McCloy, John

John McCloy was convicted in February 1982 at Birmingham Crown Court of robbery and received a sentence of 15 years’ imprisonment, reduced to 12 years on appeal.

The prosecution contended that Mr McCloy was involved in a robbery in Church Street, Willenhall, in November 1980 in which security van driver George Smith was shot dead.

An appeal by Mr McCloy was dismissed by the Full Court in December 1983, although in July 1984 the court reduced his sentence to 12 years.

The CCRC received an application for review of the conviction in January 2003.

The CCRC had already referred the convictions of two of Mr McCloy’s co-defendants, George Twitchell and Patrick Irvine, on the grounds of improperly obtained and inadmissible evidence (confession statements signed by Mr Twitchell). The Court of Appeal quashed these convictions.

The confession statements had implicated both Mr McCloy and Mr Irvine but had involved police officers attached to the West Midlands Police Serious Crime Squad (WMSCS).

Many of the officers in Mr Twitchell’s case were shown to have fabricated confessions or other evidence in a number of other cases.

Mr Twitchell had alleged that he had only signed a confession after he had been subjected to torture and had only signed a second confession statement out of fear.

The CCRC concluded that the involvement of discredited WMSCS officers in this investigation impugned the evidence of the other non-WMSCS officers who were directly involved in Mr McCloy’s case.

The CCRC referred the conviction in June 2006.

The Court of Appeal quashed the conviction in May 2007.