Newsmedianews - Archived direct input headlines

NEWSMEDIANEWS

______________________________Direct Input News Archive______________________________

Justice for John Twomey, Glen Cameron, Barry Hibberd, Peter Blake printable version

22 Jul 2011: posted by the editor - United Kingdom, Northern Ireland

I John Twomey, am one of four people who have been convicted in the only trial without a jury in England for hundreds of years. I was tried with my brother-in-law Glen Cameron, Barry Hibberd and a man who us three met for the first time at court on trial, Peter Blake.

Ican say with certainty that the first three named are innocent of any crime because we were together. During two trials (with a jury) and the one (kangaroo) trial I also came to believe that Blake was probably innocent as well.

But the one and truly irrefutable certainty is that we (all four) have been well and truly treated worse than most because we were denied any chance of a fair trial by our peers on totally secret information.

If you could please bear with me I will try to pack as much information in to help prove what I say. But my solicitor, James Saunders of Saunders Law Partnership (0207-632-4300) of Essex Hall, 1-6 Essex Street, London WC1 will corroborate all I say, as will my QC John Aspinall, or Glens QC Kristy Brimelow.

As briefly as possible, having seen my face on TV and Glen Cameron's in February 2004 as wanted for a major armed robbery at Menzies warehouse inside Heathrow Airport on February 6th 2004. I made contact via my solicitor and went voluntarily to Staines police station on 18th February 2004.

What alarmed me about the TV campaign with Glen Cameron and my faces appearing along side a former commander of the Flying Squad (John Connor) were his words, 'These two men are career criminals and professional armed robbers, and one of them John Twomey made allegations against police officers in the Met in Operation Countrymen, which was a failed enquiry into police corruption but they were acquitted and if ever you will see that it was made out to be a pack of lies from me which put decent policemen in jeopardy.

Nothing could be further from the truth, as you could also corroborate from those officers from Dorset Police who ran Operation Countrymen. The Flying Squad from Finchley, at that time, planted a gun in my home via DS John Ross, his brother DC Michael Ross, DC Paul Rextrew and DI Terrance Babbage. The gun was examined by Dorset Police who forensically revealed the numbers on the shot gun which had been filed off and the hacksaw said to have cut the barrel off the gun also which had been planted.

They traced it back to the owner, a Met inspector called Shannahan, who it turned out was DC Rextrew's flatmate. DC Rextrew'a father was a former head of the flying squad. Inspector Shannahan made a statement to Dorset Police stating that we had sold the gun to Rextrew the very day before he 'found' it in my home.

Only lately did I know of all that, but I did give evidence at their trial in 1980. I was the chief prosecution witness and gave evidence for three days for which Dorset officers and prosecution QC praised me for four days after giving evidence.

I was virtually kidnapped by Finchley Flying Squad and charged with two robberies which had supposedly occurred four years previously on the evidence of a super grass. One of the arresting officers was DC Ian Halbert and another was DI Colin Wright, both of Finchley Flying Squad.

From my court appearance I was whisked up to the Old Bailey by the police officers. I was put in the witness box again having being paraded outside court surrounded by six or more armed police and walked into the box accompanied by two while handcuffed to another. The only question I was asked was, ''are you now in prison charged with two armed robberies'' etc.

Obviously it worked and their friends were acquitted. Two years later so was I, when the 'super grass' was exposed and he threatened to expose their deal. Despite their acquittals they were dismissed from the force and three of them have faced several later trials and were also investigated re The Brinks, Matt Gold Bullion Robbery many years later.

My point is I gave evidence against crooks, not police, but my life became hell from the met (particularly) and flying squad ever since. The term O'Connor used on his TV rant in 2004 was wrong for two reasons. I was convicted of robbery (I plead guilty) alright but that was in 1971 and the only trials I had been in since were my (fit-up) in 1977 (Gun etc.) and the one juror during their trial I described above.

So career criminal and professional armed robber may not be totally correct, but to call Glen the same was outrageous. He in fact had never even been in a police station in his life up to then and is now 53 years old. He has a work record dating back from the day he left school. So his very first taste of British justice was to be tried by a judge alone as judge and jury.

And to make it a hundred times worse we have never seen any evidence at all why of why it should have happened to us.

Briefly as I possibly and will try to just outline for now why I am asking for help on behalf of all four of us to at least let people know even a little of our gross injustice.

I was first charged on 18 February 2004 with conspiring to rob Menzies International with 1. David Redmond, 2. Richard Betts, 3. Lloyd Govus and 4. Adam Joyce, 5. Roy Davies, 6. Brian Wake on the 6th February 2004. I only knew one of them (Redmond) but apart from Redmond (much more at a later stage to come) and Wake the rest of us were remanded in Belmarsh, with me on the unit alone.

We started trial on the 21st February 2005 but three weeks into the trial I had a massive heart attack (my third) where I actually died and come back to life by 24 electric shocks and some time on a life support machine (which incidentally I was chained to two and double handcuffed for some time).

I was not fit to continue on trial and the others went on until mid-may without me, when they were all acquitted of conspiring to rob with me, but a charge put on them just before the jury retired of conspiring to steal (on an armed robbery!) resulted in Wake and Davies also being acquitted of that two and the other four a hung jury.

It was said at the time that I was not expected to be fit for trial for a very long time, if ever. So the other four had bail given to possibly (probably) face a trial soon after.

On May 29th 2005 I was granted bail under house arrest because of my health over the next two months or so, I spent around twelve weeks in and outside hospital but In 2006 I was taken back to court. In July 2005 a man called Peter Blake had been arrest because of DNA one of the robbers had left behind in Menzies on the night of the raid. Despite nothing ever connecting us to each other, the prosecution asked for me now to be charged with robbery because they had found an 'expert' podiatrist who would say that one of the very heavily disguised robbers had a similar walk to me.

My solicitor had the transcript of that application, part of which verbatim says 'if we are not allowed to use this evidence, even though we cannot call it identification evidence, we cannot continue against Twomey, and we cannot put him back on trial for conspiracy with the others'.

The judge agreed so I was charged (after already being on trial in Feb 2005 for conspiracy to rob with totally different people) with robbery with Peter Blake and the others. Around late 2006 (I think) that was, and another man Barry Hibberd was also charged with us. We faced trial in February 2007 by jury and in November 2007 the jury failed to agree, although most people thought the podiatrist had been exposed a little.

In 2008 we faced another trial in June, but this time we were joined by Glen Cameron (my brother in law). The podiatrist this time around was well and truly found out and after four days in the witness box (and many notes from the jury asking for him to stop giving evidence because he was not believable and they did not want to hear from him anymore), the judge (Roberts) dismissed him completely telling the jury he agreed with them and ordered his evidence to be struck from our trial.

That was the only reason I was even charged with robbery, and it transpired that (although they tried to P.i.i how he ever came to the notice of the crown) that he had been contacted (and paid) directly by DC Ian Halbert from Finchley Flying Squad. They paid him some £46,000 for studying eleven seconds of tape evidence on CCTV which he (it turned out) had studied with Halbert, although Halbert never declared over both trials, or on a statement of any kind. (Halbert was one of the officers involved in the 'super grass' trial in 1982 which was the one where I was dragged back to the countrymen trial).

I only mentioned this as one of numerous parts of that trial which convinced every person in court by the end of the prosecution case that we were all heading towards acquittal. Any of the QC's at that trial and any solicitor present will confirm it.

So the last thing anybody on the defence case wanted was for our trial to stop. An eminent journalist called Martin Short covered that trial and the non jury has over 40 jury notes (perhaps more) and is convinced that at least three of us would have been found not guilty by that jury - myself, glen Cameron and Barry hibberd and probably peter Blake as well.

On Thursday 5 December the crown closed their case in the afternoon and the jury sent yet another note to the judge asking was their a reason why the police have been so intent on only (seemingly) concentrating on me out of a total of eleven people charged and was their any reason.

My QC answered them that I would be in the witness box in a few days time and they will indeed hear a history from me, we all felt positive. Next day, 6th Feb we arrived at court at the prosecution. QC Russell Flint formerly closed his case and there was an hour or so with trying to sort out a defence timetable etc. and at some stage the judge suggested to the crown that they should think about dropping the robbery on me and glen, and even suggested that they should have a break over lunch and think about those things.

Various other things were said mostly about timetable and the QC for Hibberd said that if we were not required until Monday could we go home until then. The crown and all defence QC's agreed and we were (all four) sent home, if we wanted, for the weekend ready for the defence case beginning on Monday).

I lunched locally to court and decided to go back after lunch to see if the prosecution agreed to drop charges etc. I forgot to say that Friday 6th was a non-jury day. When I walked into the well of the court (where we had been all day) I was shocked to the core to be put in the dock and dock officers etc. were there.

The whole thing is still a mystery to me today, and to my lawyers but I vaguely remember something about (possible jury tampering) being said and I was remanded in custody. Unbelievably I was allowed to go home for all my medication and then transferred to Belmarsh again.

To this day nobody on the defence has any idea of what we are meant to have done, if anything at all. And our appeal last November 8th Russell Flint said in open court (in answer to a question from LCJ Judge about what the crown had told us about the case being stopped in December 6th 2008). 'We have told them nothing at all and we are never going to disclose anything to them'. This was in answer to the new law regarding control orders that any defendant had the right to be given and irreducible amount of evidence so that they can answer the charged against them.

I'm sorry to have jumped around, but when I have so much to say I am all over the place. Jumping back to Friday 6th December on remand in custody no warrant went out for the arrest of the other three, but unbelievably on the Monday morning I too was granted bail again. That in spite of a trial so far costing £26million being stopped for jury tampering!

The crown immediately applied for a non jury trial and were refused by judge Roberts (who had stopped our trial). They appealed to Judge David Calvert Smith (ex þ and head of the south east circuit) He to refused their application and ordered us to have a trial by jury. They again appealed and this time got the judge they wanted, Lord Chief Justice Judge at the high court. He was at first not in favour of it and Russell Flint asked for Public Interest Immunity (PII) hearing next day when it later transpired as commissioner John Yates went into chambers with them as an 'independent officer' with no connection to the case etc.

Whatever he said they turned it all around in their favour and LCJ Judge granted their wish. I did not learn for six months or more that it was Yates and it come from a legal lady for 'The Times' newspaper called Francis Gibbs at the high court i.e. News International. But Yates was anything but impartial to me - or his investigation into n.o.t.w inquiry for these reasons! He worked with closely with DI Babbage at the time prior to my giving evidence against him for 'countrymen' and I know from articles written about him that he left his wife of 25 years to move in with Scotland yards press officer called Caroline 'I think'. Ross who I am told is related to the Ross brothers from Finchley who I gave evidence against - an Australian girl. DS John Ross worked for the News of the World and was initially arrested in the original swoop on them in 2003 but was cleared somehow in October - November 2004 and 2005 for corruption or Malfeasance.

If Yates was involved in that (and I believe he was) he was neither independent to me or News of the World. It was his meeting in Public Interest Immunity which secured our unlawful trial. I have asked time and again for an investigation by an independent police force into the alleged jury tampering.

Surely the jury should at least be questioned as to whether or not anything untoward happened during our trial in 2008. And I also have begged and pleaded to be charged with it, after all somebody should go to prison for unlawfully stopping a trial costing so much money.

I mean to say LCJ Judge sent that lady juror to prison for going on face book. So why does he allow the alleged wrong doing on our case to go unpunished.

Since he ordered our kangaroo trial we first went back to the appeal court to seek permission to go the house of lords on an 'important point or something, and John Aspinall said that because it was the only case of its kind in 400 years it would be a formality and they would reverse it (hopefully).

Our appeal was hears by LCJ Judge himself and he rejected it and ordered our 'trial' to be heard very quickly by Justice Tracy alone. We appealed to Tracy again because since our case was heard a recent case 'a.f' had seen to make our unlawful. (John Aspinall QC has all the legal arguments as does James Saunders). He refused, conducted our trial on his own and saw Public Interest Immunity which Judge Roberts had hinted years prior was damaging to me.

I knew that no Public Interest Immunity (genuine bonafied evidence) could ever harm me because I am innocent, but anything Finchley put into the judge would never help me. He (of course) convicted everybody and put it all down in writing. One example is 'glen Cameron' is said by the crown to be one of the robbers inside Menzies but I dismiss that as I do not believe anybody can see him doing that and I am sure he would not have a gun' etc. etc. Yet he convicted him and gave fifteen years imprisonment! If you saw his reading of the case you would be as wise as us, I'm sure.

We went on our appeal last November, first and foremost on the illegality of LCJ Judges decision to deny us a fair trial by our peers on totally secret 'evidence' that nobody on the defence team has ever seen or ever will. All the QC's were confident we would win because of the latest European ruling on control orders and secret evidence.

Imagine all our shock when our appeal was to be heard (again) by LCJ Judge! So he was in fact hearing his own appeal. That must be very wrong and our families and us are so disheartened by the whole crooked system. Believe it or not I have not even touched the side of so many wrongs that have occurred to lead us to where we are now in my case serving twenty years and six months, starting last March 31 (2010) and not taking into account all those years under total house arrest where I was only allowed to go for a 500 metre radius walk from my house within pm and 5pm everyday.

My family are so down they have started a 'Miscarriage of Justice' campaign and a march is being held in London from midday on Saturday August 13th.

We would welcome the family and friends of other miscarriages of justice to join in and try to get someone to answer all of pleas for justice. I am 63 years old and do not expect to live very much longer because I have some serious illnesses including major heart problems. I've already had three heart ops but I am in good spirits.

My family and friends know we are innocent, so I will go to my passing, when it happens with my head held high. I have not given up on my health and I am a realist.

Whatever happens, those who perpetrate these acts of injustice should not be allowed to get away with it and the press be allowed to just ignore our plight.

We should fight with our last breath to try to get some sense of fairness and justice, even if it will take too long for me to get justice (I hope not). I hope and pray that others on my case and all other innocent victims of the justice system get some justice one day.

John Twomey
A9426AQ
HMP Frankland
Brasside
Durham
DH1 5YD

PS, Some things I forgot
Glen Cameron is in HMP Whitemoor , Barry Hibberd & Peter Blake in HMP Long Lartin

DI Wright from 1982 case (countrymen prosecution. witness kidnap) was initially put in charge of this fit-up but had to resign from the police before the first trial. I say any Public Interest Immunity which had anything to do with me illegally processed and presented by Wright and Halbert (who was put in charge after Wright retired) the very same officers who were at Finchley Flying Squad when I gave evidence against their friends. By the end of my third trial Halbert also retired.

N.B despite Redmond, Betts, Govus and Joyce (from my original charge and trial) being ready since May 2005 to stand trial for conspiracy to steal and me not being fit to stand trial again till 2007 they did not actually face trial again until after appeal last November. They started their trial the week before our appeal, they had it adjourned (by the way they had a jury) while Russell Flint done our appeal for two days. The day after our appeal hearing he went back to their trial at the Old Bailey and out of the blue dropped the case against them so after keeping them waiting for their re-trial for five years and prosecuting for a week he dropped them right after Finchley secured my wrongful conviction.

What has now transpired is that David Redmond, now known as David Price was in fact in a corrupt relationship with a police officer from Heathrow Police Station called Highwell Jones which was at the time of the raid working their. He, Jones was sentenced for a corruption charge in 2005 to six years. Jones was a close friend of Halbert and Halberts three phone numbers were found in Jones phonebook on his arrest. It is now admitted that Redmond was a private investigator for years (secretly) for ex and serving police including Ross and Jones. All or some of the stolen money (foreign) went to a bureau de change in Notting Hill which was run by informants for customs. Redmond, his friends and police officers Public Interest Immunity used it all the time.

This is a murky case in many ways!

Tags: Trial without jury, Diplock Courts, John Twomey

Back to headlines
comments (0)
recommend

>Local comment

Name: Remember me

E-mail: (optional)

Captcha

Return to full index