The miscarriage of justice watchdog has referred the murder convictions of two men eight years after it first received their application on the basis that a failure to hold an identification parade caused significant prejudice to the fairness of their trial.

Rupert Ross and Leon de St Aubin were found guilty of the murder of Darcy Austin Bruce on 1 May 2009. The pair were handed a minimum sentence of 30 years in November 2011. The CCRC had received applications for review of the convictions in November 2017, accompanied by extensive submissions. The CCRC finally referred the case yesterday after having previously rejected it in July 2022.

The Police and Criminal Evidence Act, Code D 3.7 defines an identification parade as when the eye-witness sees the suspect in a line of others who resemble the suspect. Code D itself provides that the procedure may be held if the officer in charge of the investigation considers it would be useful. During trial of Ross and de St Aubin, the judge failed to direct the jury’s consideration to the failure to undertake this procedure.