Sean Hodgson
Years in prison:
27
Year of crime:
1979
Year conviction was overturned:
2009
Sean (Robert) Hodgson was convicted of the rape and murder of Teresa De Simone, whose body was found in her car outside a pub where she worked. Hodgson had confessed to a priest that he was the killer, and had admitted the offence on several other occasions to detectives, but no assessment was made of his mental state or his obsession with confessing to crimes he had not committed. At his trial, he retracted his admissions, pleaded not guilty and told the jury that he was a pathological liar. He successfully appealed after DNA evidence found at the scene was proved not to be his (this technology was not available at the time of his original trial).
View Press (www.theguardian.com)
View Press (www.standard.co.uk)
< Back to Case Search < Back to Overview Graph- Offence: Murder Sexual offences
- Jurisdiction: England & Wales
- County: Hampshire
- Ethnicity: White
- Gender: M
- Years in prison: 27
- Offence convicted of: Murder; rape
- Year of crime: 1979
- Year of initial conviction: 1982
- Year conviction was overturned: 2009
- Affirmative evidence of innocence: Y
- Age when imprisoned: 31
- CCRC Referral: Y
- Tried with others: N
- Link to full case: https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Crim/2009/490.html
- Type of fresh evidence at appeal: DNA evidence
- Compensation: Yes
- Link to compensation: https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2009/mar/22/sean-hodgson-compensation-justice#:~:text=Sean%20Hodgson%2C%20who%20spent%2027,year%20he%20was%20wrongly%20imprisoned
- Crown argued case at CofA: No
- Retrial: No
- Previous appeals: Leave to appeal refused in 1983