202302376 B1 - [2025] EWCA Crim 1036

On 28 February 1997, Janice-Cartwright Gilbert (“the deceased”) was murdered. She lived with her partner Roderick Cove. They lived at 2 East End Lane in the village of Wilden, Bedfordshire. They had moved there in September 1995. A wooden bungalow on the site at East End Lane had been demolished. They were living in a caravan with three bedrooms on site whilst their new house was built. The plot of land was remote and rural. Materials were kept on site, both for the purposes of their electrical business and also for the construction of the new house. One of the bedrooms was set up and used as an office with a landline and the deceased spent the vast majority of her time there. Her habit was to lock the doors to the caravan when she was inside.The third bedroom was used by their dogs. At the time of the murder there was little by way of building material on site. There were some tools.

On 28 February 1997 Roderick Cove left for London at approximately 7:15 a.m. He was in London all day. Paul Simpson, a glazier attended the plot of land at approximately 12:30 p.m. The gate to the field was open. There were no signs of anyone being in the caravan or nearby. He did not hear the deceased’s 2 Irish Setter dogs. He went into the house to do some silicon beading to the windows. He was there for about half an hour. Whilst there he did hear a thudding noise that sounded like boxes falling but he didn’t think anything of it. Lindsay Prigmore spoke to the deceased at about 1:00 p.m. and was expecting to receive a fax from her. He called her back at 5:00 p.m. as she had not sent the fax, but the line was engaged. The deceased had sent a fax to Margaret Cook at 1:10 p.m. At around 2:00 p.m. Denise Williams had returned home and saw smoke coming from behind the caravan. She called the deceased, but there was no answer and so she went to see what was happening. All the blinds of the caravan were down; the deceased’s car was on the drive. Denise Williams knocked on the door but there was no response. The caravan then started to flame. Denise Williams ran back to her home and called the Fire Brigade and then returned to the scene to wait. Evelyn Stacey and John Stacey, some other neighbours, came and joined Denise Williams. John Stacey ran towards the caravan and opened the door; he discovered the body of the deceased and attempted to pull her out. There was something around her neck either made of rubber or plastic. As he pulled the body out, there was a pair of scissors to the left side of the neck and what appeared to be a knife to the right side of her neck and some kind of cable about her shoulders.

Accordingly, the murder took place between 1.10 pm and 2 p.m.

The victim died, according to the Consultant Forensic Pathologist Dr Carey, as a result of stab wounds to the chest causing blood loss and a puncture of the lung that prevented the heart from expanding properly and pumping blood round the body. There were also a few tiny petechial haemorrhages in the lining membranes of both eyes which could have been a manifestation of compression of the neck; there was also damage to the deceased’s voice box. The deceased had been stamped to her head and face causing patterned bruising consistent with footwear marks. There was a deep laceration to the back of the head 3cm in length caused by blunt force. There were facial injuries and a penetrating incised wound just in front of the left ear. He noted the injuries caused by the scissors and knife found. That knife however was too short to have caused the deepest chest wound. One stud type earing was found in the left ear. There was no similar earing in the right ear. He said a scenario might be that the victim was pushed or punched to the ground outside the caravan where she was kicked or stamped on. She may then have been taken into the caravan where she was stabbed either unconscious or semi unconscious and there stabbed repeatedly. If that is what happened, it is not reflected in what the appellant is said to have said to Mr Dunne.

The prosecution casewas that the appellant had gone to burgle the property, had been disturbed by the deceased and had murdered her to cover up a burglary gone wrong.

The prosecution case at trial was centred around the Christopher Dunne evidence. Mr Price KC accepted that the evidence was the nucleus of the prosecution case and while he did not accept the evidence was the sole evidence, the alleged confession was a very prominent part of the prosecution case. That is evident from his closing speech to the jury. He therefore accepted that if the evidence of the confession was wrongly admitted then he could not submit that the conviction was safe. He did contend that there was a case to answer without the confession and that, if it were to be quashed on that basis, he would seek a retrial.

In addition to Mr Dunne’s statement the prosecution relied upon the witnesses to the events, the appellant’s convictions for a large number of burglaries and other offences of dishonesty in Bedfordshire, during the period from November 1996 to February 1997. He was proved to have been active as a burglar in and around Wilden at around the time of the murder. The appellant told lies in his police interviews about these burglaries in March and April 1997. He also told Mr Dunne in detail about two of them, giving information that only the burglar could know. This suggested that he was confessing crime to Mr Dunne who recollected and reported accurately what he had been told.

The prosecution also relied on these matters:-

The defence casewas that the appellant was not the murderer. The prosecution had not proved that the reason why the killer went to the address was to burgle. There was a possibility that the murderer was someone else, who remained unidentified and who had not gone there with the intention of burgling the property, but was someone who had a motive for killing, unconnected with being disturbed during a burglary.

The evidence of Mr Dunne was disputed. The defence relied upon the fact that there was no forensic evidence in the form of blood and fibres linking the appellant to the murder, that the appellant had no history of confronting burglary victims, that there was no evidence of anything being stolen namely a sander, a watch and jewellery, parts of the red Metro were found and not linked to the incident after forensic examination, that a battery found at the scene had not come from the burglary at a garage for which the appellant was responsible.

A witness had said they had been with the appellant on 28 February at a time after 12.45hrs. Witnesses who had seen a man near to the scene who had made a photofit image and picked out a different person at an identification parade and another witness who had seen a person near to the scene after 1:00pm who said the photofit was of the same general appearance to the man that she saw.

The appellant gave evidence. He admitted that he had been a prolific burglar and car thief and had been in trouble from early on in his life. When he had moved to Wootton after his release from prison on 1 November 1996, he had embarked upon a long series of burglaries. The appellant said he did not seek out violent confrontation when he was carrying out the burglaries and he would run away if disturbed. He said he had never hit or confronted anyone physically during a burglary. He would steal anything that could be easily taken. He very rarely closed curtains during burglaries and would only do so if it was winter and got dark early because the beam of the torch might attract attention. He wouldn’t draw curtains during the day.

He admitted he had committed the six burglaries and that the Nike trainer, exhibit SPR/1, was his right trainer and that he had worn that shoe at some of the burglaries. On the night of the 27/28 February 1997, he had stolen a dustbin full of cigarettes and tools from the garage in Wootton, which was very near his home.

When interviewed by the police, he could not remember what he had done on the day of the murder. He was able to reconstruct where he was from the information given to him by his mother and gathered by his solicitor. On the evening of 28 February 1997, the appellant had driven to Nottingham and his mother had gone with him. They had brought children back, including his son Joe. The visit was arranged during the day of 28 February as Michelle Sneddon, the mother of his son and also his brother Adam’s children, was about to be evicted.