Mr DA

Mr DA was convicted in March 2007 of attempted rape and five counts of sexual assault of a child under 13. He received a sentence of imprisonment for public protection with a notional term of eight years.

The CCRC received an application for review of the conviction and sentence in April 2008.

During review, the CCRC obtained new evidence including a post-trial disclosure by the Crown Prosecution Service and new information relating to computer evidence presented at trial.

The CCRC considered that had this evidence been available at trial, the jury may have reached a different verdict.

This raised a real possibility the Court of Appeal would find Mr DA’s conviction unsafe.

If the convictions were to be upheld by the Court of Appeal, the CCRC concluded that there was a real possibility the Court would find that, as the computer evidence had formed the basis of the prosecution’s bad character application, the sentence of imprisonment for public protection should be quashed with the notional determinate sentence left in place.

The CCRC referred the conviction and sentence in May 2010.

The Court of Appeal quashed the conviction in October 2010.