Court lifts murder death sentence

THE LAST death sentence imposed on a convicted killer by a British court was lifted yesterday and a fresh trial ordered.

The Manx Appeal Court, sitting in Douglas on the Isle of Man, agreed that a murder conviction against an apprentice electrician was unsafe in the light of new evidence. The judge, Deemster Benet-Hytner, also launched a scathing attack on the island's police over the case.

Tony Tare, 23, of Ramsey, has been in the death cell on the island for 16 months since being found guilty of murdering Corrine Bentley, a 22-year-old care worker. Her body was found at an isolated farm in the north of the island in July 1991. She had been subjected to a knife attack and her throat was slit.

Tare confessed to the crime and led police to the farm where the body was found. He then denied murder at his trial, claiming the confession was the sole police evidence.

He was found guilty by a jury and the death sentence was imposed. At yesterday's hearing Peter Thornton, QC, for Tare, described his conviction as 'unsafe or unsatisfactory in the light of significant fresh evidence'.

Mr Thornton, said there was also considerable evidence available to the police which was not disclosed to the defence lawyers at the time of the trial.

He said there was confusion or doubt about the identification of his client on the night Miss Bentley died, the place her body was found, the murder weapon and even the date of her death.

Deemster Benet-Hytner agreed and ordered a new trial.

The judge referred to a Stanley knife found near the scene of the crime after Tare was sentenced to hang. When the finder contacted the police he was told to throw it away and forget about it.

There was a failure by some police officers to disclose certain matters which should be made known, he said. 'There is a great public interest in the police not putting evidence aside just because they think they have an open and shut case,' he added.

'It must be made abundantly plain to every police officer on the island, high and low, that this type of conduct, if it occurred, cannot be tolerated.'

Following the quashing of the conviction, effectively lifting the death sentence on their son, Tare's parents, Denys Tare, 71, and his wife Fay, 57, said they were 'enormously relieved and delighted at the decision'.