A man convicted of murder has had his conviction referred back to the Court of Appeal after the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) found that a jury may not have been given the chance to consider whether he was guilty of manslaughter instead. Nicholas Curtis was jailed for life, with a minimum term of 18 years, for the murder of Glenda Jackson outside her home in Birkenhead in September 2018. He was convicted alongside his brother, Stuart Curtis, in April 2019.

The CCRC now believes there is a real possibility the conviction is unsafe and it was unclear whether the trial judge had properly considered putting the partial defence of loss of control before the jury. There was no record of the judge’s reasoning. If accepted, the defence could have reduced Curtis’s conviction from murder to manslaughter. The CCRC said there was sufficient evidence for a jury to decide whether the legal requirements for loss of control were met.

Ms Jackson had reported to police that she had been assaulted and subjected to homophobic abuse by a group associated with the Curtis brothers on the night she died. After officers left, a further confrontation took place.

The prosecution alleged that Ms Jackson attacked Nicholas Curtis’s van with a hammer and knife before the brothers assaulted her. It said Nicholas Curtis stabbed her five times, while Stuart Curtis kicked and stamped on her head.

Nicholas Curtis argued that he had acted in self-defence. He said Ms Jackson had confronted him with a knife, lunged at him and stabbed him twice, and that she suffered fatal injuries during the ensuing struggle.

The prosecution argued that the force used went beyond reasonable self-defence and that the brothers had carried out a retaliatory attack. Neither the prosecution nor the defence raised loss of control at trial. The issue was also absent from Curtis’s grounds of appeal, which were unsuccessful. He applied to the CCRC in June 2024.

CCRC chair Dame Vera Baird KC said: ‘The law requires all relevant defences to be properly considered when a person’s guilt is being decided.’ She said the commission had identified a significant issue that had not been raised at trial or on appeal. The referral allows the Court of Appeal to consider whether Curtis’s murder conviction can safely stand. The referral does not overturn the conviction. The Court of Appeal will decide whether it should remain in place.