TV documentary sparks Home Office decision to revisit Carl Bridgewater murder
Policing Minister Mike Penning has agreed to look into reopening a `miscarriage of justice` murder case that shocked a nation almost 40 years ago.
Jun 15, 2016
By Nick Hudson
Policing Minister Mike Penning has agreed to look into reopening a `miscarriage of justice` murder case that shocked a nation almost 40 years ago.
The Home Office is to examine new evidence about the killing of teenage newspaper boy Carl Bridgewater after a Channel 4 documentary revealed new information.
Mr Penning told the House of Commons he would consider the “ongoing evidence”.
The 13-year-old was shot dead in September 1978 while delivering newspapers to Yew Tree Farm, in Prestwood, Staffordshire. It is believed that he unwittingly walked in on a burglary in progress.
On Sunday (June 12), Channel 4`s Interview with a Murderer cast doubt on the alibi of Bert Spencer, the convicted killer who was a key suspect in the case.
The former ambulance driver said he was working at a hospital all day when Carl was shot. But the film revealed a former hospital secretary, who provided Spencer with what he called a cast-iron alibi, has admitted she cannot prove where he was for the entire day.
Dudley North MP Ian Austin said the new evidence must be looked at.
Urging the Home Office to act, he told the House of Commons: Nobody who grew up in Dudley will forget the shocking murder of 13-year-old paper boy Carl Bridgewater.
And nobody who watched the documentary will believe the new evidence it revealed should not be looked at, he said.
He told Mr Penning: So Id like to ask whether the Minister and the Home Secretary will ask the police and the Crown Prosecution Service to review this new evidence to see whether this case can finally be solved and whoever is responsible be bought to justice.
Mr Penning told Mr Austin he would look at the evidence and asked for a private meeting to discuss the case.
He said: No-one will forget that terrible case and my thoughts are still with the parents, no matter how long it is since then.
Its not the role of the Independent Police Complaints Commission to instruct the police how to investigate, but we will look at it and look at the ongoing evidence and perhaps we could meet and discuss it further.
Birmingham criminologist Professor David Wilson, who conducted the television interview, has said the case must be re-opened.
Following the documentary, Staffordshire Police said the matter was not currently under investigation.
But a spokesperson said: However, police will review the investigation in light of any new information or evidence being made available.
In the programme, Spencer`s ex-wife Janet also spoke about how he disposed of a legally-owned shotgun and how she had come home to find him washing a green jumper which she never saw again.
Four men, who became known as the Bridgewater Four, were jailed for Carl`s murder in 1979 but their convictions were quashed in 1997 amid concerns about police evidence.
James Robinson and cousins Michael and Vincent Hickey had spent 18 years in prison, while the fourth man, Patrick Molloy, from Tamworth, died in prison in 1981, aged 53.
At the start of the programme, Spencer reiterated his innocence and said: “I did not kill Carl Bridgewater, and I am here to prove to you that I did not.”
Months after the Bridgewater Four were jailed in 1979, Spencer shot dead friend Hubert Wilkes, 74, at Holloway House Farm in Kingswinford and served 15 years in jail.