BRITAIN: In 1973, Mr Stephen Downing was working as a groundsman for his local council tending a graveyard in Bakewell, in the heart of the Derbyshire Dales.
Despite his 17 years, he had a mental age closer to that of an 11-year-old.
On September 12th, Mr Downing had kept himself busy all morning, only breaking off to go for lunch. At the same time a typist, Wendy Sewell (32), was also preparing to take a break.
Later that lunchtime, Ms Sewell was found partially clothed among the gravestones of the cemetery where Stephen had been working. Despite having been savagely beaten, she was still conscious.
Mr Downing is the first person who claims to have found her. Ms Sewell was taken to hospital, but died as a result of her injuries. Crucially, she was also unable to utter the name of her attacker.
Downing was instantly the prime suspect. He had a small amount of blood on his clothes and had access to the type of murder weapon used - a pickaxe handle.
For nine hours he was interrogated by detectives without legal assistance. Finally, he agreed to sign a confession admitting he had attacked Ms Sewell, which he later retracted. When she died, he was charged with her murder.
The jury ultimately found him guilty and he was sentenced to 17 years in jail. Downing's solicitors unsuccesfully appealed the ruling.
Mr Downing's parents and sister battled to persuade the authorities to re-examine the facts of the case.
In 1994 Mr Downing's father, a taxi driver, picked up Mr Don Hale, the editor of the Matlock Mercury newspaper, and told him about his son's plight. Mr Hale agreed to study the paperwork and noticed a number of interesting elements of the case which pointed towards a possible miscarriage of justice.
Wendy Sewell, who was portrayed in court as a happily married woman, had a reputation in the Bakewell area for a number of illicit affairs with married, and in many cases prominent, men, it was claimed.
There were also claims she had begun blackmailing her "clients" and that her visit to the cemetery was either for a sexual liaison or to meet to discuss a matter of utmost importance.
A 16-year-old schoolgirl said she saw a man and woman with their arms around each other minutes before Wendy was attacked.
The pickaxe Mr Downing used was stamped with the name of the council for security reasons. The one used in the murder was not.
Throughout the investigation, the names of three local men kept cropping up, including a lorry driver who, it is claimed, had an affair with Ms Sewell.
Finally, three years ago, Mr Downing's supporters had enough fresh evidence to submit a file to the Criminal Cases Review Commission, the body set up to investigate miscarriages of justice.
It took until November 2001 for the Commission to finally agree to refer the case to the Court of Appeal, which quashed Mr Downing's conviction yesterday.
Before he was released, he said : "I want to go on long walks on my own. I want to have a party for my friends and the people who have supported me and I want to prepare for my first Christmas at home for 27 years."