Shillibier v R, Court of Appeal - Criminal Division, April 06, 2006, [2006] EWCA Crim 793

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Shillibier v R, Court of Appeal - Criminal Division, April 06, 2006, [2006] EWCA Crim 793

Neutral Citation Number: [2006] EWCA Crim 793

Case No: 200100453 D2

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF JUDICATURE

COURT OF APPEAL (CRIMINAL DIVISION)

ON APPEAL FROM CARDIFF CROWN COURT

MR JUSTICE AIKENS

Royal Courts of Justice

Strand, London, WC2A 2LL

Date: 6 April 2006

Before :

LORD JUSTICE RICHARDS

MR JUSTICE COLLINS

and

HHJ GODDARD

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Between :

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Mr Ian Glen QC and Ms Valeria Swift (instructed by Gabb and Company Solicitors) for the Appellant

Mr Paul Lewis QC (instructed by South Wales CPS) for the Respondent

Hearing dates : 28 - 29 March 2006

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JudgmentLord Justice Richards :

1. On 18 December 2000 at Cardiff Crown Court, after a trial before Aikens J and a jury, the appellant, Marc James Shillibier, was convicted by a majority of 11 to 1 on a count of murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment.

2. An application for leave to appeal was lodged soon after conviction. Since then the case has been before the full court on a number of occasions, as issues have been raised and have then fallen away. It is unnecessary for us to go into the procedural history in any detail. We mention it simply to explain the length of time that has elapsed since the conviction.

3. We are left with two matters. First, there is an appeal against conviction on one ground on which leave was granted by the full court in October 2003. The issue is whether the judge erred in admitting into evidence the police questioning of the appellant that was conducted at a time when he was treated as a volunteer rather than as a suspect and he was not given a full caution.

4. Secondly, there is an application to add a further ground of appeal based on fresh evidence. This concerns the reliability of expert evidence given at trial concerning similarities between mud stains on seat covers from the appellant's car and samples of mud taken from the area where the body of the deceased was recovered.

The background facts and course of the trial

5. The victim of the killing was a young woman called Rebecca (or Becky) Storrs, who was 18 years of age. Her semi-naked body was found partially submerged in the River Ogmore behind a cash and carry store in Bridgend at about 11 a.m. on 6 March 1999. She had suffered a serious sexual assault and had been strangled.

6. There was evidence from two young men, Gareth Jones and Mark Hill, that in the early hours of 6 March they had gone with Rebecca to a party at the flat of a young woman called Katrina Wallace on the Wild Mill estate. They had left the flat some time after 3.20 a.m. because they were fed up and Rebecca wanted to look for drugs. Outside the flat - Jones said it was on the landing, Hill could not rem...

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