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[HaveHope]

Mr Shirley, from Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, was an 18-year-old naval rating when barmaid Linda Cook was brutally raped and murdered in Portsmouth in December 1986.

He was on shore leave at the time of the murder and was arrested shortly afterwards.

In January 1988 he was convicted by a jury at Winchester Crown Court.

Third person

Now 34, he has always denied any involvement in Miss Cook's murder and during his time in prison has staged rooftop protests and carried out hunger strikes in an attempt to highlight his case.

However the breakthrough came last year when Mr Shirley's lawyer Anita Bromley announced new DNA evidence cast doubt on his conviction.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/3040722.stm

[HaveHope]

His case had already been referred to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) but the move helped secure a date for his appeal.

Fresh tests on slides containing samples recovered after the murder revealed an unknown third person had been at the scene at the time of the murder.

Ms Bromley said: "The DNA results which put this case back into the court of appeal indicated that first of all someone else's DNA was present in the semen recovered from the victim's body.

"After more than two years extensive testing, they haven't found any evidence of the victim's DNA on Michael's clothing and shoes. And these shoes are supposed to have stamped this victim to death."

[HaveHope]

She added: "There were no fibres from Michael on the victim, and none of the victim's fibres on Michael's clothing. In fact there is nothing to associate them at all.

 
Linda Cook was on her way home when she was murdered

"If the jury had had the evidence at the time of the trial, they certainly would not have convicted him and it is doubtful that it would even have found its way to court."

Mr Shirley had only been in the navy a short time when Miss Cook was murdered.

The 24-year-old victim had been walking home from a friend's house in the town when she was raped and killed. Her naked and battered body was found yards from a school playground.

Miss Cook's jaw and spine were broken and her larynx had been crushed by the heel of the killer, who had stamped so hard on her he left an imprint of the "Flash" logo from the sole of his shoes on her stomach.

'Miscarriage of justice'

Police immediately launched a hunt for the shoes, leading to the case being dubbed the "Cinderella murder".

They discovered that about 250 pairs had been sold in the town the year of Miss Cook's murder.

Shirley, who was on shore leave in Portsmouth at the time of the murder, owned a pair. He also shared a blood group type with the murderer.

 
Ms Bromley and Pat Shirley have worked tirelessly on the case

Taken together, both facts were enough for the jury to produce a guilty verdict.

Mr Shirley could have walked free last year after serving the recommended minimum 15 years in prison.

But he has always protested his innocence resulting in his parole being refused because he was regarded as having "failed to address his offending".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/3040722.stm

[nugnug]

are yes i do remember this case.

[HaveHope]

Michael Shirley, from Royal Leamington Spa, has always denied killing Linda Cook in December 1986.

He was just a teenager when he was found guilty at Winchester Crown Court in January 1988.

Last April, he was finally given leave to appeal against his conviction - but a date for the case has still not been set.

 
Shirley has always claimed he is innocent
 

Over the past 13 years, Shirley has held rooftop protests, sent hundreds of letters and been on a seven-week hunger strike in an effort to clear his name.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/1937382.stm

[HaveHope]

Mr Shirley, from Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, was an 18-year-old naval rating on shore leave in Portsmouth at the time of the murder. He was arrested six months later and convicted at Winchester Crown Court in 1988.

Mr Shirley has always insisted he was innocent of the murder, but a 1989 appeal was rejected by the Court of Appeal. He completed the recommended minimum 15 years of his life sentence, but was refused parole because he refused to admit to the murder.

Lengthy process

The former sailor could now be in line for a substantial compensation award, although he would not discuss that possibility after being released from the court cells in London.

He described life in prison as "hell", and said: "Now I just want to try to get my life back together." Mr Shirley said the evidence which cleared his name had been available for some time. "Hampshire Police knew how strong the DNA evidence was and could have stopped this ages ago."

James Plaskitt, the MP for Warwick and Leamington Spa, who spoke outside the Court of Appeal, said he also felt Mr Shirley's release had taken too long.

"The thing I'm angriest about is the length of time it has taken us to get this back into the Court of Appeal. We've had the evidence that undermined the original verdict for many, many years."

Mr Shirley said that, were it not for his family's backing, he did not think he would still be alive. "If it wasn't for my mother and my father and some of my other supporters, I'd be in a coffin right now."

The former sailor added that he was not the only person to have suffered since Linda Cook's murder. "At the end of the day I'm not the only victim here. The family of the girl who was killed are as much a victim in this as I am."
http://www.innocent.org.uk/cases/michaelshirley/index.html

[HaveHope]

Result:
Judicially Exonerated Released

Summary of Case:
Wrongly convicted in 1987 of murdering a barmaid in 1985. DNA tests of crime scene evidence unavailable at the time of Michael Shirley's trial excluded him as the woman's assailant. Based on the new evidence Shirley's conviction was quashed on July 3, 2003 by the UK's Court of Appeals. One of the few people in the UK exonerated by DNA testing.

Innocence Proved By:
Conviction quashed on July 3, 2003 by the UK's Court of Appeals, based on DNA testing unavailable at the time of his trial that excluded him as the assailant.
 
http://forejustice.org/db/Shirley--Michael.html