Williams, Thomas

Thomas Williams was convicted in February 1974 of unlawful assembly and affray and was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment.

Mr Williams was one of the “Shrewsbury 24” convicted in relation to violence, damage, and intimidation to site workers during “flying pickets” related to an industrial dispute in 1972. The 24 were convicted in a series of three trials held in 1972, 1973 and 1974.

All but one pleaded not guilty and all were convicted. The sentences imposed varied from three years’ imprisonment to three months’ imprisonment suspended for two years.

In 2012, the CCRC received applications from ten members of the Shrewsbury 24. After an extensive investigation the CCRC decided in October 2017 that it could not refer those convictions for appeal.

Eight of the ten applicants launched Judicial Review proceedings through their legal representatives against the CCRC’s decision not to refer their cases.

Permission for the Judicial Review was given in November 2018 and the full hearing took place on 30 April 2019.

Part way though those proceedings the CCRC agreed that it would revisit its decision not to refer the eight cases for appeal based on two specific matters that were at issue in the Judicial Review:

i) New evidence consisting of a note dated 17 September 1973 which revealed that some original statements had been destroyed. Neither this note, nor the fact that statements had been destroyed, was disclosed to the defence at the time of the trial or at any time thereafter.

ii) New legal argument relating to a television documentary, The Red Under the Bed, which was broadcast during the 1972 trial and new analysis, applying modern standards of fairness, of the way in which the airing of the documentary was handled by the trial judge.

The CCRC decided to refer the eight cases to the Court of Appeal because it considered that this new evidence and argument created a real possibility the Court of Appeal would quash the convictions.

The CCRC referred Mr Williams’ conviction in December 2021.

The Court of Appeal quashed the conviction in April 2022.