"I HAVE spent 12 years in prison for for a crime I didn’t
commit. The charge was murder and conspiracy to robbery. The incident
happened in July 1990 in Hackney where a shopkeeper was shot dead.
OLIVER CAMPBELL spoke to Naomi Byron
"Five months later I was arrested. The fingerprints they found
at the scene didn’t match mine. The only ‘evidence’ was a hat they found
which had been worn by one of the suspects and it was like one that I’d
worn. But the hair they found in the hat was tested and it wasn’t the
same as mine. It didn’t belong to me.
There’s no forensic evidence, no ID evidence. At an identity parade,
neither of the two witnesses to the crime picked me out as the man in
the cap. One witness changed their mind after the police spoke to them.
The witness said the person who did the crime was 5 foot 8 or 5 foot
10, but I’m 6 ft 3 inches. The man who was sentenced to five years for
robbery said I was not involved but this evidence was not heard in
court.
A TV programme Rough Justice highlighted all the injustices I
suffered and called it a miscarriage of justice. All the evidence points
to someone else.
When the government set up the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC)
and said it would investigate suspected miscarriages of justice, it gave
a lot of hope to people like myself. The CCRC could recommend whether
convictions or sentences should be referred to a court of appeal.
Unfortunately, the CCRC have turned my legal case down. My legal
teams are very angry and we’re going for legal aid to take the CCRC’s
judgement to judicial review.
The CCRC obviously still think I’m guilty so I’ve got a life sentence
hanging over me. The police can still pull me up at any time on
anything. I’ve still got a criminal record for an offence I didn’t
commit.
I want my name cleared. Why should I still be at risk and have a
crime against my name when I didn’t commit the crime?
But the CCRC didn’t accept my legal team’s arguments – we wanted them
to send the case to the Appeal Court and ask for it to be quashed. But
the CCRC have washed their hands of it and refused to refer my case to
the Court of Appeal.
I think this is wrong. I’ve been a victim of a miscarriage of
justice. If it takes me the rest of my life to clear my name, I would do
that. We should write letters to the press and politicians and put
pressure on the Home Office and CCRC to get them to take up my case and
refer it back to the appeal court."
l Oliver is now out of prison on license. His solicitors have applied
for a Judicial Review of the CCRC’s decision. There are leaflets and
petitions about Oliver’s case on www.yre.org.uk/olivercampbell.
If you would like to organise a meeting about Oliver’s fight for justice
please contact Naomi Byron for more information and speakers on 020 8988
8792 or [email protected]
