NEW EXPERT EVIDENCE GIVES WOMAN THE GREEN LIGHT TO APPEAL MURDER CONVICTION
New expert evidence has won a Yorkshire woman the right to appeal her murder conviction.
The Criminal Cases Review Commission decided to refer the case of Julie Kenyon, currently serving a life sentence after being found guilty in 2003 of the murder of her grandmother at a flat they shared in 1996.
A spokesman for the CCRC said that the decision to send the case on to the Court of Appeal was made "in light of new expert psychological and psychiatric evidence gathered by the Commission which raises the real possibility that the court may quash the murder conviction on appeal".
At her trial at Newcastle Quayside Crown Court, the prosecution alleged that Ms Kenyon had confessed, in a tape recording made by a family member, to smothering 89-year old Irene Adela Waters with a pillow because her grandmother had asked her to help her die. But, in her defence, she said that she had told relatives what they wanted to hear when they pressed her for a confession.
No medical evidence was produced at trial to either support or contradict the smothering claims. An inquest held shortly after her death concluded she had died of natural causes.
A date has still to be set for the case to go before the Appeal Court.
ENDS