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21 April 2021 / Dr Jon Robins
Issue: 7929 / Categories: Features , Criminal
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Rough (in)justice: the Oliver Campbell case

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Jon Robins reports on Oliver Campbell’s campaign to clear his name

Oliver Campbell was convicted of murder in 1991 and ended up serving 11 years in prison for a crime he always insisted had nothing to do with him. In July 1990, a shopkeeper was shot and killed in front of his son during a robbery of his off-licence on the Lower Clapton Road in Hackney, East London.

Witnesses agreed that the two men who carried out the robbery were black and around 5ft 10 inches tall. Oliver Campbell was sentenced to life despite being 6ft 3 inches and his co-accused admitting to the robbery, providing a written account identifying the killer and confirming that Campbell had nothing to do with the murder. The jury was never told of this account.

Vulnerability

Over the years, Campbell’s campaign to clear his name has gained momentum. In 2002, Kirsty Wark presented a BBC Rough Justice investigation into the case which highlighted the vulnerability of suspects with severe learning difficulties in police

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NEWS
The Legal Action Group (LAG)—the UK charity dedicated to advancing access to justice—has unveiled its calendar of training courses, seminars and conferences designed to support lawyers, advisers and other legal professionals in tackling key areas of public interest law
The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 transformed criminal justice. Writing in NLJ this week, Ed Cape of UWE and Matthew Hardcastle and Sandra Paul of Kingsley Napley trace its ‘seismic impact’
Operational resilience is no longer optional. Writing in NLJ this week, Emma Radmore and Michael Lewis of Womble Bond Dickinson explain how UK regulators expect firms to identify ‘important business services’ that could cause ‘intolerable levels of harm’ if disrupted
As the drip-feed of Epstein disclosures fuels ‘collateral damage’, the rush to cry misconduct in public office may be premature. Writing in NLJ this week, David Locke of Hill Dickinson warns that the offence is no catch-all for political embarrassment. It demands a ‘grave departure’ from proper standards, an ‘abuse of the public’s trust’ and conduct ‘sufficiently serious to warrant criminal punishment’
Employment law is shifting at the margins. In his latest Employment Law Brief for NLJ this week, Ian Smith of Norwich Law School examines a Court of Appeal ruling confirming that volunteers are not a special legal species and may qualify as ‘workers’
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