The following statements are referenced in George Skelly’s book Murderers or Martyrs which asserts that a terrible miscarriage of justice occurred in the investigation, trial, conviction and execution of Alfred Burns and Edward Devlin for the murder of Alice Rimmer in 1950s Liverpool. There were all submitted to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) as part of his application to have the verdicts against Devlin and Burns reconsidered, yet they were discounted by the CCRC.
The witness statements are reproduced here complete with the author’s notes, highlighting and other marks used during the course of his research into the case of R v Devlin and Burns.
The following files are in PDF format.
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Sidney Charles Fairbrother witness statement: 23 August 1951
Marie Milne witness statement: 7 October 1951
June Bury witness statement: 8 October 1951
Marie Milne witness statement: 9 October 1951
George McLoughlin witness statement: 9 October 1951
June Yates witness statement: 17 October 1951
Alan Campbell witness statement: 27 October 1051
Detective Constable Hancock statement
Detective Sergeant Wade statement: 23 October 1953
Legal advice on the right to a fair trial in 1951.
(Rebecca Trowler QC of Doughty Street Chambers has extensive experience in serious and complex criminal cases including those involving homicide).