Mansell, Daniel

Daniel Mansell was convicted in February 1998 of murder and robbery. Mr Mansell received a sentence of life imprisonment.

The CCRC received an application for review of the conviction in August 1998.

Mr Mansell was convicted alongside his co-defendants, Paul Maxwell and Gary Ford, following a West Yorkshire Police investigation known as “Operation Yew II”.

The convictions of all three defendants stemmed primarily from evidence given by a resident informant with West Yorkshire Police who was the key prosecution witness at trial.

During review, the CCRC obtained fresh evidence indicating that this witness (and members of his family) had been afforded a range of improper and undisclosed benefits.

The CCRC considered that these benefits may have acted as an inducement to the witness to give evidence.

The CCRC concluded that the nature of the benefits, and their non-disclosure, could have been used to support an application to stay the proceedings as an abuse of process.

This could have affected the outcome of the trial.

The CCRC referred the conviction in November 2008.

The Court of Appeal quashed the conviction in December 2009.