Mark Cleary

Mark Cleary was convicted of the murder of a 10 year old boy. Cleary was implicated by statements made to police by co-defendant Philip Atherton. When Atherton’s account was put to Cleary, this allegedly led to a confession. This confession was not written down by police until 12 days after it was allegedly made, no contemporaneous notes were taken, and his requests to consult a solicitor while being questioned were ignored. On appeal, the judges said they felt “very real anxiety” about the way Cleary was interrogated, the reliability of information that had been put to him, and errors made by the trial judge in his summing up. Judges quashed the conviction which they described as “unsafe and unsatisfactory.”

View Press (www.independent.co.uk)