Paul Blackburn: ( United Kingdom): From our 'Enough to make one weep department. This is truly awful. HL); United Kingdom: False confession (teenager) case: With a twist: The judge wants the police to apologize to the man wrongly jailed for 25 years because officers lied at his trial - and the Cheshire police (to their shame) cannot bring themselves to apologize - even after the now-retired appeal court judge who quashed the conviction told the Guardian that the force should say sorry..."Cheshire police said that while they were “concerned” at the wrongful jailing of Paul Blackburn, who was convicted as a teenager in 1978 for the attempted murder and sexual assault of a young boy, no apology was needed as procedures at the time of the investigation were “very different”. Blackburn, then in a reform school in Warrington, Cheshire, was arrested shortly after he turned 15. The only notable evidence against him was a confession he signed after four hours of questioning by two senior officers, with no parent or lawyer present. The appeal court, which quashed the conviction in 2005, two years after Blackburn was released on license, said the police claim he wrote the confession unaided “can now be seen to have been untrue” after linguistic analysis showed it was littered with police jargon almost certainly unknown to a poorly-educated teenager."

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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: This Blog is interested in false confessions because of the disturbing number of exonerations in the USA, Canada and multiple other jurisdictions throughout the world, where, in the absence of incriminating forensic evidence the conviction is based on self-incrimination – and because of the growing body of  scientific research showing how vulnerable suspects are to widely used interrogation methods  such as  the notorious ‘Reid Technique.’ As  all too many of this Blog's post have shown, I also recognize that pressure for false confessions can take many forms, up to and including physical violence, even physical and mental torture.
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog:
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QUOTE OF THE DAY: "In follow-up interviews recorded for the Today in Focus podcast, the lead appeal court judge, Sir David Keene, recalled it as “a shocking case”. Keene, who is now retired and thus able to speak publicly for the first time, said the evidence about Blackburn’s confession was “manifestly absurd” and that the police should apologise. “In the light of the findings of our court about the way in which some of the officers of that force had lied at trial, leading to a wrongful conviction, I would have thought it would have been appropriate for them to apologise,” he said."

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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Blackburn’s ordeal in more than a dozen prisons over his sentence was made even worse by his refusal to accept the protection offered to sex offenders because he maintained his innocence. Over his first 15 years in jail, Blackburn said, he endured “beatings on a daily basis, abuse on a daily basis, spit on a daily basis”, adding: “The first time I was placed on report officially by a prison officer, was for refusing a direct order to mop my own blood up off the floor.” Blackburn was later assisted by older, more educated prisoners, who helped him push for an appeal. While he has worked since his release to highlight other miscarriages of justice, Blackburn has described how he still struggles to cope with the trauma of his experiences in prison. “I still get quite distressed, on a daily basis, replaying things over and over again,” he said. “You’re standing there doing the ironing, and all of a sudden your in Full Sutton [jail], in the punishment block. Different things will set me off – uniforms, keys, all this sort of thing.”

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STORY: "Police reject judge's call to apologize over wrongful conviction," by reporter Peter Walkeruk, published by The Guardian on January 13, 2020.

SUB-HEADING: "Evidence of Cheshire force that led to 1978 imprisonment of Paul Blackburn ‘absurd.’

PHOTO CAPTION: "Paul Blackburn was wrongfully convicted in December 1978 of the attempted murder of a nine-year-old boy.

GIST: "Police have refused to apologise to a man wrongly jailed for 25 years because officers lied at his trial, even after the now-retired appeal court judge who quashed the conviction told the Guardian that the force should say sorry.  Cheshire police said that while they were “concerned” at the wrongful jailing of Paul Blackburn, who was convicted as a teenager in 1978 for the attempted murder and sexual assault of a young boy, no apology was needed as procedures at the time of the investigation were “very different”. Blackburn, then in a reform school in Warrington, Cheshire, was arrested shortly after he turned 15. The only notable evidence against him was a confession he signed after four hours of questioning by two senior officers, with no parent or lawyer present.  The appeal court, which quashed the conviction in 2005, two years after Blackburn was released on license, said the police claim he wrote the confession unaided “can now be seen to have been untrue” after linguistic analysis showed it was littered with police jargon almost certainly unknown to a poorly-educated teenager. The ruling said this cast doubt on other police claims. The Guardian covered Blackburn’s case for its Justice on Trial series in 2009. In follow-up interviews recorded for the Today in Focus podcast, the lead appeal court judge, Sir David Keene, recalled it as “a shocking case”. Keene, who is now retired and thus able to speak publicly for the first time, said the evidence about Blackburn’s confession was “manifestly absurd” and that the police should apologise. “In the light of the findings of our court about the way in which some of the officers of that force had lied at trial, leading to a wrongful conviction, I would have thought it would have been appropriate for them to apologise,” he said. When asked about Keene’s view, assistant chief constable Matt Burton said the Cheshire police would not do so, despite accepting the appeal court decisions. Burton said the force was “satisfied that we do not need to reopen the investigation”, an apparent intimation they still believe Blackburn was responsible. “An independent investigation into the conduct of the officers involved in this case was also undertaken in 1996 which concluded that there was no evidence of any misconduct nor was there any evidence to pursue criminal proceedings against the officers concerned,” Burton said. “This case was investigated more than 40 years ago, at a time when the procedures and rules around the questioning of suspects and the submission of evidence were very different to that of today.” Blackburn’s ordeal in more than a dozen prisons over his sentence was made even worse by his refusal to accept the protection offered to sex offenders because he maintained his innocence. Over his first 15 years in jail, Blackburn said, he endured “beatings on a daily basis, abuse on a daily basis, spit on a daily basis”, adding: “The first time I was placed on report officially by a prison officer, was for refusing a direct order to mop my own blood up off the floor.” Blackburn was later assisted by older, more educated prisoners, who helped him push for an appeal. While he has worked since his release to highlight other miscarriages of justice, Blackburn has described how he still struggles to cope with the trauma of his experiences in prison. “I still get quite distressed, on a daily basis, replaying things over and over again,” he said. “You’re standing there doing the ironing, and all of a sudden your in Full Sutton [jail], in the punishment block. Different things will set me off – uniforms, keys, all this sort of thing.” Some semblance of stability has been brought by marriage, and by compensation Blackburn was awarded after the appeal – though changes to the system made under the 2010 coalition government means it would be unlikely he would be awarded this now.

The entire story can be read at:
      https://www.theguardian.com/law/2020/jan/13/police-reject-judges-call-to-apologise-over-wrongful-conviction

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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic"  section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com.  Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;


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FINAL WORD:  (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases):  "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."

Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;

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