George Long

Years in prison:
16
Year of crime:
1978
Year conviction was overturned:
1995

George Long was conicted of the murder of 14 year old Gary Wilson. The night after he heard about the death, Long was at home with his girlfriend and implied he had fought off the man who attacked Gary Wilson (he repeated this to his sister). This was later revealed to be a lie. His sister told the police about this during a random check near the crime scene. George was therefore interviewed and handed over the knife he claimed to have taken from the attacker. When officers pressed him to remember details, he ended up admitting the crime. On appeal, new psychiatric evidence was introduced which suggested Long had made up his confessionn. A prison medical officer reported that he had severe personality disorder and lived in a world where “fact and fiction are inextricably mixed.” As a result, the confession was found to be unsafe to rely on and the conviction was quashed.

View Press (innocent.org.uk)

View Press (www.independent.co.uk)

< Back to Case Search < Back to Overview Graph
  • Offence: Murder
  • Jurisdiction: England & Wales
  • County: Greater London 
  • Ethnicity: Unknown
  • Gender: M
  • Years in prison: 16
  • Offence convicted of: Murder
  • Year of crime: 1978
  • Year of initial conviction: 1978
  • Year conviction was overturned: 1995
  • Age when imprisoned: 36
  • CCRC Referral: N
  • Tried with others: N
  • Link to full case: Not available
  • Type of fresh evidence at appeal: Evidence undermining the reliability of a confession
  • Compensation: Unknown
  • Crown argued case at CofA: Unknown
  • Retrial: Unknown
  • Previous appeals: Unknown