George Davis’s case attracted widespread attention A man who continually denied his involvement in an armed robbery in the 1970s has won an appeal against his conviction.
George Davis was jailed for 20 years for armed robbery and wounding, after a raid in April 1974 at the then London Electricity Board, in Essex.
Three appeal court judges allowed the conviction challenge brought by Davis, who is now 69, and lives in London.
Davis was at the Court of Appeal when the announcement was made.
Evidence to show the convictions were unsafe “had been in the hands of the authorities since 1977”, lawyers said.
The convictions were referred to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), an independent body which investigates possible miscarriages of justice.
Davis was tried, along with three other defendants, in 1975 but was the only one found guilty.
He was originally sentenced to 20 years in prison but released the following year after Home Secretary Roy Jenkins said there was serious doubt about his identification.
During the 1970s his case attracted widespread attention with punk band Sham 69 writing a song about him.
His campaigners insisted he was the victim of mistaken identity and had not taken part in the robbery in which a police officer was shot in the leg and injured.
Roger Daltrey, frontman of The Who, wore a T-shirt proclaiming Davis’s innocence, with the convicted man’s name daubed across railway and road bridges.
When referring the case last year, the CCRC said evidence not disclosed at the original trial, and uncovered in later investigations, meant there was a real possibility the conviction could be quashed.
The appeal was heard in February before Lord Justice Hughes, Mr Justice Henriques and Mrs Justice Macur.
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