Murder of Linda Cook
Linda Cook | |
---|---|
Asphyxiation | |
Body discovered | Merry Row, Portsmouth, Hampshire, England |
Nationality | British |
Height | 1.499 m (4 ft 11.0 in) |
Parent | James Cook |
The murder of Linda Cook was committed in
Shirley's later exoneration of the murder after serving 16 years of his sentence is significant as it is the first time that a UK court quashed a previous conviction on the basis of presentation of new DNA evidence.[9] It was also the first occasion in which the Criminal Cases Review Commission supported an appeal on the basis of newly available DNA evidence.[9] After serving the minimum tariff of 15 years, Shirley would have been released from prison had he confessed the killing to the parole board, but he refused to do so and said: "I would have died in prison rather than admit something I didn't do. I was prepared to stay in forever if necessary to prove my innocence."[10][11]
The murder
Linda Cook was a 24-year-old
A number of vaginal, anal, and vulval swabs were taken by the pathologist, and subsequent forensic examination confirmed the presence of semen, from which the blood type of the killer was determined.[Appeal 4] Trace evidence was also gathered, including fibres from beneath Cook's fingernails.[Appeal 6] It was noted that her fingernails "were long and unbroken, suggesting that she did not scratch her attacker, or at least did not do so with any ferocity."[Appeal 6] Her underwear was found nearby, and subsequently tested negative for traces of semen.[Appeal 7][Appeal 8] This, combined with the knowledge of her whereabouts since 10:00 the previous morning, meant that "the semen found inside [her] vagina had been deposited there after her underwear had been removed and consequently was deposited by her attacker."[Appeal 9]
Michael Shirley
Michael Shirley was an 18-year-old
Shirley stated that he had spent approximately 10 minutes looking for Fogg, then headed back to his ship. He said that he caught another taxi on Edinburgh Road at 01:23 which took him to the gates of the dock where he was booked-in back aboard ship at 01:45.
Prosecution case
The prosecution case against Shirley consisted of four circumstantial "planks":[8][Appeal 4]
- Athletic shoe – The imprint of the athletic shoe found on Cook's body had been made by a size 43–45 right shoe, and had a distinctive tread pattern including the word "Flash" in the heel area.[8] Shirley possessed a pair of size 44 athletic shoes with the same tread, and stated that he "may" have been wearing them on the night of the murder. At the time of his arrest they were at his parents' home, and were probably there when Linda was murdered.[6][7][8] Between 1983 and 1986, 185,000 pairs were imported into the UK.[8] In 1986 alone, up to 9,000 pairs of shoes with this tread were sold in the UK, of which 250 pairs had been sold in Portsmouth.[7] Shirley stated that he had purchased them in Portsmouth around October 1986.[Appeal 3] No blood was found on Shirley's shoes when they were examined by forensic scientists.[Appeal 12]
- Blood type – The semen samples taken from Linda's body provided a match with Shirley's blood group, O positive, which is shared by 23.3% of the British adult male population.[8][Appeal 4] No blood matching Cook's was found on Shirley's clothing, and no matching fibres were found on Cook's or Shirley's clothing.[Appeal 12][Appeal 6]
- Scratch marks – At the time of his arrest, Shirley was examined and found to have healed scratches on his right cheek, right eyebrow, collar bone, left shoulder, right elbow, right forearm, right index finger, left upper arm, and left elbow, which the prosecution's expert claimed were about four weeks old, within the time frame of the murder. For the defence, a consultant forensic physician testified that it was not possible to date the injuries with such accuracy, and Shirley stated that some of them had been received while he was serving in Barbados in October 1986. However, examination of Cook's body had also shown that her long fingernails were unbroken, suggesting that she did not scratch her attacker, and no trace evidence was found beneath the nails to link her with Shirley.[Appeal 13] The jury were not told this.[8]
- "Missing half-hour" – The prosecution case also relied on a "missing" 30 minutes, the discrepancy between Fogg's testimony that she believed they had caught the taxi from "Joanna's" at just after midnight, and she had arrived home at about 00:15, and Shirley's account of the timings. Taking into account Shirley's description of his journey back to HMS Apollo, they maintained that he should have arrived at 01:15, not 01:45. If he had arrived back on board at 01:45 this, they submitted, would leave 30 minutes unaccounted for, sufficient time to have carried out the murder.[6][Appeal 14] However, Fogg had given two statements to the police and in the first had said she left the nightclub with Shirley at around 00:30, placing Shirley well away from the scene when Cook was killed and corroborating his account of the evening. The jury were not told about the first statement, and it emerged later that the second statement had been "made under some duress; she had been in the police station for 10 hours, was concerned for her baby and her mother was standing outside calling for her."[8] The log book of the taxi driver who took them from the nightclub recorded that he had made a pre-booked pick up at 00:15 and did not arrive at the taxi rank where he collected Shirley and Fogg until 00.25. The log book was not produced at the trial.[8]
Additionally, the Crown alleged:
- Alibi concoction – During the brief discussion at their second meeting, Fogg claimed that she got the impression that Shirley was attempting to reinforce his later evidence that they had left the nightclub very late, which the prosecution described as "the beginning of an attempt to concoct an alibi."[Appeal 11] When giving his statements to the police, he referred to Deena Fogg as "Sue", which she had, it later emerged, told him was her name. The prosecution claimed "that he was deliberately concealing his knowledge of the girl's identity in the hope that he would prevent the police from tracing her". This ignored the fact that he had nonetheless given "a full account to the police about his activities" with the girl.[Appeal 15][Appeal 16]
Trial
The trial began on 18 January 1988 at
Incarceration
Shirley was incarcerated at several prisons during his sentence:
- 1988–1990: HM Prison Aylesbury
- 1990–1996: HM Prison Long Lartin
- 1996–1997: HM Prison Whitemoor
- 1997–2002: HM Prison Gartree
- 2002–2003: HM Prison Wormwood Scrubs
Campaign to prove innocence
Shirley protested his innocence, and in 1992 spent five weeks on
Shirley's campaign suffered numerous setbacks in persuading the authorities to re-examine fresh evidence. In 1995 he again applied to the Home Office for a review of his conviction but was informed by the
Throughout, Shirley was held in Category A prisons – reserved only for prisoners "whose escape would be highly dangerous to the public, or the police or the security of the State, and for whom the aim must be to make escape impossible" – because the authorities considered him to be "in denial" over his guilt.[18] Shirley's lawyer, Anita Bromley, said "He is not in denial, he denies committing the crime. What Michael's case shows is how easy it is to be convicted of murder, and how very difficult it is to overturn that conviction."[8]
The campaign was hampered by Hampshire Constabulary's poor handling of evidence after the trial: advances in
See also
- Murder of Teresa de Simone
- Murder of Wendy Sewell
- Murder of Lesley Molseed
- Innocent prisoner's dilemma
- List of wrongful convictions in the United States
Other UK cold cases where the offender's DNA is known:
- Murder of Deborah Linsley
- Murders of Eve Stratford and Lynne Weedon
- Murders of Jacqueline Ansell-Lamb and Barbara Mayo
- Murder of Lyn Bryant
- Murder of Janet Brown
- Murder of Lindsay Rimer
- Murder of Melanie Hall
- Batman rapist, subject to Britain's longest-running serial rape investigation
Notes
Appeal notes
- ^ a b c d Paragraph 14
- ^ a b c d Paragraph 2
- ^ a b Paragraph 23
- ^ a b c d e Paragraph 4
- ^ a b Paragraph 27
- ^ a b c Paragraph 21
- ^ Paragraph 11
- ^ Paragraph 12
- ^ Paragraph 13
- ^ a b Paragraph 3
- ^ a b Paragraph 39
- ^ a b Paragraph 43
- ^ Paragraph 19–22
- ^ Paragraph 28–38
- ^ Paragraph 40
- ^ Paragraph 42
- ^ Paragraph 5
- ^ Paragraph 7
"R v Michael Shirley". EWCA Crim 1976. 2003. Archived from the original on 2 July 2007. Retrieved 14 August 2009.
References
- ^ a b c Olden, Mark (19 August 2003). "Justice – but at what cost?". The Independent. p. 10. Archived from the original on 10 August 2009. Retrieved 14 August 2009.
- ^ a b c d Shaw, Danny (2 July 2003). "Sailor awaits murder appeal ruling". BBC News. Retrieved 14 August 2009.
- ^ a b Campbell, Duncan (2 February 1993). "Police re-examine murder conviction". The Guardian. London.
- ISBN 978-1-59213-645-2.
- ^ a b "New evidence in 'Cinderella murder'". BBC News. 3 July 2003. Retrieved 14 August 2009.
- ^ a b c McVeigh, Tracy (21 October 2001). "Cinderella case 'killer' could be freed". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 April 2010.
- ^ The Birmingham Post. 31 July 2003. Retrieved 29 April 2010.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Pukas, Anna (3 November 2001). "Michael Shirley". Daily Express. London.
- ^ PMID 15112595. Archived from the originalon 23 December 2012. Retrieved 14 August 2009.
- ^ "DNA Evidence Quashes Murder Conviction". Police News. 29 June 2003. Retrieved 18 September 2010.
- ^ Chaytor, Rod (5 July 2003). "I'd rather have died in jail than admit a murder I didn't do". Daily Mirror. London. p. 4.
- ^ a b "Fresh plea over barmaid's murder". BBC News. 22 November 2007. Retrieved 14 August 2009.
- ^ "Formal closure of a redundant highway known as Merry Row". Hampshire County Council. 6 October 1986. Archived from the original on 19 September 2007. Retrieved 14 August 2009.
- ^ The Birmingham Post. 4 July 2003. Retrieved 29 April 2010.
- ^ Portlock, Sarah (10 July 2003). "I'll always wonder how life might have turned out". Coventry Evening Telegraph. Coventry. pp. 6–7.
- ^ Connor, Neil (21 April 2001). "After 13 years in jail, chance of appeal". Birmingham Post. Birmingham. p. 2.
- ^ "Category A Prisoners:Reviews of Security Category". Prison Service Instruction 03/2010. HM Prison Service. 1 March 2010. Archived from the original (Word document) on 25 August 2011. Retrieved 17 September 2010.
- ^ a b Portlock, Sarah (24 May 2002). "Vital evidence in murder case". Coventry Evening Telegraph. Coventry. p. 1.
- ^ "DNA tests may clear convicted killer's name". Coventry Evening Telegraph. Coventry. 28 June 2002.
Further reading
- Welch, Claire (2012). "Linda Cook". Unsolved Crimes: From the Case Files of The People and Daily Mirror. Yeovil: Haynes. pp. 116–119. ISBN 978-0-857331-75-5.