Conviction quashed after 35 years

For 35 years, Stephen Simmons had been looking for ways to clear his name after being wrongly sentenced to prison as a criminal.

Four years ago, he approached the Criminal Cases Review Commission after ringing Daniel Barnett on LBC radio’s legal advice programme. Daniel Barnett suggested Simmons Google the name of the British Transport Police officer who arrested him for mailbag theft in 1976.

What Simmons discovered by following Daniel Barnett‘s advice helped him clear his name after decades of being haunted by the conviction. That officer had been convicted years later of mailbag theft and “had fitted him up for the offence“, LBC reports.

Simmons’ case has been referred to the court of appeal, where he has had his conviction quashed.

According to The Guardian, the lord chief justice described the case as being exceptional. He “expressed regret to Simmons that the case had taken so long to come back to court.”

After his conviction was quashed, Simmons declared for The Guardian: “this is one of the happiest days of my life.” “It has hardly sunk in but I am not a criminal any more. I can hold my head up high.”

The case has been reported in The Guardian here.

Click here to watch the LBC video.

News 1 Feb, 2018