Kavanagh, Gerard

Gerard Kavanagh was convicted in September 1990 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.

At trial, the defence had argued that the victim had committed suicide by the use of a ligature. However, the prosecution’s expert witness conclusively ruled this out as a possibility.

During review, the CCRC obtained new expert evidence which did not exclude the possibility of suicide by ligature.

The jury at Mr Kavanagh’s trial had been effectively precluded from giving this possibility serious consideration as a result of the trial expert’s evidence.

The CCRC concluded that the jury reached its verdict with the assistance of expert evidence which now appeared to be open to question, and it referred the conviction in January 2000.

The Court of Appeal upheld the conviction in March 2002.