Injustice : Innocent man wrongly convicted over armed robbery speaks out

William Mills, who was recently released from jail after serving two years of a nine year sentence for an armed robbery he didn’t commit, has spoken out of his ordeal at the hands of Scotland’s failed justice system.

The Herald reports :

Wrongly convicted Scot speaks about his two-year ordeal

LUCY ADAMS, Chief Reporter April 15 2009

A man jailed for nine years for an armed robbery he did not commit has spoken for the first time about the impact on his family and their fears that his partner playing Good Samaritan may have led to him being implicated.

William Mills, 42, was in tears when he left court last week after senior judges ruled that he had suffered a miscarriage of justice, and says he is still reeling from the events of the past two years.

Liam O'Donnell, his solicitor, says he will now be seeking compensation for the ordeal, which included the father-of-two spending 12 months in prison.

Mr Mills told The Herald that the only connection between him and one of the police officers who identified him from the CCTV images was from an unusual and completely unrelated event some months before his wrongful arrest.

The officer had called at his home after following a trail of blood from a girl who had been slashed in the street and given assistance by Mr Mills' partner, Toni Stringfellow.

Despite DNA evidence linking another man to the robbery, the Crown Office last night confirmed that it planned to take no criminal proceedings against that other individual.

A spokeswoman for the Crown Office said: "The decision to prosecute Mr Mills was taken by Crown Counsel on the basis of an assessment of the evidence at that time.

"As soon as fresh information came to light, during the appeal process, the Crown instructed DNA analysis, and subsequently decided not to support the conviction. There are no criminal proceedings presently contemplated against any other person in connection with this incident."

Miscarriage of Justice : Conviction for bank robbery quashed after DNA evidence analysis

A man convicted for a bank robbery and sentenced to 9 years in prison has had his conviction quashed after DNA analysis suggested doubt in the prosecution’s evidence.

The Scotsman reports :

Man who police identified as a bank robber is freed from jail after DNA breakthrough

Published Date: 10 April 2009
By JOHN ROBERTSON
Law Correspondent

A MAN who was jailed for nine years for armed robbery had his conviction quashed yesterday after senior judges raised concerns about building cases on identification evidence alone.

William Mills, 42, was in tears as he walked free from the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh, and said: "I am delighted ... justice has prevailed."

He had been found guilty of an armed bank raid in 2007.

Although the robber's face had been partially covered with a mask, witnesses, including two policemen who studied CCTV images, identified him.

At his trial, Mr Mills, of Partick, Glasgow, blamed another man but failed to convince the jury. Yesterday, the appeal court was told new DNA evidence had linked that man to the crime.

Lord Gill, the Lord Justice-Clerk, sitting with Lords Eassie and Philip, said there was reasonable doubt, and they concluded Mr Mills had been victim of a miscarriage of justice. "This was a prosecution that stood or fell by eye-witness identification alone. That is a form of proof that has been shown to be, in some cases, a dangerous basis for a prosecution, as history shows," said Lord Gill.

"It is a matter of concern that an important part of the case for the prosecution was the evidence of two police officers, neither eye-witnesses, who made positive statements that Mills was the robber on the basis of looking at CCTV stills. The new evidence confirms all our reservations about this conviction."

Mr Mills had spent about a year in jail, on remand and after his trial, before being released pending his appeal. He said it was the first time he had been in prison, and he intended discussing with his solicitor, Liam O'Donnell, a possible claim for compensation.

He said: "I just wanted this to be over and done with first. My life has stood still for the last two years. I have finally been found to be innocent of a crime I never committed. It was horrible to be locked up for 23 hours a day.

"I've had no faith in the justice system since I got found guilty. I still had hope and just thought, 'Surely this can't happen to an innocent person.'"

More than £8,000 was stolen in the raid at the Royal Bank of Scotland in Dumbarton Road, Glasgow, on 24 May, 2007.

Mr Mills incriminated Michael Absalom, 38, a South African, who had been jailed for eight-and-a-half years for armed raids on an American Express office in Glasgow and a bank in Troon, Ayrshire, around the time of the Dumbarton Road raid.

DNA analysis carried out on a doorstop used by the raider to make a quick getaway was tested following the initial trial and found to match a sample from Absalom.

A source suggested it would be unlikely for Absalom to be charged with the robbery. "If doubt could be created about the identifications of Mills, the same doubt could easily be created about Absalom's DNA being found, with DNA from other unknown people, on a doorstop," he claimed.