Andrew Malkinson CCRC report: Jason Moore lawyers want DNA tests

Jason Moore's lawyers want a garment, seized from the home of another suspect, tested for stab victim Robert Darby’s blood.

A review, published last week, found the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) failed to conduct DNA testing in another case, possibly costing an innocent man ten more years behind bars.

Andrew Malkinson served 17 years for rape thanks to a case of mistaken identity. DNA later proved his innocence.

Barrister Chris Henley KC found the DNA exonerating Mr Malkinson was available from 2009, yet the CCRC rejected his case in 2012 and 2020.

His conviction was finally quashed in 2023 after the charity APPEAL tested the DNA instead.

Mr Henley’s scathing review of the CCRC said “all cases with the possibility of DNA opportunities should be looked at again”.

“It is almost impossible to believe that this is the only case that has not been handled properly,” he added.

Labour justice secretary Shabana Mahmood has announced she will seek the removal of the CCRC's chairwoman.

Andrew Malkinson spent 17 years in prison for a rape DNA later proved he didn't commit. A scathing report has found that DNA was available from 2009, but the CCRC rejected Mr Malkinson's case in 2012 and 2020 (Image: Charles Thomson)

Jason Moore

Like Andrew Malkinson, Canary Wharf man Jason Moore was charged with murder based on eyewitness evidence. No forensic evidence ever tied Jason to his supposed crime.

He also never matched witnesses’ descriptions of the man who stabbed Robert Darby to death outside the Valentine pub in Perth Road, Gants Hill, in August 2005.

Robert’s stabber was around 5’10” with shaven hair and wore a blue, zip-up sports jacket.

Jason is 6’4” in bare feet, had a mop of dark hair and wore a grey hoodie with no zip.

He said he was a witness, having sat in a parked car as he watched Robert fight another man.

But an eyewitness picked Jason from a line-up, saying he saw Jason exit a small, silver Ford Fiesta and stab Robert.

Jason had actually been in a brand-new BMW convertible.

The Free Jason Moore campaign has won high-profile supporters, including the Bishop of Stepney, seen here protesting Jason's ongoing imprisonment outside Downing Street (Image: Charles Thomson)

Serious error

It was only after Jason’s 2013 conviction that supporters learned police had raided another suspect’s home and seized a “blue sports top”.

Its owner had fled the country within days of Robert’s stabbing, leaving the top on his bedroom floor.

Limited DNA testing on the top was inconclusive.

In 2021, the CCRC was urged to order more in-depth, up-to-date DNA tests, to see if Robert’s blood was on the top found in the rival suspect’s home – but it refused.

It justified its refusal by wrongly claiming that two eyewitnesses had implicated Jason as the stabber.

The CCRC has refused to acknowledge or correct that error ever since.

Both eyewitnesses to Robert Darby's stabbing said his assailant wore a blue, zip-up sports jacket. CCTV shows Jason was neither wearing nor carrying a blue jacket when he left home that day. He was wearing a dark grey hoodie with no zip (Image: supplied by Moore family)

“Drunk”

In rejecting the same 2021 application, the CCRC had also refused to re-interview the eyewitness who picked Jason.

He had previously identified a different man as the stabber, who looked nothing like Jason.

He did not identify Jason as the stabber until seven years after the crime, by which time police had already shown him Jason’s photo on a prior occasion.

That first time, he did not recognise Jason at all.  

Eyewitness identification experts now say the line-up which resulted in Jason’s charge should never have happened.

Tracked down by Newsquest, the witness confessed he had been “drunk” when he witnessed the incident and might have identified the wrong man.

Even Robert’s family are so convinced of Jason’s innocence that they are calling for his conviction to be overturned.

Robert’s older brother Tim, from Havering, is one of the most prominent figures in the Free Jason Moore campaign.

In 2005, the prosecution's star witness chose the innocent line-up volunteer on the left as Robert Darby's stabber. Seven years later, he chose the right-hand photo of Jason Moore. He has since admitted he was 'drunk' when he witnessed the incident and may have identified the wrong man (Image: Met Police)

Read more:

• Explainer: Andrew Malkinson, Jason Moore and the CCRC - Everything you need to know

CCRC

In light of Mr Henley’s review, and the serious error in its prior reasons for refusing DNA testing, Jason’s pro bono lawyers now want the blue top from the other suspect’s home retested.

“We hope that the CCRC will now accelerate their consideration of our client’s application and reconsider its refusal to carry out further DNA testing in his case,” said Mark Bowen, senior partner at Shearman Bowen, on Monday, July 22.

The CCRC refused to comment on Jason’s case, but claimed it had already begun trawling more than 5,500 rape and murder cases on its books.

“We are currently focusing on cases where the identity of the offender is in question,” it said.

“We are limiting the exercise to those cases where the conviction was before 1 January 2016,” it added, as those were before newer DNA tests were introduced.

But, it said: “We anticipate that only a small proportion of those cases will be ones in which there are new forensic opportunities.”