1. Early life

2. M25 Three
    Original crime   Identification of Perpetrators    Murder    Aggravated Robbery    Robbery    Arrest    The accused   Case against Rowe, Davis and Johnson   Fingerprints    The Triumph Spitfire    Eye Witnesses    First Sighting    Second Sighting    Third Sighting    Alibi    Stolen Renault and Vauxhall cars    Prosecution Witnesses    Kate Williamson    Reward   Trial and conviction  Appeals  First appeal  Criminal Cases Review Commission  European Court of Human Rights judgment 

3. 2000 Appeal Court hearing, convictions overturned

4. Journalist

5. References

6. External links

Early life

Rowe was born and brought up in southeast London. Described in court as a "career criminal", he had previous convictions, including malicious wounding.^[1]

M25 Three

Original crime

At some time between 11 p.m and 12.30 a.m, an armed gang of three men wearing balaclavas and driving a stolen green Triumph Spitfire approached a car in Chelsham, Surrey in which Peter Hurburgh and Alan Eley were having sex. The gang dragged the two men from the car and tied them up, then stripped and beat them.^[2] The gang then poured petrol over the two men, and Eley lost consciousness. When he regained consciousness, Hurburgh was dead, having sustained five fractured ribs and a fractured sternum, which had bruised his heart leading to death from cardiac arrest.^[2]

New Evidence, uncovered by the BBC Rough Justice programme in 1998, revealed the victim Alun Ely had told the police and witnesses that the attack took place just after midnight and not 2 a.m, as he claimed in court. Timings of the offences were critical at the original trial.   

The assailants abandoned the green Spitfire at the scene and stole Hurburgh's car, an Austin Princess which they then drove around the M25 to Oxted. Here, at around 3.40 a.m, they broke into a home belonging to Richard Napier, then aged 66, who lived with his wife and 40-year-old son Timothy. The gang threatened the family with a knife and two handguns, one of which was described as a revolver. Timothy sustained multiple knife wounds and Mrs Napier was instructed to remove her rings and jewellery. She was told that if she refused her fingers would be cut off. The house was ransacked and after 20–30 minutes, the robbers left, taking Timothy's Toyota Corolla which had been parked near the house.^[2] Hurburgh's Austin was found abandoned {{convert|100|yd|-1}} from the Napiers' house.^[2]

The gang then drove around the M25 to Fetcham, where at 5.am they broke into the house of Rosemary Spicer and her boyfriend Peter Almond, who were threatened with a handgun, tied up and gagged while the house was ransacked.^[2] After between forty-five minutes and an hour the gang left in a Renault 5 and a Vauxhall Cavalier stolen from Spicer and Almond; Timothy Napier's Toyota was later found nearby.^[2]

Identification of Perpetrators

Murder

The victims gave statements to the police immediately after the offences took place. They described the robbers as two white men and one black man.[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/high-priority-six-high-profile-cases-head-the-waiting-list-for-review-1266026.html]

They said they saw the colour of the men's skin through the masks they were wearing in relatively fairly well light surroundings, and over long periods of time.

The first victim, Mr Ely told Mr Gentles, the occupant of the house from where Mr Ely raised the alarm, that the assailants were two white and one black man.

When Ely was asked "What did they look like?", by the first police officer that attended the scene, Mr Ely said "Two white men and a coloured man wearing masks".

Aggravated Robbery

When giving his first detailed statement to the police at the police station Mr Ely stated, "I can say that one of these men was definitely white skinned because at some stage I noticed that through the eye hole in the balaclava".

The first police officer to take descriptions from the second victims, Mr and Mrs Napier, immediately after the offence, wrote in his police notebook (not disclosed to the defence or jury at the trial) what each victim told him:

Mr Napier - "The Negro had a gun.... the black youth. My son was stabbed in the struggle by one of the white youths."

Mrs Napier - "The black youth had a knife. The black youth smelt unclean. The black youth had a blue balaclava on."

Mr Napier - "It was one of the white youths who stabbed my son. The black youth appeared to be the leader."

In his official witness statement to the police a few hours later, Mr Napier said "I will now describe the men as I remember them. The first man who came into my bedroom was coloured, I would say of African origin. He was wearing a dark blue or black helmet. The eye holes seemed ragged as if they had been cut out. His colouring was light brown. He seemed to have a well filled oval face. The first man I saw with the dagger of knife was white.....similar height and build as the coloured man. He had fair hair, longish. He was wearing a rust coloured balaclava. I seem to remember he had blue eyes. The third man was white I believe.

Robbery

Miss Spicer, the victim of the third offence said in her official statement to the police, "I could not tell if they were black or white, but I came to the conclusion that they were white or at least the one who did most of the talking was a white man."[https://orca.cf.ac.uk/54837/1/U585226.pdf] p.80. & p.195/6.

From the detailed descriptions given to the police they issued appeals for information through national TV and newspapers.

In the THE DAILY TELEGRAPH 19 December 1988, [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1343027/M25-three-urge-judges-to-overturn-sentences.html] Detective Chief Supt. Vincent McFadden, head of Surrey CID, who was heading the hunt, said he received high quality information and that "...he was confident the information from the public meant the net was closing around the two white men and one black man, all thought to be in their 20's."

Arrest

Rowe and Davis were arrested on the morning of 19 December 1988 at the probation hostel they shared in Sydenham, London and initially taken to Oxted Police Station.^[2][5] Johnson was apprehended on 6 January 1989, at which time he was found to be in possession of a revolver.^[2] Some of the items stolen during the Oxted and Fetcham robberies were recovered from the bail hostel. Davis' fingerprints were found on porcelain figures, although unconnected to the robberies and murder, in the same cupboard inside the bail hostel.^[2] The remaining items from the robberies were discovered at the flat of a key prosecution witness, Mark Jobbins.

In total, twelve people at the hostel were arrested, including Shane Griffins and Mark Jobbins.^[5] A further suspect, Norman Duncan, was already in police custody.^[2]

The accused

Raphael Rowe, with light brown skin, brown eyes and shoulder length dark brown dreadlocks, did not fit the description of the perpetrators.

Michael Davis, with dark brown skin, brown eyes and shoulder length black dreadlocks, did not fit the description of the perpetrators.

Randolph Johnson, with dark brown skin, brown eyes and short black hair, did not fit the description of the perpetrators.

Norman Duncan, a key prosecution witness, with white skin, blue eyes and fair hair, fitting the description given by at least one of the victims.

Mark Jobbins and Shane Griffin are also white.

Duncan, Jobbins and Griffin, admitted handling and hiding stolen property from the robberies in the flat of Jobbing’s girlfriend, stealing the Triumph Spitfire used to arrive at the murder scene, possessing the air pistol used by the gang and dumping the Cavalier and Renault stolen from the final robbery.

Case against Rowe, Davis and Johnson

Griffin and Duncan admitted stealing the green Triumph Spitfire used by the gang that murdered Hurburgh, but testified that they had stolen it at the request of Rowe, on 13 December 1988. They claimed that it had been kept at the bail hostel until the evening of 15 December when Rowe, Davis and a third man, whom they did not know but who was alleged by the prosecution to be Johnson, had asked them for assistance to "bump start" the vehicle, between 11.pm and midnight (allegations they did not make until their fingerprints were found on the vehicle).

They also testified that Rowe had asked them for balaclavas. This same group of witnesses claimed that Rowe and Davis had returned on the morning of 16 December in the stolen Renault and Vauxhall with a quantity of items, the proceeds of the robberies, which they helped to unload and hide. They alleged that they were then asked to dispose of the stolen vehicles, with the warning that they were a "bit warm" and that they would have to be burned completely to remove all identification.^[2]

Fingerprints

The police forensic experts examined the green Triumph Spitfire at the scene of the murder. They later found the fingerprints belonging to known criminals, Mark Jobbins and Norman Duncan. The allegation that they were asked by Rowe to 'bump start' the green Triumph Spitfire was, the defence argued, a concocted story to explain why their fingerprints were on the car.

The Triumph Spitfire

In the early hours of the 10th December 1988, Griffin, met Duncan, an old friend, at a party in South London. Duncan's claim of homelessness led Griffin to invite him to share his room at the bail hostel. Jobbins already shared this room with Griffin.

Later that same day, the witness Mr Martin Membury noticed Griffin, Duncan and Jobbins examining his green Triumph Spitfire parked in his drive. Two days later in the early hours of the 12 - 13 December 1988, Griffin and Duncan drove back to Mr Membury's drive in a stolen mini motor car. Whilst Duncan kept watch Griffin forced the ignition and stole the green Triumph Spitfire.

Duncan and Griffin claimed that Rowe asked them on the 12th December 1988, to steal him an MG motor car for use as spare parts, but that they stole a green Triumph Spitfire by mistake. Rowe challenged the allegation, and Mr Membury's evidence that the three white men were examining the Spitfire car on the 10th December, two days earlier than the alleged request, supported Rowe's challenge.

The fact that Griffin and Duncan abandoned the stolen Mini car, they were driving, when they stole the Spitfire on the 13th December 1988, supported the defence argument that they had stolen the Spitfire car for their own purposes and not for, or at the request of Rowe. The abandonment of a stolen car at the scene was consistent with the perpetrators actions of abandoning cars on the night of the murder.

Eye Witnesses

At the trial several independent eye witnesses told the jury that they had seen the Triumph Spitfire near the crime scene of the murder at times that were totally inconsistent with the prosecution case against the three black men on trial.

First Sighting

Miss Karen Garrett, a school teacher, and her boyfriend Mr Malcolm Macdonald, stated that they went for a drink in the White Bear public house at about 9 p.m on the evening of the 15th December 1988. (This was the same pub where Mr Hurburgh and his friend Mr Ely were drinking before they were attacked, and Mr Hurburgh was killed).

However, on arrival they decided not to drink there because they did not like the live band, and so they returned to their car parked in the public house's car park. As they walked to the car, Mr Macdonald pointed out a green Triumph Spitfire to Miss Garrett which was pulling into the car park.

At the trial the judge Mr Justice Auld said, if Karen Garrett and her boyfriend saw this very green Triumph Spitfire in the car park at the White Bear public house at about 9.15 p.m, the case against Rowe and Davis would be even more impossible if the green Triumph Spitfire seen was the same green Triumph Spitfire found near the murder scene, because the prosecution accepted the defence case that Rowe and Davis were in the company of four witnesses eight miles away at 9.15 p.m.

Before the trial the defence did not investigate whether it was possible for another green Triumph Spitfire to also have been near the murder scene at 9.15 p.m because such a scenario seemed to be improbable.

Following Mr Justice Auld's suggestion of such a 'possibility' in his summing up and the convictions, this issue became of paramount importance to the defence case in preparation for an appeal.

Before the defence could conduct their own investigations, the LWT and Trevor Phillips at the London Programme working with defence solicitors revealed that such a scenario was indeed impossible.

Mark Hugall, who is area organiser for Triumph Sports owners stated on the LWT London Programme broadcast in October 1992, "In 1988 I was Surrey area organiser as I still am now. I've never seen another British Racing Green or green Spitfire Mark 3 in this area or even coming to our meetings or even to a national meeting. Green was a very unpopular colour as it is today still. The likelihood of seeing a British Racing Green Mark 3 is very low but to see two on one evening is, is virtually impossible."

Mr Membury, the owner of the stolen green Triumph Spitfire and a car dealer, also confirmed that he had never seen another green Triumph Spifire on his travels around the South East and London, and that is why he went all the way to Southampton to buy the green Triumph Spitfire. This crucial information was not available to the defence at the trial.

Second Sighting

Mr David Ivens, a witness who was interviewed by the police also confirmed that he saw the green Triumph Spitfire abandoned in the field two hundred yards from the White Bear Pub and scene of the murder between 10 - 10.30 p.m. on the 15th December 1988.

Third Sighting

The two sightings of the green Triumph Spitfire, at times when Rowe and Davis had concrete alibis, was further compounded by the evidence of a crucial witness, Mr Peter Fyffe. He stated that on the 15 December 1988, he took his family and some friends to the Horse of The Year show at Olympia. After leaving the stadium at 11.30 p.m. he dropped his friends’ home and continued to drive home along Blackmans lane. As he reached Skidhill Lane junction at 12.30 a.m. he saw through the headlights a Triumph Spitfire parked in the field opposite. Mr Fyffe said the car was green and had a Union Jack on the wing.

The trial judge said in his summing up: "The relevance of that evidence is that it marks the time of the arrival of the robbers, whoever they were, at the scene of their first offence that night. It is conceded by Mr Bevan - indeed, it is inevitable, is it not, that the Spitfire seen by Mr Fyffe in his headlights as he drove home from Olympia that night, must have been this very Spitfire stolen from Mr Membury by Griffin and Duncan."^[2]

Alibi

Rowe, Davis, Paula Martinez, Siobhan Cavannagh, Tracy Pooley and Kate Williamson were together in Davis' flat socialising on the 15 December 1988 between 8 p.m. and 10.30 p.m. At about 10.30 p.m. Miss Pooley suggested that the group went to her parents’ house.

At about 10.45 p.m. Rowe, Davis and the four girls left and caught a bus to visit the Pooley household. Miss Martinez decided to go home and remained on the bus when the rest got off. Miss Pooley's mother Jennifer, sister Sharon, brother Tony and Justin Frost, a solicitor’s clerk, were all at the Pooley house.

At 11.30 p.m. Miss Cavanagh went home. At midnight Sharon Pooley offered to drive Rowe, Davis and Williamson, who planned to spend the night with Rowe, back to their flat as she also had to take her boyfriend Frost home.

At 12.20 a.m., they all left. Rowe, Davis and Williamson were dropped off at their flat at about 12.30 a.m.

Mrs Jennifer Pooley, the mother, stated at the trial, "I remember an occasion on the 15 December 1988, when Tracy brought some friends home. Those friends were Raphael Rowe, Michael Davis and Kate Williamson........I do remember quite specifically the time at which Tracy's friends departed, it was at 12.20 a.m. I remember looking at the clock because my daughter Sharon's boyfriend left with them...........his name was Justin Frost".

Mr Frost told the trial jury that he did not know Rowe and Davis and had only met them when they were introduced to him at the Pooley house on the night of the 15 December 1988. He went on to explain how he drove them back to their flat with Williamson on the night of the 15th arriving at 12.30 a.m. Davis went straight to his room and Rowe and Williamson went to Rowe's room.

Rowe and Davis defence accused the police and key witnesses of conspiring to fabricate evidence to ensure three black men were convicted of crimes that the victims described were committed by two white men and one black man.

Stolen Renault and Vauxhall cars

The statement by John Malcolm Steven, a crucial witness to the disposal of the Renault and Vauxhall, was withheld by the police at the time of the trial.

His statement dated: 17th December 1988 read:

This evidence hit the Sunday paper headlines:-

"I CAME FACE TO FACE WITH MACHETE KILLER GANG" screamed the News OF The World headline on the 18th December 1988. The article underneath the headline stated "SHOCKED John Stevens told yesterday how he came face to face with the kill-for-kicks gang and escaped. He was on a 7 am walk with his dog when he came across two men with the getaway cars stolen from one of the gang's victims". Quoting Mr Stevens the article stated "They looked up at me and I knew instantly that something was wrong. I'd seen an alert for the cars on TV and I knew these blokes don't mess around".

On the 19th December 1988, two days later, Raphael Rowe and Michael Davis were arrested.

On that day, 19th December 1988, another statement was taken from Mr Stevens. The following is a word for word extract from that statement.

Following the arrest of Rowe and Davis the witness seems to leave out the colour of the two men he saw and described in his original statement ?

The two white men seen by Mr Stevens have never been caught, so they have never been questioned or eliminated from the M25 Crimes.

Prosecution Witnesses

Norman Duncan became a chief prosecution witness at the trial of the three black men, Rowe, Davis and Johnson, accused of the M25 crimes. One aspect of his evidence was that he admitted that he and two other white men, Shane Griffin and Mark Jobbins, were responsible for unloading property stolen from the robberies out of the Renault and Vauxhall cars, into the flat of Jobbins girlfriend before dumping the cars at the spot the witness Mr John Stevens described.

However, Duncan, Griffin and Jobbins claim they dumped and attempted to burn the two cars at about midnight on the 17 December 1988, not at 7.am as described by Mr Stevens. Both accounts could not be true so one or the other must be lying. Mr Stevens had no reason to lie.

Kate Williamson

Kate Williamson, a key prosecution witness told the police that on the night of the 15th December 1988, after returning to Rowe's flat at 12.30 a.m, Rowe left her at approximately 1.30 a.m and did not return until around 6.30 a.m. Williamson also claimed that Rowe gave her two rings, later found to have been taken during the Napier robbery, a watch found to have been taken from the Spicer robbery, and a watch strap from the Napier robbery.

She handed all of the items to the police on 19th December 1988. The Police also claim to have found a brooch taken in the Spicer robbery in a waste paper basket in Rowe's room. Williamson gave further evidence that when Rowe had left on the Thursday evening he had been wearing a particular type of distinctive footwear, and imprints made by this type of boot were found in a flowerbed at the Napier home and in blood in the Napiers' hall.^[3]

Rowe consistently maintained he did not leave his flat. The items of clothing mentioned in her statements were never produced by the police and Rowe claimed the evidence was fabricated.

In a letter sent to Rowe by Williamson, whilst he was on remand in Brixton prison, she admitted she lied through jealousy and that she sought revenge because Rowe had been "two-timing her with her friend".

It was also suggested by the defence that Williamson was having a relationship with Duncan, one of the other key witnesses against Rowe and that the jewellery she handed to the police had been given to her by Duncan and not Rowe.

Rowe also denied owning a pair of the alleged boots Williamson claimed he took from a bag. Hundreds of photos of Rowe prior to his arrest were examined by the police and none showed him wearing any boots of the description given by Williamson.

Reward

The defence argued that the prosecution witness’s, who's evidence led to the convictions, were either involved in the crimes or that their motivation when making their allegations against Rowe, Davis and Johnson was the £25,000 reward offered to those who could help the police convict the persons responsible for the "M25 Crimes".

A BBC Rough Justice investigation in 1998, 10 years after the arrest of Rowe, Davis and Johnson, uncovered evidence that Duncan had indeed received some of the reward for his evidence. This information was withheld from the defence at the trial in 1990 and again by the Court of Appeal in 1993.

It was also suspected that Williamson also received money from the police.    

Trial and conviction

The original trial took place at the Old Bailey between January and February 1990, resulting in all three being convicted in March of the murder of Hurburgh, causing grievous bodily harm with intent to Timothy Napier and several robberies. Each was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder and given substantial sentences for the other offences.

Appeals

First appeal

The first appeal was heard on 23 July 1993. It was then disclosed that reward money had been paid for information leading to the three men's conviction but not the name or names of the recipients, which their lawyers claimed was vital to their case, since those alleged to have received payments might also have been suspects, and had been promised immunity from prosecution in return for information.^[4] It later emerged that Duncan had received £10,300 in reward money from the Daily Mail, which was not disclosed to the jury when he gave evidence at the original trial.

The appeal was rejected, with the court stating: "Taking all the evidence relating to the timing and events on the Thursday night and the succeeding days into account we conclude that, on the whole of the material we have reviewed, there is no basis for saying there is even a lurking doubt about the safety of the convictions of Rowe and Davis, the same applies to Johnson. On the contrary, the case against them all was, and remains, a formidable one."

Criminal Cases Review Commission

In 1997, the Criminal Cases Review Commission appointed an investigating officer from Greater Manchester Police to carry out enquiries into the case, and in January 1999 the investigating officer submitted his report. The report concluded that:

European Court of Human Rights judgment

In 1994, Davis and Rowe made an application to the European Court of Human Rights. On 16 February 2000 the court returned its judgment in respect of Davis and Rowe, finding that there had been a violation of Article 6 (1) of the European Convention on Human Rights, specifically the failure to disclose Duncan's status as an informant prior to trial together with the fact that he had become eligible for a reward and may have implicating others as suspects before later accusing Johnson.

2000 Appeal Court hearing, convictions overturned

Commencing on 14 June 2000, at the hearings conclusion, the court stated that:

The three men were released from prison on 17 July 2000 when their convictions were overturned after being ruled "unsafe" by the Court of Appeal.^[5] In the ruling, Lord Justice Mantell, Mr Justice Blofeld and Mrs Justice Rafferty were emphatic that although the convictions were unsafe, they were not declaring the men innocent: "[T]he case against all three appellants was formidable. The evidence against Rowe was overwhelming... For the better understanding of those who have listened to this judgment and of those who may report it hereafter this is not a finding of innocence, far from it."^[3] On his release, Rowe said:^[1]

The judgment also highlighted a "conspiracy to give perjured evidence" between some police officers and a key prosecution witness. [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/m25-three-vow-to-find-police-who-lied-in-court-706751.html]I

Academics have reviewed and commented on the appeal court judges’ comments and concluded, "As with other cases, perjury, deceit and injustice have been reduced to “irregularities”, enhancing, where still possible, the fallacious notion that miscarriages of justice are merely about “technicalities”. [https://orca.cf.ac.uk/54837/1/U585226.pdf]p. 196

Journalist

During his time in prison, Rowe studied journalism via a correspondence course.^[1] Following his release, after a year travelling the world, Rowe joined BBC Radio 4's Today programme, as a reporter. He then became a reporter on the BBC Six O'Clock News, and a reporter on BBC Panorama.^[6] Rowe is currently a reporter on the BBC One series The One Show and Sunday Morning Live   [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06bgb33]. In 2018 he presented his first series for Netflix, 'Inside the World's Toughest Prisons' [https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/80116922] and appeared in the BBC Two series, 'Pilgrimage: The Road to Santiago'.  .

After the arrest and conviction of Barry George at the Old Bailey on 2 July 2001 for the murder of BBC news presenter Jill Dando, George was sentenced to life imprisonment. Concern about this conviction was widespread on the basis that the case against George appeared thin. Two appeals were unsuccessful, but after Rowe filmed a Panorama report which discredited forensics evidence that was included in the prosecution's case, George's third appeal succeeded in November 2007. The original conviction was quashed and a second trial lasting eight weeks ended in George's acquittal on 1 August 2008.^[7]

References

External links

• Bio at BBC Panorama

• The 40 Year Old Virgin
• The 40-Year Old Virgin
• The 40-Year-Old Virgin
• The 411
• The 42nd Parallel
• The 4400
• The 45
• The 45 King
• The 480
• The 4 Seasons
• The 4th Assassin- Don Zaloog
• The 4th Floor (2003 film)
• The 4 Tops
• The 5
• The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T.
• The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion
• The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins
• The 51st State
• The 5 6 7 8s
• The 5 6 7 8's
• The 5-6-7-8s
• The 5- 6- 7- 8s
• The 5. 6. 7. 8's
• The 5678's
• The 5,6,7,8s