A BRAIN-damaged man who has fought for 32 years against his conviction of murder is appealing to London’s High Court today (29 February 2024) to overturn it.

Oliver Campbell, 53, served an 11-year prison sentence after being convicted as a teenager in December 1991 for the murder of Hackney shopkeeper Baldev Singh Hoondle during a botched robbery in July 1990. Campbell, a British-born Jamaican who has severe learning difficulties as a result of a blow to the head as a baby, has always protested his innocence. 

His lawyers say police pressured him into making a false confession without a lawyer present back in 1991.

The evidence against him was that the shooter had worn Campbell’s distinctive “British Knights” cap, but hairs found inside the cap, which had been taken off him several days before the robbery, pointed to his innocence, because they were neither his nor those of his co-accused and friend Eric Samuel, who was convicted of conspiracy to rob.

Campbell’s legal team point to a deeply flawed identification and a series of admissions made in the absence of a solicitor which they claimed were largely “inconsistent with the known facts and/or ridiculous”.

The legal team added that the conduct of the Met Police officers who interviewed him was “incompetent and/or dishonest and manipulative”.

The trial jury never heard that, shortly after they were both charged, Samuel had exonerated Campbell to the police and had named another man as the gunman.

Samuel repeated that exoneration to at least five different people over many years. 

Michael Birnbaum KC, who, with Campbell’s lawyer, Glyn Maddocks KC, has been representing him for nearly 25 years, and John Price KC for the Crown, will continue their submissions at the Royal Courts of Justice in The Strand today. The Crown is contesting the appeal.

Yesterday the court heard from Birnbaum that Campbell was greatly disadvantaged during the 1991 police investigation into the crime because his disabilities were not realised.

He said: “Oliver was simply unable to do justice to himself. These days special measures would be made to support Oliver during a trial but none of that was available in 1991.

“He might well have appeared to be a liar when he was simply a mentally challenged young man and unable to cope with the pressure of appearing in the most famous court in the land, Court 1 at the Old Bailey.”

Birnbaum said there were ample grounds to find Campbell’s conviction unsafe, with current legal standards more favourable to defendants than in 1991.

He continued: “Therefore there is ample basis upon which we can find the conviction unsafe without entering into the controversy over whether Oliver is guilty.

“Campbell’s admissions to police were nonsense and inconsistent.  He was interviewed at Plaistow police station by an officer who was ‘ignorant of the true facts of the case’ and, in a bid to get him to confess, officers insinuated to him that killing Mr Hoondle may have been an accident. They also suggested that Campbell’s body language was that of a guilty man, bullied and humiliated him, and talked to him off record with no recording taking place

“DC Ellison was plainly determined to get a confession that Oliver had been the gunman.”

The packed court was played excerpts of audio recordings of Campbell’s police interviews.

“It is a disgraceful series of interviews that no police officer these days would dream of conducting.” 

None of the fingerprints found at the crime scene were Campbell’s and standing at six foot three inches, he is considerably taller than the pair of robbers who were seen fleeing the scene.

The court heard yesterday that an appeal brought in 1995 to overturn Campbell’s conviction failed. However a 2001 edition of the BBC Rough Justice programme called If the Cap Fits examined the case in detail, concluding that Campbell could not have committed the murder.

But in 2005 the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), the miscarriage of justice watchdog, rejected an application to refer the case to the Court of Appeal. 

Campbell’s breakthrough came four years ago, following an intervention by Campbell’s Ipswich MP, Sandy Martin, who raised the case at a Westminster Hall debate at a meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Miscarriages of Justice. The CCRC then reviewed its previous decision and in November 2022 referred the case to the Court of Appeal in November 2022.

The initial appeal hearing, held on 11 October 2022, was covered by The Voice.

In court yesterday, Birnbaum said: “Like the case of Malkinson, Oliver’s case comes after first being dismissed. This is not a case where the Commission can be criticised for failing to make enquiries. It actively sought out evidence. Sadly, it drew the wrong conclusion twenty years ago.”

Glyn Maddocks KC, who has campaigned for Campbell in his fight for justice for over 24 years, said:  “Oliver Campbell suffered and continues to suffer a significant miscarriage of justice and we all hope that his appeal is successful.”

Lord Justice Holroyde, Mrs Justice Stacey and Mr Justice Bourne are expected to give their judgement at a later date.