For anyone who’s been following this case in
Private Eye the news comes as a relief.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2012/may/16/sam-hallam-released“Hallam – who was 17 at the time of the offence – was convicted in 2005 of murdering trainee chef Kassahun in Hoxton in October 2004. He was sentenced to life with the recommendation he serve 12 years.
Hallam was convicted on the basis of disputed identification by two witnesses who placed him at the scene of the killing. In his defence, Hallam claimed he was playing football with a friend at the time. He said he knew there was going to be trouble on the night of the killing and had wanted to avoid it.
On Wednesday, Henry Blaxhall QC, for Hallam, told the appeal court that new evidence showed Hallam was not at the murder scene and raised serious doubts about the reliability of the only evidence against him from two witnesses.
Blaxhall labelled the case a "serious miscarriage of justice" and said the combination of police failures to investigate and to disclose evidence, and the unreliability of the witness evidence had combined to put him wrongly in jail.
The appeal was brought after the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) instructed an outside force – Thames Valley – to review the original murder inquiry and pursue new lines of investigation.
Thames Valley police and the CCRC both criticised the original Met police inquiry in documents submitted to the appeal court.
Paul May, who ran the campaign for Hallam's family, said they
had uncovered nine witnesses who said Hallam was not at the scene.
The main evidence against Hallam came from a young girl, Phoebe Henville, who changed her account several times. There was no forensic evidence to link Hallam to the scene and he was of previous good character.
Henville said in cross-examination at the original trial, when pressed as to why she had identified Hallam: "I just wanted someone to blame."
