Page 16 - Once a copper 10 03 2020

evident on their first court appearance. Their appearances were significantly
different one week later having been on remand in Winson Green Prison.

In later years, his investigative expertise was called upon to explore the
suggestion that nitro-glycerine on the hands of defendants could have been
present by more innocent means than had been alleged. John’s in depth
enquiries revealed there was no substance to the allegations that the
explosive substances could have been transferred to the hands of the
suspects by the innocent means they had alleged.

On 9 June 1975, the six men appeared at the Crown Court at Lancaster
Castle before Mr. Justice Bridge and a jury. Following a lengthy trial, all six
were eventually found guilty and sentenced to twenty one life sentences of
imprisonment. In March 1976, their first application for leave to appeal was
dismissed by the then Lord Chief Justice, Lord Widgery. In 1988, their case was
referred back to the Court of Appeal by the Home Secretary, Douglas Hurd.
After a six week hearing, the longest criminal appeal hearing on record, the
convictions were upheld by the then Lord Chief Justice, Lord Lane, to be safe
and satisfactory.

However, a second full appeal was allowed in 1991, following the
disbandment of the Serious Crime Squad in 1989, amidst allegations of
interfering with evidential documents, fabrication and suppression of
evidence by members of the same squad, relevant to non-related cases.

During that second appeal, the lawyers for the Birmingham Six, challenged
once again the credibility of their clients written confessions, which were not
resisted by the Crown. Hence, Lord Justices Lloyd, Mustill and Farquharson,
ruled in the Court of Appeal that the convictions were unsafe and wrong. The
six men were finally released and awarded compensation for having been
wrongfully convicted, back in 1975. As a result of that final decision of the
Court of Appeal, the case of the Birmingham Six has gone down in history as
being the gravest miscarriage of justice ever placed on record. Were they
guilty of those dreadful crimes for which they were charged?
According to the Court of Appeal, no. Publisher: Independently published (27
Feb. 2017)

The Spoilt Generation: Why Restoring Authority Will Make Our Children and
Society Happier – Dr Aric Sigman

In the space of a few decades the way we parent has changed
dramatically. Something we once did intuitively has become the subject of
political fashion, guided by experts. As parents we are older and more time-
poor than ever before, with the highest proportion of single-parent
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households in history.