Man who served 27 years has murder conviction overturned
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The Prime Minister faced calls for a public inquiry into Britain's longest-running miscarriage of justice after Stephen Downing had his conviction for the murder of Wendy Sewell quashed 28 years after her death.
Don Hale, the newspaper editor who campaigned for Mr Downing's release, claimed to have evidence of the involvement of other people in the murder but Derbyshire police, who convicted Mr Downing would say only that it would "consider" an Appeal Court judgment that the conviction was unsafe.
"Tony Blair has taken a close personal interest in this case," said Mr Hale, former editor of the Matlock Mercury. "I would like him and the Home Secretary to order a public inquiry into how the wrong man was jailed for 27 years while others covered it up. We also want the investigation re-opened but not conducted by Derbyshire police."
Mrs Sewell was found with serious head injuries in a cemetery in Bakewell where Mr Downing worked. He was released on bail last year.
Yesterday, three Appeal Court judges accepted new forensic findings and evidence that, as a 17 year old with a mental age of 11, Mr Downing had made confessions after being interrogated for eight hours without being cautioned or given access to legal representation.
Bob Wood, the deputy chief constable of Derbyshire police, said the appeal findings would be examined "in full". But an investigation by the Criminal Convictions Review Commission had not found enough evidence for an outside force to conduct an inquiry.