A CONTINUING detailed search through a mass of police documents could provide "decisive" new evidence in the fresh appeal by four men convicted 18 years ago of killing a newsboy, Carl Bridgewater, the Court of Appeal heard yesterday.
Merseyside Police were cooperating fully with a defence solicitor appointed to examine 16,000 recorded "action messages" in their custody, plus extensive correspondence, said Mr Patrick O'Connor QC, for one of the convicted men, James Robinson.
None of the material had been disclosed before the hearing of an earlier unsuccessful appeal in 1989, he said at a preliminary procedural hearing. It did not come to light until High Court proceedings were taken a year ago to obtain disclosure of the "voluminous and vital" documentation.
Inspection of the papers, which began last October, was a "first and once and for all opportunity" for the defence team.
"Our sober assessment is that there are many pieces of information which are uniquely documented in these files and which could alone be decisive of this appeal," he told Lord Justice Rose, Mr Justice Mitchell and Mr Justice Hidden. "We cannot emphasise too much the importance of this exercise."
Robinson (60), and cousins Michael Hickey (33), and Vincent Hickey (39), are serving life for the murder of 13 year old Carl at Yew Tree Farm, near Stourbridge, West Midlands, in 1978. Patrick Molloy, jailed for 12 years for manslaughter, died in prison, but his family has carried on the fight to clear his name.
Relatives of the four - led by Ms Ann Whelan, mother of Michael Hickey, who has refused to leave prison on parole until he is declared innocent - have kept up a constant campaign to have them declared innocent.
Campaigners scored a major victory last July when the British Home Secretary, Mr Michael Howard announced he was to refer the case back to the Court of Appeal for a second time.
The full appeal is scheduled for April.