FORMER British army information officer, Colin Wallace, was convicted of killing a friend on "circumstantial and inconsequential evidence , the Court of Appeal was told in London yesterday.
Wallace spent six years in jail after being sentenced to 10 years for the manslaughter of antiques dealer, Jonathan Lewis, who was found drowned in a river near his home.
Mr Michael Mansfield QC said that the Crown's case at the trial in 1981 was that Lewis had been knocked unconscious by Wallace at his home in Arundel, West Sussex, dragged to his car, left there for three hours while he (Wallace) attended a dinner and then driven to the river and dumped there.
But Prof Keith Mant, a retired Home Office pathologist who carried out one of the post mortem examinations on Lewis but did not give evidence, told the court yesterday that the time between Lewis being knocked out and dumped in the River Arun was no more than a few minutes.
Mr Mansfield said this meant it was not possible for Wallace to have been involved his movements were known later.
Ms Ann Curnow QC, for the Crown, said that after the killing, Wallace had embarked on a "carefully co ordinated campaign of deceit and lies for days and days".
She said he had originally lied to police about Ms Jane Lewis, the victim's wife, den in that they had an affair. He had even lied to Mrs Lewis about not knowing the whereabouts of her husband's car on the night of the killing.
And he had lied about, not meeting Mr Lewis on the night of the killing.
The hearing will resume today.