British Injustice with Raphael Rowe II, History 2022 - Trial & Error TV -
Toxteth, Liverpool, Friday 13th March 1981: At 9.30 a.m. the manager of a betting shop on a busy high street was brutally murdered in broad daylight. The victim was 23-year-old John Suffield. British Injustice with Raphael Rowe II, History 2022
Honing in on two local men: 22-year-old Ray Gilbert and 24-year-old John Kamara. Despite there being no forensic evidence both men were quickly convicted and sentenced to Life in prison. ibid.
Merseyside Police investigated the murder of John Suffield in March 1981. Ray Gilbert and John Kamara were found guilty of murder. In 2000 the Court of Appeal found that the conviction of John Kamara could no longer be deemed safe and should be quashed. On the potential unfairness of the identification parade, the Court of Appeal concluded that they were left unpersuaded that Kamara stood out to any appreciable extent. ibid.
On March 12th 1981 there was an argument in the betting shop at Lodge Lane, Liverpool 8. It was enough to make the manager, a young man of 23 called John Suffield, fear for his life. Trial & Error: John Kamara, Channel 4 1997
John Suffield was to die that day. Though not at the hands of that angry customer. Two other men were convicted of his murder, one rightly so. The other has so far served sixteen years for a murder he did not commit. ibid.
The two men got away with less than £200 in notes and coins. ibid.
Raymond Gilbert confessed to the murder within hours of being taken to Admiral Street police station. He told the police he got angry with his victim, and that it was he, Gilbert, who was solely responsible for the fatal stabbing. ibid.
The man we do worry about is a man whose name Gilbert offered to the police as his supposed accomplice – Johnnie Kamara … He had also slept with Gilbert’s girlfriend – a fatal indiscretion. ibid.
As we began to excavate the Kamara case, whole areas of the prosecution would crumble at the touch. ibid.
The trial of Johnnie Kamara took place in front of an all-white jury just weeks after riots had reduced much of Toxteth to a smouldering ruin. ibid.