Trial & Error TV - Evidence-Based Justice Lab
Some decisions are poised on the finest of balances. It takes skill and dexterity to maintain the illusion of stability. This is the story of a case which even the judge said was knife-edged. The evidence always teetered on the very edge of truth. And under the scrutiny that Trial & Error has brought to bear, the case collapses. Trial & Error: Raymond Gilmour, Channel 4 1994
The rape and murder of a Scottish schoolgirl … The murder of Pamela Hastie … What eventually got Raymond Gilmour convicted were two alleged confessions. ibid.
Those admissions that Gilmour claimed, though the police denied it in court, were forced out of him. ibid.
A guilty verdict on the narrowest of margins: eight to six. ibid.
There was no forensic evidence to link Gilmour to the murder. ibid.
Raymond Gilmour confessed to the murder of 16 year old Pamela Hastie twice, but then retracted his confession. He claims this was the result of the pressure of interrogation and that he was attacked and threatened and began to question whether he had actually carried out the crime. His conviction was quashed on appeal when psychological evidence was introduced to suggest he was vulnerable and susceptible to falsely confessing and forensic evidence suggested the use of a knife or sharp object that was not mentioned in the confessions. Evidence-Based Justice Lab online article