Patrick Nicholls
Patrick Nicholls was convicted of the murder of Mrs Gladys Heath. Witnesses saw Nicholls arrive at his house around 4pm (15 minutes before the victim was found) carrying a bag. In an interview Nicholls initially said he hadn’t been to Heath’s home. Later he said he had but had found her dying there and had not called emergency services due to prior experience having someone die near him. The prosecution argued she had died of a heart attack after being suffocated and her face severely beaten. The conviction was quashed as a result of evidence from Professor John Crane which showed that Heath’s heart attack was probably caused by her falling downstairs naturally. He said that earlier findings were “meaningless and ambiguous.” The Crown also commissioned a pathologist’s report which accepted that there were reasonable doubts.
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< Back to Case Search < Back to Overview Graph- Offence: Murder
- Jurisdiction: England & Wales
- County: East Sussex
- Ethnicity: White
- Gender: M
- Years in prison: 23
- Offence convicted of: Murder
- Year of crime: 1975
- Year of initial conviction: 1975
- Year conviction was overturned: 1998
- Affirmative evidence of innocence: Y
- Age when imprisoned: 47
- CCRC Referral: Y
- Tried with others: N
- Link to full case: Not available
- Type of fresh evidence at appeal: Evidence undermining forensic science
- Compensation: Unknown
- Crown argued case at CofA: Unknown
- Retrial: No
- Previous appeals: Unsuccessful appeal 1977