Donald Pendleton Fifteen years
14 December 2001 Man freed after law lords
quash murder verdict By Robert Verkaik, Legal Affairs Correspondent A man sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of a Bradford newspaper seller 30 years ago was freed yesterday after the House of Lords quashed his conviction. Donald Pendleton, 56, has spent the past 15 years in prison for taking part in the killing of Bernard Clark, 39, whose body was dumped in a ditch after he was attacked and robbed of his watch in 1971. Yesterday, the law lords ruled that the evidence he was convicted on was unsafe. Lawyers for Mr Pendleton, including Michael Mansfield QC, who represented him at the House of Lords hearing, said the ruling could help others who had had their cases turned down by the Court of Appeal. Mr Pendleton had been eliminated by the police from their murder inquiry in 1971 but 14 years later he was arrested and charged when another man suspected of the killing allegedly implicated him in the crime. The law lords described Mr Pendleton as a "vulnerable man" who had been questioned by police for a number of hours without the presence of a solicitor. Lord Bingham of Cornhill, the senior law lord, said Mr Pendleton had first told police that he was not at the scene of the crime but, after further questioning, had changed his mind although he always maintained he did not take part in the violence. When his case came to trial, he returned to his first story, that he was nowhere near the crime scene but his lawyers advised him that, without any evidence to support an alibi, the jury would have trouble believing him and so Mr Pendleton did not have the chance to go into the witness box to justify his changed story. | |
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