The Henley review’s nine recommendations, published last week, include annual training for all CCRC staff on interpretation of DNA evidence, and that any decision not to obtain a police file be accompanied by a ‘full written justification’.
CCRC chair Helen Pitcher expressed ‘sincere regret and an unreserved apology’. The Lord Chancellor, Shabana Mahmood, has begun the process to remove Pitcher from her post.
Jon Robins, lecturer in criminology at Brighton University and NLJ columnist, said: ‘If the CCRC has done one job well, then it has been providing cover for other parts of a failing criminal appeals system. A main theme of the report is the “deep-seated, system-wide, cultural reluctance” starting “right at the top in the Court of Appeal” to acknowledge our justice system will on occasion make mistakes.
‘The rot set in before Helen Pitcher joined, but she needs to go because there’s nothing in the CCRC’s communications with the outside world that they recognise there is a problem.’
Robins added that recent analysis shows just 16 convictions have been overturned as a result of the CCRC’s investigative work over the last eight years.
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