Paul Blackburn (born 1 July 1963,

Salford Salford ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in Greater Manchester, England, on the western bank of the River Irwell which forms its boundary with Manchester city centre. Landmarks include the former Salford Town Hall, town hall, ...

) is a British man who was convicted at the age of 15 of

attempted murder Attempted murder is a crime of attempt in various jurisdictions. Canada Section 239 of the ''Criminal Code'' makes attempted murder punishable by a maximum of life imprisonment. If a gun is used, the minimum sentence is four, five or seve ...

, served a

life sentence Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment under which the convicted individual is to remain incarcerated for the rest of their natural life (or until pardoned or commuted to a fixed term). Crimes that result in life imprisonment are c ...

, and was later found to have been

wrongly convicted A miscarriage of justice occurs when an unfair outcome occurs in a criminal or civil proceeding, such as the conviction and punishment of a person for a crime they did not commit. Miscarriages are also known as wrongful convictions. Innocent p ...

. He served nearly 25 years in prison.

Crime and investigation

Blackburn was accused and convicted of the attempted rape and attempted murder of a 9-year-old boy, that took place on 25 June 1978. Whether or not this crime occurred is not contested. Blackburn was 14 when the crime was committed. He was initially interviewed by the police on 3 July 1978, after he had turned 15. His second police interview was ten days later, and during this he gave a different account of his locations on the day of the crime. In a third interview, Blackburn was questioned, without being cautioned, on the inconsistencies in his two accounts and was told that the description of the offender matched his own. During this interview Blackburn refused to take part in an identification parade or to provide forensic samples and verbally abused the police. Two of Blackburn's brothers, Fred and Harry, were also interviewed by the police. Blackburn then confessed to the crime during another lengthy interview with the police, but later retracted his confession. The total length of this interview was four hours and twenty minutes, and there is no record of any breaks being taken. Three hours and ten minutes of the interview consisted of questioning by two senior police officers, and it was only at the end of this period that Blackburn made his confession. During this interview he did not have the services of a

solicitor A solicitor is a lawyer who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and enabled to p ...

(he was not advised that he could consult one) and nor was he accompanied by a parent or guardian. He was accompanied by an adult, but during the appeal it was decided that this accompanying adult did little to support Blackburn's interests. Blackburn was not the only

suspect In law enforcement jargon, a suspect is a known person accused or suspected of committing a crime. Police and reporters in the United States often use the word suspect as a jargon when referring to the perpetrator of the offense (perp in dated U. ...

for the crime, nor even the only suspect who confessed to it during an interview. Indeed, his older brother Fred confessed but soon retracted his confession. Two other youths also confessed but then retracted.

Conviction

Blackburn was convicted on 18 December 1978, at Chester Crown Court before Judge Bristo and was sentenced to life for the attempted murder and to two years (to be served concurrently) for the attempted rape.

Appeal

There then followed a protracted process of appeals. Two appeal applications were initially refused, the first solely by Judge Bristo, and the second by the full court (in March 1981). In 1995, the

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was presented with a

petition A petition is a request to do something, most commonly addressed to a government official or public entity. Petitions to a deity are a form of prayer called supplication. In the colloquial sense, a petition is a document addressed to an officia ...

for Blackburn, but he found no grounds to refer the case for review. Blackburn was released in March 2003. His prison sentence had been significantly lengthened because he continued to deny his guilt. In August 2004 Blackburn's case was reviewed by the

Criminal Cases Review Commission The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) is the statutory body responsible for investigating alleged miscarriages of justice in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. It was established by Section 8 of the Criminal Appeal Act 1995 and be ...

and was referred to the

court of appeal An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to Hearing (law), hear a Legal case, case upon appeal from a trial court or other ...

. This appeal was heard in the

Royal Court of Justice The Bhutanese Royal Court of Justice (Dzongkha: དཔལ་ལྡན་འབྲུག་པའི་དྲང་ཁྲིམས་ལྷན་སྡེ་; Wylie ''Dpal-ldan 'Brug-pai Drang-khrims Lhan-sde''; Palden Drukpa Drangkhrim Lhende) ...

, London and Blackburn's conviction was ruled to be unsafe and was therefore overturned on 24 May 2005, about 27 years after he was initially convicted. Lord Justice Keene conducted this hearing and Lord Carlisle, who was also part of the prosecution team in Blackburn's initial trial, represented the Crown. Blackburn was represented by Gabb & Co (of Powys).

Reasons for the appeal verdict

During the appeal, evidence was provided by a

forensic psychologist Forensic psychology is the application of scientific knowledge and methods (in relation to psychology) to assist in answering legal questions that may arise in criminal, civil, contractual, or other judicial proceedings. Forensic psychology includes ...

. This consisted of details on how

false confessions A false confession is an admission of guilt for a crime which the individual did not commit. Although such confessions seem counterintuitive, they can be made voluntarily, perhaps to protect a third party, or induced through coercive interrogatio ...

(termed coerced compliant confessions) may be provided by young, vulnerable suspects. It was stated this can occur when they are fatigued by a process of prolonged questioning over which they feel they have no control. The suspect eventually cannot resist ending the

interrogation Interrogation (also called questioning) is interviewing as commonly employed by law enforcement officers, military personnel, intelligence agencies, organized crime syndicates, and terrorist organizations with the goal of eliciting useful informa ...

by any means, the immediate necessity seeming far more important than long term implications. The psychologist also described how a suspect may also invent details during an interrogation. There were several factors about the interview during which Blackburn confessed which contributed to the court of appeal's verdict. These include the lengthy questioning, the lack of a parent, guardian or solicitor, the fact that Blackburn was not advised of his entitlement to

legal advice Legal advice is the giving of a professional or formal opinion regarding the substance or procedure of the law in relation to a particular factual situation. The provision of legal advice will often involve analyzing a set of facts and advising a p ...

and the young age of Blackburn at the time. During the appeal

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also admitted that Blackburn was prompted to make his confession, and therefore Judge's rules had been breached. In addition, evidence was found that the police were involved significantly with the wording used in Blackburn's statement of confession. It was felt by the appeal judges that, as this involvement had previously been denied on

oath Traditionally, an oath (from Old English, Anglo-Saxon ', also a plight) is a utterance, statement of fact or a promise taken by a Sacred, sacrality as a sign of Truth, verity. A common legal substitute for those who object to making sacred oaths ...

by the police, all the evidence they gave relating to the interview was therefore no longer reliable. The appeal court ruled that Blackburn's confession should never have been used as

evidence Evidence for a proposition is what supports the proposition. It is usually understood as an indication that the proposition is truth, true. The exact definition and role of evidence vary across different fields. In epistemology, evidence is what J ...

in his trial.

Early life

Blackburn had a difficult childhood. His father was an

alcoholic Alcoholism is the continued drinking of alcohol despite it causing problems. Some definitions require evidence of dependence and withdrawal. Problematic use of alcohol has been mentioned in the earliest historical records. The World Hea ...

, who was often away at sea, but created a climate of fear in the household when present. Blackburn said that his father was violent towards the children, showed them no affection and verbally abused them. As the sixth of eight children, Blackburn lived in cramped conditions with little privacy. There was also a lot of friction and hostility between the members of the Blackburn family, even aside from the father. Blackburn was not close to the other members of his immediate family, and had difficulty knowing how to react to affection from more distant relatives. He made friends at school, however, and spent as much time as possible with them, most of the time following normal childhood pursuits. At the age of 13, he went to Red Bank

approved school An approved school was a type of residential institution in the United Kingdom to which young people could be sent by a court, usually for committing offences but sometimes because they were deemed to be beyond parental control. They were model ...

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Prison life

Despite Blackburn's youth when he was convicted, he was sent to a prison mainly housing other convicted murderers and sex offenders. He was young compared to most prisoners and was a target for

bullying Bullying is the use of force, coercion, Suffering, hurtful teasing, comments, or threats, in order to abuse, aggression, aggressively wikt:domination, dominate, or intimidate one or more others. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. On ...

from inmates and prison staff. During his incarceration, he spent 18 months in a punishment block at

HM Prison Wormwood Scrubs HM Prison Wormwood Scrubs (nicknamed "The Scrubs") is a Prison security categories in the United Kingdom, Category B men's local prison, located in the White City, London, White City area of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in West ...

. Despite all these problems, Blackburn has said he found

freedom Freedom is the power or right to speak, act, and change as one wants without hindrance or restraint. Freedom is often associated with liberty and autonomy in the sense of "giving oneself one's own laws". In one definition, something is "free" i ...

in the act of fighting for his cause and also a freedom inside his own mind, which he came to realise could never be taken away. Blackburn believes that many people in prison have been wrongly convicted.

References

* "In Denial: The Story of Paul Blackburn", by Kevin Fegan. Broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 13 April 2007 - 21:0

Note that most of the information in this article is derived from this radio play. {{DEFAULTSORT:Blackburn, Paul 1963 births 20th-century English people Living people Overturned convictions in England People from Salford