It's good news for his family that justice has finally been done after such a long time.
One of my best friends at school was murdered delivering newspapers in 1978,he was just 13. He was shot in the head with a shotgun.
A gang of known armed robbers were convicted of his murder but subsequently released after years of appeals and their convictions quashed.
Still see his Mom and Dad out and about,they kept a dignified silence throughout ,putting their faith in our justice system which ultimately let them down.
They been waiting nearly 34 years to see their sons real killer found.
Let's hope similar efforts are made to give them justice and some piece of mind.
RIP Carl..Never forgotten.
I remember that case, WBA - was living in Lichfield at the time. I had forgotten how long ago that was. Wasnt there a suggestion that at least some of those originally convicted were guilty, but they had to be let go because the police had manufacture evidence or something? Details are a bit blurred now.
Re Stephen Lawrence. I think the parents have had to wait a long time for any sort of justice.Whats that saying? the wheels of justice grind slowly, but exceedingly fine. Do they have a right of appeal?
They had their convictions for the murder quashed sandy but were found guilty of robbing other farmhouses previously.
Therefore nobody was found guilty of the murder and the case remains "on file"
The original private prosecution brought by the Lawrence family in (I think) 1996 named five suspects, including Dobson and Norris. The case against two of them (Norris and Jamie Acourt) collapsed before reaching court. Three others (Dobson, Neil Acourt and Luke Knight) were acquitted following a trial.
The latest trial against Dobson and Norris relied upon fresh forensic evidence, not available in 1996, and I imagine this was only sufficient to convict those two.
In the Blakelock case the police made a balls up of the investigation resulting in the killer remaining at large. Similarly in the Lawrence case the police made a cock-up resulting in the killer(s) remaining at large.
But there the similarity ends. In the former the person fitted up was released, compensated and the killer remained at large. In the latter the private prosecution (which was ill-conceived) failed. But then a public enquiry was arranged into the behaviour of the police and one of the recommendations coming out of that enquiry suggested that the “double jeopardy” rule be relaxed thus allowing a second prosecution for the same offence.
It is true that the Blakelock case has never been closed (in fact a 40 year old man was arrested and questioned last year, but no charges were forthcoming). But nothing like the facilities afforded to the Lawrence case have been provided to bring PC Blakelock’s murderer to book.