Murder conviction for handicapped man 'a miscarriage'

A mentally handicapped man who has served 16 years in prison for murdering an elderly pools collector was the victim of a "miscarriage of justice", the Court of Appeal was told yesterday.

Geoffrey Foster was jailed for life partly on the basis of confessions he made that were "unreliable" and should have never been admitted at his trial, the court was told.

Police had recorded that Foster, now 41, was "sub-normal", but he was given no legal or social services support until the 10th interview conducted in March 1985. He was only offered a solicitor after he had admitted the killing in the penultimate interview. His social worker was present for the final one.

Foster, whose tariff – set at 15 years by the Home Secretary – has now passed, was not cautioned at the first two interviews, his counsel, Edward Fitzgerald QC, said.

While he was giving evidence at his trial for the murder of Harold Cheetham at Chester Crown Court, Foster denied that he had killed the 74-year-old and said he admitted it in an interview because police were pressuring him.

Foster, of Knutsford, Cheshire, claimed that one police officer had "clouted" him across the head and others had tried to put an electric flex around his neck.

During cross-examination, however, he admitted that he had strangled Mr Cheetham, but then retracted the statement later. The jury found him guilty and he was sentenced to life imprisonment in April 1986.

Foster's case was referred back to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission, an organisation that investigates possible miscarriages of justice, in November 2000.

At the start of his appeal in London yesterday, Mr Fitzgerald asked three judges to find that they could not be "sure" that the confession evidence, including that made from the witness box, was reliable.

He said that another man had also confessed to the crime, adding: "We submit that the confessions were wrongly admitted and they can now be seen as unreliable."

Mr Fitzgerald said that Foster had a "significant impairment of intelligence and a significant impairment of social functioning" and that he had been the victim of a "miscarriage of justice".

He also referred to "special knowledge" that Foster was claimed to have had about the crime but which he said was "the talk of the pub".

Mr Fitzgerald said it had been crucial, particularly for someone who was mentally handicapped, to be advised of his right to a solicitor and to have had an appropriate adult present.

"Without those two essential safeguards, we say that on this ground alone the confessions could not be reliable," Mr Fitzgerald told the court.

He said the case against Foster was based largely on the confessions but also relied on a woman, Margaret Patten, who had given a statement saying that she had seen Foster at the gate of Mr Cheetham's house on the night of the killing.

She repeated the statement under hypnosis, but later gave a second statement saying it had been Foster's brother Derek that she had seen, and identified him at the trial.

Foster, who was present throughout yesterday's hearing, unsuccessfully challenged his conviction in July 1987.

The hearing, which is expected to last four more days, continues today.