Sketch by Isobel Williams www.isobelwilliams.blogspot.co.uk

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A pioneering law firm specialising in investigating in miscarriages is launching s crowdfunding campaign to fund the investigation one of its cases..

According to the new Centre for Criminal Appeals, legal aid cuts and the funding crisis at the Criminal Cases Review Commission have ‘significantly slowed the chance for appeal’.

Jamie Green – together with his four co-defendants known as the Freshwater Five – fished the waters around the Isle of Wight for 30 years. They are serving prison sentences with a combined total of 104 years for drug smuggling, following a police investigation characterised by missing surveillance records, bending of observation logs and unexplained changes in witnesses’ stories.

Jamie Green

Since he went to prison, his wife has been diagnosed with terminal cancer.

From today, the CCA is looking to raise £4,500 through the new CrowdJustice platform. The Centre for Criminal Appeals is currently bidding for its own legal aid so that it can undertake such cases in its own right. The charity is raising funds to cover aspects of work on cases that legal aid does not cover.

‘What is most heartbreaking about this case is how long it is taking to put right,’ says Emily Bolton, Jamie Green’s solicitor. ‘This is simply a matter of resources – both in terms funding to pay for the analysis and investigation we need to do on the case as lawyers, but also the resources crisis at the Criminal Cases Review Commission which has been starved of funds by successive governments.’