Chair of miscarriages of justice review body quits

The embattled and closely criticised chair of the miscarriages of justice evaluation physique the Legal Circumstances Assessment Fee has resigned.

Helen Pitcher had been criticised for the company’s failings in relation to the Andy Malkinson affair, which noticed Mr Malkinson spend 17 years in jail for a rape he didn’t commit.

Ms Pitcher instructed the Occasions in an interview that she had been made a scapegoat.

Mr Malkinson known as Ms Pitcher’s assertion “shameless”, including: “I do know what it really is wish to be a scapegoat.”

The PJ understands Mrs Pitcher spoke to the newspaper earlier than telling ministers or senior members of the fee that she was resigning.

A authorities supply mentioned Ms Pitcher had “jumped as she was pushed”, because the prime minister had acquired an unbiased advice to advise the King to take away her from workplace.

Final summer time, Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood started the formal technique of sending a advice to the King that Ms Pitcher ought to go, after personally concluding that she was not fit to head the CCRC.

That call got here after a damning independent report into how the CCRC had mishandled Mr Malkinson’s pleas for assist, and the way the chair herself had introduced its work on his case.

Whereas he was in jail, the CCRC twice rejected Mr Malkinson’s submissions that he was harmless.

He was solely cleared after exhaustive work by his personal authorized group tracked down long-available DNA proof that confirmed one other man will need to have carried out the rape in 2003.

The primary of two unbiased critiques into the case discovered that the CCRC had failed to finish fundamental work that would have forged doubt on Mr Malkinson’s conviction – and that Mrs Pitcher’s statements as chair had not correctly mirrored these failings.

A second, judge-led, inquiry into wider allegations of failings, together with by Larger Manchester Police which first accused Mr Malkinson of the crime, is continuous.

Regardless of the criticisms of Ms Pitcher, ministers had no energy to sack her straight as a result of the CCRC is an unbiased legal justice physique.

The chair is appointed by the King to make sure the company’s separation from ministers, prosecutors and judges.

That meant the Ministry of Justice needed to exceptionally arrange an unbiased panel to evaluate whether or not Ms Pitcher was match to stay in workplace.

The panel of three, together with a member chosen to symbolize Ms Pitcher, concluded in latest days that Mahmood had been proper to conclude the chair ought to go.

That advice was then despatched to the prime minister to advise the King accordingly.

Had Ms Pitcher not give up, it’s thought she would have been the primary public servant in fashionable instances to be sacked by the monarch below such a course of.

In her resignation letter, Mr Pitcher mentioned she had been made a scapegoat by Alex Chalk KC, the Conservatives’ final justice secretary.

Mr Chalk, who the PJ has contacted, didn’t begin the method to take away Ms Pitcher however had launched a judge-led inquiry into the Malkinson case.

“The set off for convening the panel was based mostly on comprehensible media outrage over the appalling remedy of Andrew Malkinson,” Ms Pitcher mentioned in her letter.

“Severe questions stay for Larger Manchester Police and the Crown Prosecution Service.

“I notice that the DPP [the director of public prosecutions, who heads the CPS] and the chief constable of the GMP haven’t been the topic of comparable criticism.

“It feels unfair that I, who supported sending Mr Malkinson’s case again to judges, have been singled out.”

However Mr Malkinson instructed the PJ: “Helen Pitcher’s try to painting herself because the sufferer right here is shameless.

“I do know what it really is wish to be a scapegoat.

“I agree, nonetheless, that others must be held accountable.

“The CCRC’s senior management, beginning with the CEO, should additionally resign to pave the best way for root-and-branch reform.

“I’m astonished that the outgoing chair claims that the CCRC was capable of ‘resolve the state of affairs,’ and set me free.

“That work was finished by my group at [legal charity] Attraction, not the CCRC, who have been contemplating rejecting my case for a 3rd time.

“Going ahead, it’s essential that the CCRC is led by individuals with the heart to problem miscarriages of justice, even when which means taking up forces just like the police and judiciary.”

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson mentioned: “The Lord Chancellor established an unbiased panel to think about Helen Pitcher’s function as chair of the CCRC. We welcome her resignation.

“Given the significance of the CCRC’s work, we’ll appoint an interim chair as rapidly as potential who will probably be tasked with conducting a full and thorough evaluation of how the organisation operates.”