Raphael Rowe

Raphael Rowe is an English investigative journalist, best known for his work with BBC Panorama.

Convicted in 1990 of murder as part of the M25 Three, after 12 years in prison, the conviction of Rowe and his two co-defendants Michael George Davis and Randolph Egbert Johnson, were overturned in July 2000. Rowe later commented:

Despite a cast-iron alibi and no forensic evidence, I was sentenced to life. I'm not bitter and I don't blame the criminal justice system. I blame those individuals who knowingly allowed this injustice to happen. I just wish I could forget what happened, but every day something – the slamming of a door, small rooms – reminds me of prison.

Early life

Rowe was born and brought up in south-east London. Described in court as a "career criminal", he had previous convictions, including malicious wounding.

M25 Three

Main article: M25 Three

Original crime

At some time between 0150 and 0340 UTC an armed gang of three men wearing balaclavas and driving a stolen green Triumph Spitfire approached a car in Chelsham, Surrey in which Peter Hurburgh and Alan Eley were having sex. The gang dragged the two men from the car, tied them up and stripped and beat them. The gang then poured petrol over the two men, and Eley lost consciousness. When he regained consciousness, Hurburgh was dead, having sustained five fractured ribs and a fractured sternum, which had bruised his heart leading to death from cardiac arrest.

The assailants abandoned the Triumph Spitfire at the scene and stole Hurburgh's car, an Austin Princess which they then drove around the M25 to Oxted, Surrey. Here, at around 0340 UTC, they broke into a home belonging to Richard Napier, then aged 66, who lived with his wife and 40-year-old son. The gang threatened the family with a knife and two handguns, one of which was described as a revolver. Timothy Napier sustained multiple knife wounds and Mrs Napier was instructed to remove her rings and jewellery. She was told that if she refused her fingers would be cut off. The house was ransacked and after 20–30 minutes, the robbers left, taking Timothy Napier's Toyota Corolla which had been parked near the house. Peter Hurburgh's Austin Princess was found abandoned 100 yards (90 m) from the Napier's house.

The gang then drove around the M25 to Fetcham, Surrey, where at 0500 UTC they broke into the house of Rosemary Spicer and her boyfriend Peter Almond, who were threatened with a handgun, tied up and gagged while the house was ransacked. After between forty-five minutes and an hour the gang left in a Renault 5 and a Vauxhall Cavalier stolen from Spicer and Almond; Timothy Napier's Toyota was later found nearby.

Arrest

Rowe and Davis were arrested on the morning of 19 December 1988 at the probation hostel they shared in Sydenham, London and initially taken to Oxted Police Station. Johnson was apprehended on 6 January 1989, at which time he was found to be in possession of a revolver. Some of the items stolen during the Oxted and Fetcham robberies were recovered from the bail hostel. Davis' fingerprints were found on porcelain figures taken during one of the robberies and later discovered in a locked cupboard inside the bail hostel. In total, twelve people at the hostel were arrested. A further suspect, Norman Duncan, was already in police custody.

Case against Rowe, Davis and Johnson

Griffin and Duncan admitted stealing the Triumph Spitfire used by the gang that murdered Hurburgh, but testified that they had stolen it at the request of Rowe, on 13 December 1988. They claimed that it had been kept at the bail hostel until the evening of 15 December when Rowe, Davis and a third man, whom they did not know but who was alleged by the prosecution to be Johnson, had asked them for assistance to "bump start" the vehicle, between 2300 and 0000 UTC. They also testified that Rowe had asked for balaclavas. This same group of witnesses claimed that Rowe and Davis had returned on the morning of 16 December in the stolen Renault and Vauxhall Cavalier with a quantity of items, the proceeds of the robberies, which they helped to unload and hide. They alleged that they were then asked to dispose of the stolen vehicles, with the warning that they were a "bit warm" and that they would have to be burned completely to remove all identification.

A girlfriend of Rowe, 16-year-old Kate Williamson, said that at the time the crimes were committed Rowe had left at approximately 0130 UTC and not returned until around 0630 UTC, when he returned wearing different jeans and shoes and carrying a Sainsbury's bag, the same type of which had been taken in the Spicer/Almond robberies. Williamson claimed that Rowe took from the bag a pendant with a gold chain, a watch which was later found to be one taken during the Spicer robbery, and muddied jeans and boots. Williamson claimed that Rowe gave her two rings, later found to have been taken during the Napier robbery, a watch found to have been taken from the Spicer robbery, and a watchstrap from the Napier robbery. She handed all of the items to the police on 19 December 1988. Police also found a brooch taken in the Spicer robbery in a waste paper basket in Rowe's room. Williamson gave further evidence that when Rowe had left on the Thursday evening he had been wearing a particular type of distinctive footwear, and imprints made by this type of boot were found in a flowerbed at the Napier home and in blood in the Napier's hall.

Trial and conviction

The original trial took place at the Old Bailey between January and February 1990, resulting in all three being convicted in March 1990 of the murder of Peter Hurburgh, causing grievous bodily harm with intent to Timothy Napier and several robberies. Each was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder and given substantial sentences for the other offences. Davis also pleaded guilty to separate charges of robbery and Johnson to robbery and rape, offences committed during the commission of an earlier burglary several days before the murder.

Appeals

First appeal

The first appeal was heard on 23 July 1993. It was then disclosed that reward money had been paid for information leading to the three men's conviction but not the name or names of the recipients, which their lawyers claimed was vital to their case, since those alleged to have received payments might also have been suspects, and had been promised immunity from prosecution in return for information. It later emerged that Norman Duncan had received £10,300 in reward money from the Daily Mail, which was not disclosed to the jury when he gave evidence at the original trial.

The appeal was rejected, with the court stating: "Taking all the evidence relating to the timing and events on the Thursday night and the succeeding days into account we conclude that, on the whole of the material we have reviewed, there is no basis for saying there is even a lurking doubt about the safety of the convictions of Rowe and Davis, the same applies to Johnson. On the contrary, the case against them all was, and remains, a formidable one."

Criminal Cases Review Commission

In 1997 the Criminal Cases Review Commission appointed an investigating officer from Greater Manchester Police to carry out enquiries into the case, and in January 1999 the investigating officer submitted his report. The report concluded that:

The new evidence and arguments... create a real possibility that Mr Johnson was not one of those three persons. Whilst there is evidence specifically linking Messrs Rowe and Davis to the robberies, if the prosecution against one of the three, Mr Johnson, might no longer be sustainable, in the Commission's view the Court of Appeal ought at the same time have the opportunity to consider whether the case can still be sustained against Messrs Rowe and Davis.

European Court of Human Rights judgment

In 1994, Davis and Rowe made an application to the European Court of Human Rights. On 16 February 2000 the court returned its judgment in respect of Davis and Rowe. It found that there had been a violation of Article 6 (1) of the European Convention on Human Rights, specifically the failure to disclose Duncan's status as an informant prior to trial together with the fact that he had become eligible for a reward and may have nominated Cooper as one of the robbers before later accusing Johnson.

2000 Appeal Court hearing, convictions overturned

Commencing on 14 June 2000, at the hearings conclusion, the court stated that:

We cannot say that any of these convictions is safe. They must be quashed and the appeals allowed. Ten years on it is not appropriate to order a retrial.

The three were released from prison on 17 July 2000 when their convictions were overturned after being ruled "unsafe" by the Court of Appeal. In the ruling, Lord Justice Mantell, Mr Justice Blofeld and Mrs Justice Rafferty were emphatic that although the convictions were unsafe, they were not declaring the men innocent: "[T]he case against all three appellants was formidable. The evidence against Rowe was overwhelming... For the better understanding of those who have listened to this judgment and of those who may report it hereafter this is not a finding of innocence, far from it." On his release, Rowe said:

I know the judges were involved in a damage limitation exercise. But what they said was diabolical. They didn't say I was guilty, but that's how everyone interpreted it. I have battled every day of the last 12 years to prove I was set up by the police, to prove I am not a murderer. It has been my passion. I am free now, but it's as if I'm still inside. I'm still trying to get my voice heard.

Journalist

During his time in prison, Rowe studied journalism via a correspondence course.

Following his release from prison, after a year travelling the world Rowe joined the BBC Radio 4's Today programme, as its first mixed race reporter. He then became the first mixed race reporter on the BBC Six O'Clock News, and then the first mixed race reporter on BBC Panorama.

After the arrest and conviction of Barry George at the Old Bailey on 2 July 2001 for the murder of BBC news presenter Jill Dando, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. Concern about this conviction was widespread on the basis that the case against George appeared thin. Two appeals were unsuccessful, but after Rowe filmed a BBC Panorama film which discredited forensics evidence was excluded from the prosecution's case, George's third appeal succeeded in November 2007. The original conviction was quashed and a second trial lasting eight weeks ended in George's acquittal on 1 August 2008.

External links

• Bio at BBC Panorama