NewsVine
Provided by
George Coombs
28th March 2009
Raymond Gilbert is still in prison with little hope of release soon. He was convicted in December ’81 of the murder of a bookmaker, John Suffield, in Liverpool. Suffield was stabbed to death on the morning of Friday 13th March that year. Convicted at the same time as Gilbert was John Kamara, who was eventually released by the Court of Appeal in 2000 after long years maintaining his innocence.
Gilbert, a mixed race youth, had already been convicted of some crimes and gang fights in Liverpool before the murder. He was arrested on Monday 16th March 1981 and then spent 48 hours alone in police custody being interviewed at various times of day and night. During those 48 hours he was told that his alibi (the girl friend with whom he claimed he was at the relevant time) had changed her story.
Threatened with prosecution herself, she withdrew her statement that Gilbert had been with her all day and said that he had gone out on the morning of the murder.
Eventually Gilbert told the police he had murdered Suffield and signed a confession. It is clear from the police interview notes that Gilbert changed his account of what had happened several times during the 48 hours.
No evidence of any kind was found to connect Gilbert with the murder. No witness identification. No finger prints. No blood tracings despite multiple stabbings. No murder weapon. No stolen money. NOTHING AT ALL.
There were more likely suspects. Two men, angry at not being paid what they claimed was owed, threatened the night before the murder, in front of witnesses, and said they would come back the next day to sort him out. The threats were so serious that Suffield, very frightened, told his employers that evening that he wanted to work elsewhere. He was due to meet a Coral representative to arrange the handover on Friday 13th, the day of the murder. These two men were not properly investigated.
John Suffield’s father tells me that possibly on Saturday 14th, and certainly by Sunday 15th he was told by the police that all those in the betting shop on the 12th, about twenty people, were in the clear. Manifestly their alibis, especially those who had threatened Suffield, were not given the same treatment as that of Gilbert’s. Indeed it would have been impossible for such investigations to have been carried out. All of those who were in the shop on the Thursday could not even have been identified in that time. The shop was closed on the Friday and Saturday.
Once in prison, on remand, Gilbert repudiated his confession and maintained that position up to his trial. He had a very good chance of being found not guilty, if he had had a good lawyer and had the jury (the third) actually heard the evidence. But they did not.
With an expression of exasperation during the trial, Gilbert suddenly changed his plea to ‘Guilty.’ He says that he was fed up and intimidated by Kamara and his friends, who were in the same prison. Hew had falsely incriminated Kamara, as his partner in the robbery, in his written confession, after Kamara’s name had been suggested to him by the police.
He says he thought he was helping Kamara by changing his plea to guilty during the trial. In fact his change had the opposite effect. Kamara became guilty by association and was also convicted.
There seems to have been no official notice taken of what ought to be blindingly obvious and a matter of grave concern. Why would a man go on denying his guilt for nearly 29 years and refusing to go on courses when, if he had conformed and admitted responsibility for his crime, he could have been out of prison years ago?
Filed under: Case Profiles, Detention, Personal, injustice | Leave a Comment
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