Simon Thomas successfully appeals child cruelty convictions

TE was convicted in November 2009 of sixteen counts of child cruelty allegedly perpetrated against his children over a thirteen-year period between 1987 and 2000 and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment.   Over a two-day hearing in March 2011 the Court of Appeal heard evidence from witnesses who had given evidence at trial and who had made a series of inconsistent statements following his conviction.  Although each witness maintained before the Court of Appeal that they had told the truth at trial, the Court of Appeal quashed all sixteen convictions, holding that they were not safe on the basis of the fresh evidence it had heard.  The Court held that the primary question in fresh evidence cases is what effect the evidence has on the Court of Appeal’s assessment of the safety of conviction and not what effect it would have had on the minds of the jury at trial. The case is reported at [2011] EWCA Crim 1023.