Brain-damaged man jailed over shopkeeper’s murder finally has conviction quashed

A man with severe learning difficulties who was jailed for the murder of a shopkeeper in east London more than 30 years ago has said his ‘fight for justice is finally over’ after his conviction was quashed by the Court of Appeal.

Oliver Campbell was 21 when he was given a life sentence at the Old Bailey for murdering Baldev Hoondle during a robbery at his store in Hackney in July 1990. He was released on licence in 2002.

Now 54, he said the overturning of what has been described as one of the longest miscarriages of justice in British history will allow him to ‘start my life an innocent man’.

Mr Campbell’s convictions rested largely on admissions he made towards the end of 14 police interviews, some of which were conducted without his solicitor being present.

His case was referred to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which investigates potential miscarriages of justice, in 2022, despite previously declining to refer the case in 2005.

At a hearing in February, barristers for Mr Campbell, who suffered severe brain damage as an eight-month-old baby and continues to struggle with memory, concentration and retaining more than the simplest verbal information, said he was ‘badgered and bullied’ into giving a false confession.

Michael Birnbaum KC told the court there were ‘ample’ grounds to find Mr Campbell’s conviction unsafe, suggesting that he was ‘dangled with the temptation’ by police of falsely admitting the killing was an accident.

He said Mr Campbell’s learning disabilities meant he made admissions which were ‘simply absurd’, and ‘nonsense’, and contained a ‘litany of inconsistencies’ against the facts of the case.

On one occasion, he claimed to have hired the gun and several bullets but could not remember where from. On another, he described practicing with the weapon but was unsure whether he had done so in a field or a forest.

The court heard that officers may have ‘deliberately lied’ to adduce confessions from Mr Campbell, who was interviewed 14 times but in some cases did not have a solicitor or appropriate adult present, which Mr Birnbaum said was ‘disgraceful’.

Forensic psychologist Professor Gisli Hannes Gudjonsson also told judges there was a ‘high risk’ that Mr Campbell’s mental disabilities meant he gave a false confession as a form of ‘acquiescence’ during ‘relentless’ questioning.

Mr Birnbaum said Mr Campbell’s learning difficulties meant he was ‘out of his depth’ and ‘simply unable to do justice to himself’ when giving evidence.

In their ruling, Lord Justice Holroyde, sitting with Mr Justice Bourne and Mrs Justice Stacey, dismissed arguments related to ‘serious allegations’ against police officers, but said new evidence around Mr Campbell’s ‘mental state’ meant they had ‘concluded that the convictions are unsafe’.

Lord Justice Holroyde said there was no evidence for claims of ‘manipulation, deliberate misleading and bullying’ made against some officers, and that ‘accusing many persons of incompetence and/or impropriety’ was ‘no more than an attempt to re-run the trial in a different way’.

But he said new evidence on understanding Mr Campbell’s learning difficulties meant a jury’s decision today ‘might be different’.

He continued: ‘A jury knowing of the fresh evidence would be considering the reliability of those confessions in a materially different context.

‘In those circumstances, we cannot say that the fresh evidence could not reasonably have affected the decision of the jury to convict.’

Following the judgment, Mr Campbell said: ‘The fight for justice is finally over after nearly 34 years.

‘I can start my life an innocent man.’

His supporters said: ‘We are all in tears. This is the best news.

‘Ollie’s life starts now.

‘He thanks his legal team, Michael, Rose and Glyn, and his supporters, and his foster mum Jean, and especially Teresa.’

Jurors in the original trial were told the gunman wore a British Knights baseball cap, which was found a few hundred yards from the scene.

Mr Birnbaum said Mr Campbell had purchased the cap in the days before the killing, but hairs found inside it following the shooting were not his, and he was not picked out of an identity parade by Mr Hoondle’s son, despite him having come ‘face to face’ with the gunman.

The barrister said detectives were ‘plainly convinced’ that as Mr Campbell owned the hat, he ‘must have been the shooter’ and were ‘determined to get him to admit’ his role.

He continued that Mr Campbell believed admitting the incident was an accident was ‘his least bad option’.

Mr Campbell’s co-defendant at trial, Eric Samuels, who has since died, was cleared of murder but was jailed for five years after admitting robbery, but Mr Birnbaum said there was ‘irrefutable’ evidence that he ‘told people over 10 years that Oliver was not with him in the robbery’, which was not said at trial.

In the 30-page judgment, Lord Justice Holroyde added that the new evidence would have given the original trial ‘much more information’ about Mr Campbell’s ‘mental state when he made his confessions’.

‘As a result of the fresh expert evidence, the whole approach to the case would now be informed by a different and better understanding of relevant factors,’ he said.

He added that the decision would be a ‘heavy blow’ to Mr Hoondle’s family, but ‘trust that they will understand that we must reach our decisions in accordance with the law, uninfluenced by emotion’.

Following the ruling, a spokesman for the Crown Prosecution Service, which opposed the bid, said: ‘The Court of Appeal rejected 17 grounds of appeal and these convictions were only quashed on the basis of new evidence providing more information about Oliver Campbell’s mental state when he confessed to murder.

‘We respect the judgment of the court.’

A spokesperson for the Criminal Cases Review Commission said: ‘The CCRC referred Mr Campbell’s murder conviction in light of new evidence that his vulnerabilities had not been properly understood or explained at trial.

‘Our review considered modern psychological practice and recent changes in the law, including those concerning the treatment of vulnerable suspects.

‘The jury at Mr Campbell’s trial knew that he had learning disabilities with impaired memory and reasoning skills, but an expert report had concluded that he was not abnormally suggestible. We approached that same expert and invited him to re-consider his assessment of Mr Campbell.

‘A second expert instructed by the CCRC explained how a modern approach to assessing Mr Campbell would take a more holistic view that considered his background and experience. This expert agreed that there were reasons why Mr Campbell may have given unreliable evidence, which were not fully understood or explained to the jury at the time. 

‘The CCRC decided that there was now a real possibility the Court of Appeal would conclude that Mr Campbell’s admissions were unreliable and that ultimately his convictions were unsafe.

‘The Court of Appeal judgment makes clear that its decision is based on fresh evidence from recent research work, and that the understanding of the factors which may contribute to a false confession has increased.

‘It also states that there have been important developments in the law relating to admissibility of evidence and in matters of practice and procedure relevant to a fair trial.’

Emma Davis