Guildford appeal 'not told facts'

Wednesday 12 May 1993 23:02 BST
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THE Court of Appeal, which freed the Guildford Four, had not been given 'even a small fraction of the true facts' of the case, an Old Bailey jury was told yesterday.

'Within minutes of the Four's release they were being cheered and praised as martyrs, they were having huge sums of public money showered upon them in supposed recompense for the grave injustice said to have been visited upon them,' Edmund Lawson QC, said.

By contrast, as the Four walked out of the Old Bailey in 1989 to 'tumultuous applause', three Surrey detectives were 'convicted in their absence as being the policemen responsible for what was allegedly one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in modern times and sentenced to vilification and contempt in the media by a court which had not been given even a small fraction of the true facts'.

Mr Lawson, for former Detective Constable Vernon Attwell, 52, made the claims in his final speech in the trial of Mr Attwell, former Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Style, 59, and Detective Sergeant John Donaldson, 57. They deny conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

Mr Lawson said the prosecution alleged 'that these men put their heads together wickedly to mislead a court, a judge and a jury . . . for no reason at all'. But documents revealed during the current trial showed a 'mere fraction of the picture' had been put before the Court of Appeal.

The trial continues today.

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