No Smoke
by Sandra Lean
Published by Checkpoint Press, available on Amazon
A life-long fascination with the workings of the human mind, and especially the workings of the “criminal mind,” led Sandra Lean, at the age of 32, through the doors of Napier University in Edinburgh. A single parent of two young children, she studied Psychology and Sociology to Honours Degree level. A Masters’ Degree in Forensic Psychology seemed like the most obvious next step, until a local, high-profile murder hit the headlines.
Behind the scenes, Sandra Lean began sifting through the facts, only to discover that all was not as it seemed. What she found led her to other, similar cases, and more patient, methodical sifting, in an investigation that was to last almost four years. The result was a shocking, but true, discovery. Innocent people are being locked up in our prisons, convicted of the most horrific crimes, on a regular basis. These are not one-off, tragic mistakes, but rather, a routine, everyday occurrence.
For every high-profile miscarriage of justice that we hear about, there are dozens more that never make the news. No Smoke examines just some of these cases, highlighting the very human tragedy of wrongful conviction, and pointing out the unthinkable: this could happen to any one of us.
The Murder of Billie-Jo
by Sion Jenkins and Bob Woffindon
Published by Metro Books, available on Amazon
For Billie-Jo Jenkins was murdered at her home in Hastings, Sussex in February 1997. Her foster father, Sion Jenkins, who had just been appointed headteacher of the local boys’ secondary school, was arrested and charged with the murder. In July 1998 he was convicted and sent to prison for life.
The case went on to become one of the great causes celebres in British criminal justice history. Everyone in the country knew about the Billie-Jo murder and seemed to have their own views about whether Jenkins was guilty or innocent. After a momentous legal battle, in which there were altogether an unprecedented six court hearings, he was finally acquitted in February 2006. Not that that outcome was as satisfactory as it seems. Having already faced three criminal trials, Jenkins had to undergo a fourth trial – a trial by media.
At what should have been his moment of triumph, he was lambasted in newspaper and television reports. So the real facts of the case were buried under an avalanche of innuendo and misinformation. Now, for the first time, this book puts on record what actually happened, and explains the whole story from the beginning.
Stolen Innocence: The Sally Clark Story
by John Batt
Published by Ebury Press, available on Amazon
To lose one child is terrible; to lose two is unimaginable. For no one to believe that you are innocent of their deaths and to be imprisoned because of it must be unbearable. Yet, this is the reality Sally Clark had to face. The daughter of a policeman, wife of a solicitor and a solicitor herself, just when she was grieving from the tragic death of her second child the system she’d always believed in turned against her.
Justice suddenly seemed a far-off principle as she was convicted and her initial appeal quashed. Her family, lawyers and various volunteers were relentless in their fight to clear her name. Finally, following three long years in prison, suffering abuse and the bleak horror of bereavement, Sally Clark was finally acquitted by the Court of Appeal in 2003. Her release caught the nation’s attention, and paved the way for succesful appeals by wrongly convicted mothers such as Angela Canning. As Lord Justice Judge said, “Unless we are sure of guilt, the dreadful possibility always remains that a mother, already brutally scarred by the unexplained deaths of her babies, may find herself in prison for life for killing them when she should not be there at all.”
Written with the power of a thriller, the book is a tragic but ultimately uplifting story of a mother’s love and a family’s gutsy fight for what they knew to be right.
Against All Odds: The Angela Cannings Story
by Angela Cannings and Megan Lloyd Davies
Published by Little, Brown Book Group,
available on Amazon
Angela Cannings was charged with murder directly after she and her husband Terry lost their third infant in ten years. She was convicted because of a medical theory that came to be known as ‘ Meadow’s Law’, which stated that ‘one sudden infant death is a tragedy, two is suspicious and three is murder until proved otherwise.
Angela spent almost two years in prison and, at one point, found herself beside Rose West. A fellow inmate scarred her with hot coffee. Angela began to lose all hope, but a cellmate, Rose, helped her refocus on what was important – being reunited with her husband and their daughter Jade. In 2004 she was released unconditionally. Yet, together with the joy of her freedom, there came another ordeal for Angela and Terry – their struggle to rebuild a normal family life.
Cherished: A Mother’s Fight to Prove Her Innocence
by Angela Cannings and Megan Lloyd Davies
Published by Sphere, available on Amazon
Angela Cannings was charged with murder directly after she and her husband Terry lost their third infant in ten years. She was convicted because of a medical theory that came to be known as ‘ Meadow’s Law’, which stated that ‘one sudden infant death is a tragedy, two is suspicious and three is murder until proved otherwise.’
Angela spent almost two years in prison and, at one point, found herself beside Rose West. A fellow inmate scarred her with hot coffee. Angela began to lose all hope, but a cellmate, Rose, helped her refocus on what was important – being reunited with her husband and their daughter Jade. In 2004 she was released unconditionally.
Cherished is the remarkable story of a woman who has shown real endurance under extraordinary circumstances.
Who Killed Jill Dando?: The Case of Barry George, A Shocking Miscarriage of Justice
by S. C. Lomax
Published by Kempton Marks, available on Amazon
In July 2001 Barry Michael George was convicted at the Old Bailey for the murder of television presenter Jill Dando. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, having been told that he was “unpredictable and dangerous”.
The evidence against George was described as “compelling”, yet the case of Barry George remains one of the most controversial in British criminal history with a growing number of people believing him to be the victim of a miscarriage of justice. ‘Who Killed Jill Dando?’ brings the case up to date, based upon extensive research and discussions with those who know George.
It presents the facts and exposes the flaws in the prosecution’s case against the man now regarded by many as one of Britain’s most evil murderers. If George is the victim of a miscarriage of justice then who did kill Jill Dando? “While the reader may not agree with every interpretation Lomax offers, enough has been done to suggest that once again a jury may have been tempted to cross the line of reasonable doubt for the wrong reasons.”
– Gregory Leadbetter, Murder Most Foul.
The Secret of Bryn Estyn – The making of a modern Witch-hunt
by Richard Webster
Published by Orwell Press, available on Amazon
For The Secret of Bryn Estyn tells the story of the gravest series of miscarriages of justice in recent British history – how innocent lives have been destroyed, the public deceived and millions of pounds wasted in a hunt for a dark conspiracy which existed only in the imagination of the investigators.
In 1991 rumours began to circulate in North Wales that Bryn Estyn, a home for adolescent boys on the outskirts of Wrexham, was the centre of a paedophile ring. A massive police investigation was launched which, over the next ten years, spread to care homes throughout Britain. Thousands were accused, hundreds arrested, and the prisons began to fill up with convicted care workers. Had we at last faced up to a horrifying reality? Or had we unleashed an entirely new kind of witch-hunt? Richard Webster has spent nine years uncovering what really happened in North Wales. The result is one of the most remarkable works of investigation ever written.
