The Criminal Cases Review Commission probe the case of Ray Gilbert, then 22, who was convicted at his third re-trial of stabbing bookie John Suffield 19 times at a Coral betting shop in Liverpool
A review launched in the wake of the Andrew Malkinson miscarriage of justice scandal could clear a man jailed for a 1981 murder.
Ray Gilbert, then 22, was convicted at his third re-trial of stabbing bookie John Suffield 19 times at a Coral betting shop in Liverpool. John, 23, was opening up for the day on the morning of Friday, March 13, when he was ambushed and attacked in what appeared to have been a botched robbery. The raiders escaped with £176. Within three days, Merseyside Police had arrested local petty thief Gilbert. He was interrogated by detectives for 48 hours without a solicitor present. During that time he changed his statement several times.
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Gilbert eventually admitted the murder and named an accomplice called John Kamara. There was no evidence linking either man to the crime and the eyewitnesses failed to identify them.
As soon as Gilbert was allowed to speak to a solicitor he protested his innocence. At the start of the murder trial he pleaded not guilty but suddenly changed his plea to guilty during a third re-trial. Gilbert has maintained his innocence ever since, despite spending an extra 20 years in prison because of it.
Now it is understood that the Criminal Cases Review Commission is investigating whether exhibits stored in boxes could provide forensic evidence proving his innocence. It is understood to be one of thousands of cases the CCRC is reviewing after Mr Malkinson spent 17 years in prison for a rape he did not commit.
He was finally cleared in 2023 after the Court of Appeal heard allegations of major failures in the handling of the case. It revealed the CCRC’s investigators and leaders had failed to follow up evidence of innocence right up to 2022. After being freed in 2016, Gilbert, now 66, suspects similar failings in his case..
He told the Sunday Mirror: “I’ve been fighting this since 1982 and I’ve had many CCRC applications. It is now evident that they didn’t look at all the information as if they had, they would have found what has now come to the surface. My team has followed endless trails to get to what was staring in the faces of previous CCRC case managers. This is probably my last chance to prove my innocence.”
Among the matters previously raised were the fact Gilbert was not given access to a solicitor, claims he was subject to duress from detectives including physical assault and concerns that crucial witness statements were not disclosed to the defence. There is also evidence that Gilbert was vulnerable, having suffered abuse as a child while struggling to communicate, making him susceptible to making a false confession.
A report by professor of criminology at Leeds University, Tony Blockley, has found evidence of potential “coercion and oppressive interview techniques, witness inconsistencies and concerns over the reliability of his “confession”. The case took a new twist in 2000 when Kamara’s conviction was quashed by the Court of Appeal after he had served 19 years.
Gilbert was denied leave to appeal because of his earlier guilty plea. Hayley Wood, a paralegal who has drafted the CCRC application, said: “Ray’s case has been referred previously to the CCRC on six occasions. Like Andy Malkinson’s CCRC applications, there seemed to be a focus upon confirming his guilt rather than the possible research that may have established that this man could be innocent.
“The CCRC did not drill down enough across other evidence, involving Ray, that may have indicated other possibilities. The only way to seek real justice and the truth of his involvement in this crime is to revisit the evidence, or lack of it, that placed him in prison for 36 years.”
Former coroner’s officer Stephanie Davies, who also worked on the application, said: “From the evidence I’ve seen I think this could potentially be an unsafe conviction.” A CCRC Spokesperson said: “An application has been received in relation to this case and work is underway to assess that application. It would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage.”
Merseyside Police were contacted for a comment.
