Life starts now
Wrongly jailed for murder in 1991, Oliver is finally cleared thanks to new evidence
A BRAIN-damaged man jailed for life for murder as a teenager has won his 33-year battle for justice after finally being cleared.
Oliver Campbell was convicted in 1991 of shooting shopkeeper Baldev Hoondle in front of his son.
Oliver was interviewed without a lawyer by detectives, who were accused of lying and bullying.
Baldev’s son failed to pick him out in an identity parade and hairs recovered from a baseball cap thought to have been worn by the killer were not his.
The gunman was also said to be right-handed, while Oliver is not.
Three Court of Appeal judges ruled yesterday that the conviction was “unsafe”, citing new evidence about his mental state.
Oliver, 54, said: “The fight for justice is finally over after nearly 34 years.
“I can start my life an innocent man.”
Oliver was 19 and had no prior convictions when Mr Hoondle was shot in the head during a bungled robbery in Hackney, East London, in 1990.
A witness said the gunman’s accomplice shouted: “What on earth have you done? I never dreamed you would resort to that kind of violence.”
Oliver was jailed following a trial at
The fight is finally over. I can start my life an innocent man...
OLIVER CAMPBELL AFTER THE JUDGES CLEARED HIM
the Old Bailey, having also been convicted of conspiracy to rob.
He was freed on licence in 2002 and has been living under restrictions meaning he needs permission to get a job and cannot travel abroad.
At a hearing in February, Michael Birnbaum KC representing Oliver, who suffered severe brain damage as a baby, said he was “badgered and bullied” into giving a false confession.
In yesterday’s ruling, Lord Justice Holroyde, sitting with Mr Justice Bourne and Mrs Justice Stacey, dismissed the “serious allegations” against the police.
But they found new evidence in relation to false confessions meant the conviction was unsafe.
Forensic psychologist Prof Gisli Hannes Gudjonsson said there was a “high risk” that his mental disabilities meant he confessed to the murder during 14 relentless interviews.
Co-defendant Eric Samuels, who has since died, was jailed for five years for robbery but had told police at the time that Oliver, of Ipswich, Suffolk, was innocent and not with him that fateful night.
The Crown Prosecution Service had opposed the appeal but said it respected the judgment of the court.