Trial & Error TV - Evidence-Based Justice Lab
The tip-off about the motiveless murder of two women on Aldershot Common came within hours of the crime. It was almost two weeks before detectives acting on the call made contact with the local man accused in it. It was more than a year before they decided to arrest him, and even then they didn’t believe his incoherent confession and let him go. But today that man is entering the tenth year of a life sentence for a double murder. Trial & Error: Peter Fell, Channel 4 1994
On three separate days Peter Fell rang the police to incriminate himself. ibid.
Both of them [dog-walkers] were to be stabbed to death in a vicious and sudden attack. ibid.
No-one seemed to take Fell seriously as a murder suspect. ibid.
When the jury failed to take up the judge’s suggestion and accept his bank alibi the case was lost for Peter Fell. ibid.
The trial of Peter Fell was corrupted by error, irregularity and in the case of one key witness perjury. ibid.
Peter Fell was convicted of the double murder of Ann Lee and Margaret Johnson who were killed while out walking their dogs. Following the murder, he made a call to 999 confessing. He also made several other admissions during police interviews, where he was not allowed a solicitor. He was convicted primarily based on these admissions. He later stated that he had made the story up because he wanted to ‘be somebody.’ On appeal, evidence from experts, including an expert instructed by the Crown, showed that these admissions were unreliable. In addition, it was found that the Crown did not disclose facts relating to eyewitness testimony that may have undermined that testimony (e.g. that one witness had identified various persons as being persons he recognised). The court found that without the admissions (which were described as false confessions) the case would not have been fit to go before a jury, and quashed the conviction. Evidence-Based Justice Lab online article