Jonathan Rose - Innocents

Copyright Copyright Prologue 1 The Ghost of Christmas Past 2 Give Us this Day Our Daily Bread 3 Of Science and Pounding Feet 4 Needles in Haystacks 5 Bye Bye, Baby 6 Of Sugar and Spice 7 Stefan Ivan Kiszko 8 … And All Things Nice 9 Of Suits and Fear 10 Three Days 11 The Prosecution of Stefan Kiszko 12 Oliver Laurel 13 The Trial of Stefan Kiszko 14 Riding Two Horses 15 Innocence? 16 Prisoner 688837 17 The First Appeal 18 Prisoner 688837, Continued 19 A New Legal Team 20 Some of My Best Friends are Policemen 21 The Freeing of Stefan Kiszko 22 Who Killed Lesley Molseed? 23 Jesus in Heaven Epilogue About the Authors About the Publisher

Fourth Estate

An imprint of HarperCollins Publisher Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published in Great Britain in 1997 by Fourth Estate

This edition published in 1998

Copyright © 1997 Jonathan Rose, Steve Panter and Trevor Wilkinson

The right of Jonathan Rose, Steve Panter and Trevor Wilkinson to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

HarperCollins Publishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication.

Source ISBN: 9781857028454

Ebook Edition © JUNE 2016 ISBN: 9780008193270

Version: 2016-05-26

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright Copyright Copyright Prologue 1 The Ghost of Christmas Past 2 Give Us this Day Our Daily Bread 3 Of Science and Pounding Feet 4 Needles in Haystacks 5 Bye Bye, Baby 6 Of Sugar and Spice 7 Stefan Ivan Kiszko 8 … And All Things Nice 9 Of Suits and Fear 10 Three Days 11 The Prosecution of Stefan Kiszko 12 Oliver Laurel 13 The Trial of Stefan Kiszko 14 Riding Two Horses 15 Innocence? 16 Prisoner 688837 17 The First Appeal 18 Prisoner 688837, Continued 19 A New Legal Team 20 Some of My Best Friends are Policemen 21 The Freeing of Stefan Kiszko 22 Who Killed Lesley Molseed? 23 Jesus in Heaven Epilogue About the Authors About the Publisher Fourth Estate An imprint of HarperCollins Publisher Ltd 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF www.harpercollins.co.uk First published in Great Britain in 1997 by Fourth Estate This edition published in 1998 Copyright © 1997 Jonathan Rose, Steve Panter and Trevor Wilkinson The right of Jonathan Rose, Steve Panter and Trevor Wilkinson to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books. HarperCollins Publishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication. Source ISBN: 9781857028454 Ebook Edition © JUNE 2016 ISBN: 9780008193270 Version: 2016-05-26

Prologue

1 The Ghost of Christmas Past

2 Give Us this Day Our Daily Bread

3 Of Science and Pounding Feet

4 Needles in Haystacks

5 Bye Bye, Baby

6 Of Sugar and Spice

7 Stefan Ivan Kiszko

8 … And All Things Nice

9 Of Suits and Fear

10 Three Days

11 The Prosecution of Stefan Kiszko

12 Oliver Laurel

13 The Trial of Stefan Kiszko

14 Riding Two Horses

15 Innocence?

16 Prisoner 688837

17 The First Appeal

18 Prisoner 688837, Continued

19 A New Legal Team

20 Some of My Best Friends are Policemen

21 The Freeing of Stefan Kiszko

22 Who Killed Lesley Molseed?

23 Jesus in Heaven

Epilogue

About the Authors

About the Publisher

Prologue

The punishment of a criminal is an example to the rabble;

But every decent man is concerned if an innocent man is condemned.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE LES CARACTÈRES, DE QUELQUES USAGES

On 10 November 1949, 1-year-old Geraldine Evans was strangled to death, but it was not her father, Timothy, who tightened the ligature around the baby’s neck. Timothy Evans was executed for a crime he did not commit.

On 23 August 1961 Michael Gregsten was killed by a shot to the head, but is was not petty thief James Hanratty who pulled the gun’s trigger. James Hanratty was executed for a crime he did not commit.

On 5 October 1975, Lesley Molseed was abducted and stabbed to death. Stefan Kiszko was innocent of her murder. Stefan Kiszko was imprisoned for sixteen years, for a crime he did not commit.

The terrible price of innocence.

The twentieth century has produced a significant number of cases in which innocent men have been convicted of murderous crimes of great repugnance. At least two men, Evans and Hanratty, paid with their lives for miscarriages of justice.

Consideration of such miscarriages tends to focus, almost exclusively and with much justification, on the innocent man. But to follow this path is to ignore those other people, equally innocent of any wrongdoing, who pay a high price for the failings of others. The families of those guiltless men whose lives are decimated by the imprisonment (or execution) of their loved ones, who then give years to clear the innocent’s name. Iris Bentley, Anne Whelan, lives devoted to a single struggle. The victims are buried and forgotten to all but their relatives but how can they rest in peace whilst their killers live on unpunished? What rest is there today for the family of Michael Gregsten and the parents of Carl Bridgewater? And of Lesley Molseed?

Each time the scales of justice are unbalanced, by police misdemeanour, by inadequacies in the legal system or by the dishonesty of others, the implications extend far beyond the man or woman who has been wrongly convicted of the crime. Publicly there is criticism of ‘the System’, ‘the Police’ or ‘the Law’ but, as is evident from the case with which this book is concerned, such criticism has not resulted in positive change. Changes to systems have not eradicated miscarriages of justice, and there is little will to punish those who contribute to such miscarriages. The fact that innocent individuals, who have been convicted and punished for crimes they did not commit, have received compensation payments or pardons should bring little comfort to society, for each one of us remains at risk of wrongful accusation until the will for change and the momentum for change grow strong.