Gavin Burt
Gavin Burt and two others were convicted of kidnapping and having a firearm with intent to commit an indicable offence. The convictions depended on the evidence of a witness called Michael Hutchinson who had a lengthy criminal record and was a drug addict. Following Burt’s conviction, Hutchinson made allegations of blackmail against another man. He asserted that this man had threatened him to get him to change his story about the kidnapping. The man asserted complete ignorance of events at the original trial and said that the threats related to a business deal. As a result of a police investigation it was discovered that the assertions made by that man were true, and Hutcheson’s allegations were false. The Crown considered it would not be safe to rely on the credibility of Hutchinson as a witness. On this basis the court ruled that Burt’s conviction was unsafe.
< Back to Case Search < Back to Overview Graph- Offence: Other
- Jurisdiction: England & Wales
- County: Kent
- Ethnicity: Unknown
- Gender: M
- Years in prison: 3
- Offence convicted of: Kidnapping; having firearm with intent to commit an indictable offence
- Year of crime: 2001
- Year of initial conviction: 2002
- Year conviction was overturned: 2005
- Age when imprisoned: Unknown
- CCRC Referral: Y
- Tried with others: Y
- Link to full case: https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Crim/2005/315.html
- Type of fresh evidence at appeal: Evidence relating to the reliability of complainant testimony
- Compensation: Unknown
- Crown argued case at CofA: No
- Retrial: No
- Previous appeals: Abandoned application for permission to appeal, then applied for permission to treat this abandonment as a nulity. That application was unsuccessful on jurisdictional grounds.