"MARK DALLAGHER, A SMALL-TIME BURGLAR FROM HUDDERSFIELD, LATER BECAME THE FIRST PERSON IN BRITISH HISTORY TO BE CONVICTED ON THE EVIDENCE OF AN EARPRINT AFTER POLICE EXPERTS SAID THEY WERE 100 PER CENT SURE THAT HIS WAS AN EXACT MATCH FOR THE MURDERER'S. IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE THE NEXT BIG THING IN CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS – A NEW TYPE OF EVIDENCE AS TRUSTWORTHY AS A FINGERPRINT WHICH COULD PROVE CRUCIAL IN THE FUTURE. YET MR DALLAGHER WAS RELEASED IN JANUARY THIS YEAR AFTER NEW DNA GENETIC EVIDENCE PROVED CONCLUSIVELY THAT THE EARPRINT COULD NOT HAVE BEEN HIS........."
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"HIS SINGLE BED IS SURROUNDED BY PHOTOGRAPHS AND CARDS, AND HE REFERS TO HIS BEDROOM AS HIS "CELL". IT IS THE ONLY PLACE, HE SAYS, WHERE HE FEELS SAFE FROM THE WORLD THAT LET HIM DOWN SO BADLY.
"YOU CAN'T JUST TAKE A MAN'S WHOLE LIFE OFF HIM, TAKE HIS FREEDOM AWAY FROM HIM AND JUST PUT HIM AWAY FOR EIGHT YEARS AND THEN KICK HIM BACK OUT AFTER EIGHT YEARS AND SAY, 'OK, GO ON, YOU'RE ALL RIGHT.'
"IT DOESN'T WORK LIKE THAT," HE SAYS.
REPORTER KATE O'HARA: YORKSHIRE POST;"
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Reporter O'Hara's story, containing the first interview with Mark Dallagher following his release, ran on September 29, 2004, under the heading, "Earmarked – for rough justice."
The story carried the sub-heading: "An earprint on a window pane landed Mark Dallagher in prison for seven years for a murder he did not commit. Now he breaks his silence about the flawed evidence."
"WHEN 94-year-old Dorothy Wood was murdered, the only real clue to her killer was an earprint left as he listened at her window," the story begins;
"Ms Wood, a retired health visitor who was profoundly deaf, was found dead in bed at her home in Whitby Avenue, Fartown, on May 7, 1996. She had been smothered by a pillow," it continues;
"Mark Dallagher, a small-time burglar from Huddersfield, later became the first person in British history to be convicted on the evidence of an earprint after police experts said they were 100 per cent sure that his was an exact match for the murderer's.
It was supposed to be the next big thing in criminal investigations – a new type of evidence as trustworthy as a fingerprint which could prove crucial in the future. Yet Mr Dallagher was released in January this year after new DNA genetic evidence proved conclusively that the earprint could not have been his.
In his first interview since being released in January after a "grotesque miscarriage of justice" that saw him locked up for seven years, he still looks shocked that investigators could get it so spectacularly wrong.
Shaking his head constantly during an hour-long documentary that follows him throughout his time in prison, his appeal, his retrial and eventual release, Mr Dallagher says he is finding it hard to cope with life since his release.
He has moved in with his fiancee, yet has his own room which he has fashioned into a mirror image of the cell he spent seven years bitterly fighting to escape from. He folds up his towel and flannel after washing, and packs his soap and toothbrush neatly onto the stack, just as he did in prison.
His single bed is surrounded by photographs and cards, and he refers to his bedroom as his "cell". It is the only place, he says, where he feels safe from the world that let him down so badly.
"You can't just take a man's whole life off him, take his freedom away from him and just put him away for eight years and then kick him back out after eight years and say, 'OK, go on, you're all right.'
"It doesn't work like that," he says.
"Because I'm struggling, you know, and I'm 30 years old but I'm struggling going to town centres and getting a bus and using a pay phone. Everything is hard, everything. I don't know how to use mobile phones, and I don't know how to work DVD players. I'm having to learn everything."
A jury unanimously found Mr Dallagher, formerly of Honoria Street, Fartown, Huddersfield, guilty of smothering Ms Wood, after being told by a Dutch expert that the famous earprint must have been his.
But a retrial was ordered by the Court of Appeal in 2002 after his conviction was found to be unsafe.
A new investigation was launched, and in January, when the prosecution offered no evidence against him, Judge Sir Stephen Mitchell formally found him not guilty of Ms Wood's murder.
Yet nobody has ever apologised to Mr Dallagher for taking seven years of his life, and no one has been convicted of Ms Wood's murder. West Yorkshire Police say they consider the matter "closed".
For Mr Dallagher, who told his fiancee and his father Mick that he would commit suicide if he lost his appeal, the matter is far from closed.
His voice cracking with emotion, he says: "I'm fighting for my life here, that's all I've been able to do. But there is still a murderer out there."
West Yorkshire Police said last night: "Having re-examined the case, the force has not found any evidence to lead to the prosecution of any other suspects for the murder of Dorothy Wood.
"Therefore we consider the matter closed until any further admissible evidence comes to light.""
Harold Levy...hlevy15@gmail.com;
