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Book review: The First Miscarriage of Justice: The “Unreported and Amazing” Case of Tony Stock

16 January 2015 / Roger Smith
Issue: 7636 / Categories: Features
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"The story is compelling & Jon Robins tells it well"

Author: Jon Robins
Publisher: Waterside Press
ISBN: 9781909976122
Price: £18

The title of this book comes from its subject himself. Tony Stock never meant to deny the long and sad trail of miscarriages of justice that plague British history. He wanted to argue that his case should be seen as the first in the modern series of miscarriages that began to be uncovered through the 1980s and 1990s, notably the Guildford Four, Cardiff Three and the Birmingham Six. Unlike the defendants in those cases, the injustice in Stock’s conviction has never been officially acknowledged.

The events that gave rise to the original conviction in 1970 lasted a couple of minutes. Two men collecting the takings of the day from a Tesco in Leeds are coshed from behind; one of them, the manager, refuses to let go of a cardboard box containing £4,000; one of the two assailants stamps on his hand, breaking two fingers;

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