Recovered Memory Murder Case Adjourned
Regular readers might be interested in the case of Thomas Bowman who is appealing aganst his conviction of murder. Thomas was senteced to life imprisonment in 2002 in what has been described as the first ever conviction in the UK for murder on the basis of recovered memories.
For two-and-a-half years since his conviction, Bowman's sister, Mrs Westerman and her family, have been fighting to clear his name, and now remarkable new evidence has emerged that challenges every aspect of the case against Bowman.
An appeal at the High Court in London to overturn the murder conviction was told that evidence relied on to secure his conviction was 'wholly implausible' and the product of fantasies produced by the influence of 'recovered memory' self-help guides.
At the heart of this astonishing case is the controversial recovered memory syndrome, a condition which emerged first in America in the Eighties and has since destroyed hundreds of families in Britain, splitting parents and children in a welter of accusations and recriminations.
The syndrome is most often linked with suppressed memories of physical or sexual abuse suffered as a child and suddenly recalled as an adult during psychiatric therapy.
Furthermore seven eminent Home Office pathologists, including two instructed by the prosecution, have found that there was no conclusive evidence that Mary Bowman was strangled as suggested by the prosecution.
Relatively recently, in the course of preparing Mr Bowman's case for appeal, Cathy McGalie, of Chris Saltrese Solicitors, made a striking discovery. She learned that, because of lax procedures which prevailed during the 1970s, it was surprisingly common for samples which had been removed from one cadaver during autopsy to be interred, as a matter of covenience, with a different body. She therefore requested that the samples of neck tissue on which the prosecution case partly rested should be tested. When the prosecution belatedly revealed in court earlier this week that DNA tests indicated that the tissue was not Mrs Bowman's, the appeal court hearing was suddenly adjourned pending further investigations.
For further details of this disturbing case see a Fiona Barton's report in the Daily Mail and BBC news report