John McCloy

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On Thursday, November 13, 1980, in Church Street, Willenhall, George Smith, a security guard, was fatally shot. The assailants robbed the bag carried by Mr Smith, which contained £11,514.

In February 1982, John Lyon McCloy was convicted of robbery (by a majority of 10:2) at Birmingham Crown Court and sentenced to 15 years in prison. This sentence was reduced to 12 years on appeal in 1984.

The convictions of Keith Twitchell and Patrick Irvine, who were also accused alongside Mr McCloy, were quashed by the Court of Appeal in 1999 and 2002 respectively. Mr Twitchell claimed that he had been tortured by the police into making a confession. The Court held that the credibility of the officers involved in Twitchell’s case was severely compromised, rendering his conviction unsafe. In May 2007, the Court of Appeal quashed Mr McCloy’s conviction. The Court found that Mr Twitchell’s forced confession, which should have been inadmissible, had wrongfully implicated Mr McCloy.

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