The Bishop of Stepney has written to the new justice secretary highlighting the alleged failings of the miscarriage of justice watchdog in the case of a man who has spent a decade in prison for a 2005 murder he insists he did not commit. Reverend Joanne Grenfell has written to Shabana Mahmood about the plight of Jason Moore, convicted of the murder of Robert Darby.
In her letter shared with the Justice Gap, Reverend Grenfell says that Moore’s sister Kirstie Moore had been told by ‘one politician after another there is nothing they can do’ and they would have to apply to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC); but, she argued, ‘as in the case of Andrew Malkinson’ the family had found the CCRC ‘either unwilling or unable to offer any meaningful help’. ‘It rejected Jason’s case in 2021, refusing at first even to investigate it,’ the bishop wrote. ‘This rejection was based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the most basic facts of Jason’s case.’ As reported previously on the Justice Gap, relatives of Robert Darby joined with campaigners to support Moore’s release.
- The case of Jason Moore featured in the latest issue of PROOF magazine in a long read article by the journalist Charles Thomson who has been investigating the case for Newsquest
- Photos Charles Thomson
Rev Grenfell argues that in the CCRC’s rejection letter, the watchdog ‘falsely asserted’ that two eyewitnesses had implicated Jason Moore as Darby’s stabber. In fact, there was only one witness with, she claims, ‘significant credibility problems’. Based on this ‘fundamental misunderstanding’, she argued the CCRC refused to order fresh DNA testing and refused to interview the witness who had picked Jason from a line-up. As recounted in PROOF, Charles Thomson tracked the witness down who admitted on tape that he had been drunk when he had witnessed the stabbing and might have picked the wrong man. ‘Unfortunately for Kirstie and Jason, the CCRC had already closed the case,’ the later continues. ‘It refused ever to acknowledge or correct the glaring error in its rejection letter, telling Jason he could request judicial review of the decision or go back to the queue and start again. That is what he has had to do.’
In an interview with the Justice Gap, the victim’s brother Tim Darby insisted he always believed that the police had gone after the wrong person. After Robert Darby’s death, Jason Moore fled to Spain fearful of reprisals. He came home in 2012 and reported to the police in the hope that he would be able to clear his name.
Tim Darby claimed to have confronted two police officers immediately after the 2013 trial when Moore was sentenced to life. He recalled attending the police station to pick up his late brother’s effects. ‘I was wading through his stuff, and I said to the two coppers: “You put the wrong geezer away. Do you know that?”’ He claims the officers threatened to arrest him and that the next day he was visited in the early hours of the morning by two uniformed officers and two CID who served him a ‘reverse Osman order’. In other words, he claimed that he was put on notice about threats that he might might make to Moore’s family or witnesses.
Jason Moore’s legal team is now calling for called for DNA testing of a garment, seized from the home of another suspect, tested for stab victim Robert Darby’s blood. Rev Grenfell draws parallels with Andrew Malkinson, also ‘convicted solely on eye witness evidence with no forensics… picked from a line-up by a single witness’, and highlights Chris Henley KC’s scathing report into the conduct of that case.
Jason Moore has seven years left to serve on his 18 year prison sentence and, according to the family, won’t be eligible for release before 2031 unless he admits to a crime that he claims he did not do. ‘Given the systematic issues which Jason’s case raises about the capacity, competence and integrity of the CCRC, we are also calling for a review of all outstanding cases that the commission has ignored under the previous government,’ Rev Grenfell wrote. ‘The necessary resources must be set aside for this to take place. The injustice faced by Andrew, Jason and others is compounded by continuous delays in getting their cases reviewed . The efficacy, fairness timeliness of the review process affects justice for everyone. That any of us could be imprisoned in Jason’s circumstances is a disturbing enough thought, but that we would then spend years waiting to even have our case reviewed is harrowing.’
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