviction to the Court of Appeal on the basis of new psychiatric evidence relating to his mental state at the time of the killing which raised a real possibility that the Court of Appeal would quash the murder conviction and substitute a conviction for manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

The CCRC referred the conviction in October 2019.

The Court of Appeal upheld the conviction in June 2021.