Day Of Reckoning Nears

[The-Informer]

==================
Miscarriages of JusticeUK (MOJUK)
mo...@mojuk.org.uk
http://www.mojuk.org.uk
==================

Obituary: Kevin John Callan 1958 - 2003

Kevin Callan became nationally famous when his conviction for murder was
overturned on 6 April 1995. A former truck driver who had left school
without qualifications, he had been convicted of shaking to death Amanda
Allman, a helpless four year old child who suffered from cerebral palsy and
spastic diplegia.

Amanda died on 15 April 1991, and Kevin was arrested the next day.
Ignoring his protestations that he could not have harmed Amanda, the police
constructed a case against him, even finding someone who claimed he had
overheard Kevin in a police cell admit to shaking her.

Amanda's mother, Lesley Bridgewood, constantly assured them that Kevin
loved her children and was infinitely patient with Amanda, teaching her to
walk and speak despite her severe disabilities. But since the experts were
convinced Kevin was guilty, they ignored the other possible causes of
Amanda's death (accidental falls and neglect by medical authorities) and so
Kevin and Les were left without time to grieve, and they are left forever
with no adequate explanation of why Amanda died.

Kevin's case caught the public imagination. At his trial, overwhelming
evidence had been given by two experienced pathologists, Jeffrey Freeman and
Geoffrey Garratt, who agreed that Amanda had been shaken to death while she
was in Kevin's sole care. Kevin's own lawyers failed to produce any evidence
to the contrary. Kevin collapsed in court, senseless with shock at the
guilty verdict.

Incarcerated in Wakefield prison, he badgered library staff to provide
him with the books that enabled him to become an expert in child
neuropathology, and to correspond with other acknowledged experts, Philip
Wrightson and Helen Whitwell.

They agreed that Amanda could not have been shaken to death.

On the basis of their reports, Salford solicitor Campbell Malone applied
for leave to appeal. But leave was refused by Lord Justice Tucker. The
application was renewed, and in response the Crown Prosecution Service
commissioned two counter-reports from Professor Michael Green and Mr Myles
Gibson. But the Crown's own experts only confirmed what Kevin's experts
said, and in addition heavily criticised the work of Dr Garratt. The CPS
announced they would not contest the appeal.

Kevin walked free down the steps of the courts of justice, surrounded
by his family, who had always supported him.

Michael Mansfield QC, Kevin's senior counsel, told the appeal court
that it was 'a sad reflection on the system that this injustice had only
come to light because of Kevin Callan's persistence.'

After the intense media interest died down, Kevin published his own
readable and fascinating account (Kevin Callan's Story, Little, Brown & Co.,
1997). In a foreword to the book, Michael Mansfield wrote: 'Kevin's
testament is also a monument. Before it is too late, let there be no more
names inscribed in the hall of judicial infamy', and he looked forward to
the establishment of a national Forensic Science Institute, a properly
financed and provisioned independent scientific facility. Of course, nothing
has changed.

Before he was released, Kevin's sister Janice Davies, the most
indefatigable of his supporters, helped to set up the organisation Innocent,
to support Kevin and other wrongly convicted prisoners and their families.
Innocent continues to flourish.

For a while after his release, Kevin attended meetings and helped
others suffering as he had done. But without the impetus of his personal
fight to gain recognition of the terrible things that had been done to him,
Kevin seemed to lose direction.

Those of us who got to know him during his fight against injustice,
soon came to regard him as a friend and to respect his impressive
intelligence, determination and wit, later lost touch and were unable to
offer him our support. We heard occasional reports of how troubled his life
had become, and that he died of liver failure on 5 August 2003.

It is difficult to imagine what it must be like to suffer the
oppressive weight of a conviction for a terrible crime and a life sentence,
when you know you are innocent, yet every part of this immensely powerful
system regards you as guilty.

Such an experience can damage even the strongest people beyond repair.
Kevin's many fine qualities were wasted and lost as a consequence of what
was done by so-called expert pathologists, the police, the criminal justice
system and the prison system.

We hold them responsible for our own sad loss.

Innocent, 20 August 2003

Background articles, Kevin Callan:
Prisoner studied neurology in fight for murder appeal
Prisoner who disproved experts is freed
http://www.innocent.org.uk/cases/kevincallan/index.html

Innocent Fighting Miscarriages Of Justice Since 1993
http://www.innocent.org.uk

Source:
Andrew Green
and...@fitting-up.org.uk