to INNOCENT main page

• Simon was convicted of murder despite the fact that forensic and DNA evidence did not place him at the scene of the crime. They were not his boot prints in the garden. They were not his fingerprints in the house. He had no forensic traces of the scene on him or his clothes.
• Simon was convicted on the basis that he may have possessed clothes made with similar fibres to those found in the house. 35,000 people in the UK also possess clothes with similar fibres to those found in the house.
• Simon had an alibi.

Links to University of Bristol Innocence Project (UoBIP) submissions to the CCRC on the case of Simon Hall

October 2009: Further submission on the fibre evidence

July 2009: Question to CCRC for clarification

January 2009: Submission on Y-STR DNA testing

October 2007: Submission on fibre evidence

Private Eye 1249 13 November 2009 reveals fresh evidence discovered by Bristol students, which could postively prove Simon's innocence

This case was referred for a second appeal by the CCRC on the basis that it has obtained new scientific evidence that casts doubt on the only forensic evidence said to link Simon to the crime scene: fibres found there.

But there is also another piece of evidence which actually demonstrates Simon’s innocence. A few days before his trial, a large amount of unused material gathered in the course of the original police investigation of the murder of Joan Albert was delivered to his solicitors. They had no time to look at it, but recently students at the University of Bristol’s Innocence Project, led by Gabe Tan, trawled through these documents. They ‘found a statement from a care worker who looked after an elderly man living 10 minutes away from Mrs Albert in Capel St Mary and who was also a victim of a burglary on the night Mrs Alpert was stabbed. The care worker reported that immediately after the burglary she noticed two kitchen knives she regularly used to prepare the man’s meals had gone missing. Later, when shown a picture of the murder weapon, she identified it as “similar to the one that was stolen. It appears to have the same colour handle and length of blade. It also has the same rivets on the handle.”’

A related description of undisclosed material, also discovered by the Bristol students, recorded that DNA found on the knife was ‘from more than one person [but] the results are believed to be of no practical use.’ No use in securing the conviction of Simon, perhaps, but possibly useful enough to prove his innocence and even point to a different culprit. If the same person committed both crimes, it could not have committed both crimes: he had no time to do so, having a firm alibi for the whole night, apart from 30 minutes – scarcely enough to commit one of the crimes.

"I am delighted that the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) announced on 14 October 2009 that it has referred the case of Simon Hall to the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) who was convicted of the murder of 79 year old Joan Albert in February 2003," writes Dr Michael Naughton, Director of the University of Bristol Innocence Project and Founder and Director of the Innocence Network UK, the umbrella organisation for member innocence projects in UK universities.

"Since 2006, Simon's case has been investigated by the University of Bristol Innocence Project (UoBIP) and five students from the UoBIP investigating Simon's case was the subject of the last ever BBC Rough Justice documentary in April 2007.

"Particular mention must go to Gabe Tan, Head of Casework for the Innocence Network UK,  who has headed the investigation throughout its time with the University of Bristol Innocence Project and has personally committed many hundreds of voluntary hours to produce various submissions to the CCRC over the years on the  limitations of the fibre evidence claimed to link Simon to the crime scene, the possible utility of new DNA techniques on biological samples found at the murder scene and has unearthed evidence (which for legal reasons cannot be disclosed at this time) in the unused evidence that may conclusively prove Simon's factual innocence.

"Although Simon's conviction is yet to be overturned, Simon and all concerned are cautiously optimistic, especially with the low referral rate (currently less than 4% of a thousand applications a year are referred back to the appeal courts) and relatively high 'success' rate (over 70% of cases referred are overturned)."

Simon is represented by Campbell Malone, of Stephensons Solicitors LLP

CCRC referral details

Murder case goes to Appeal Court, 14 October 2009

INNOCENT main page