A conviction for the murder of a cinema manager, that sent a
young Liverpool labourer to the gallows 53 years ago, was overturned by the
court of appeal on 10th June 2003.
George Kelly was executed at Walton jail on Merseyside in
March 1950, following what was then the longest criminal trial in English legal
history. His plea for clemency had been rejected by the home secretary of the
day, James Chuter Ede. The three appeal judges, Lord Justice Rix, Mr Justice
Douglas Brown and Mr Justice Davis, concluded the original verdict was
"unsafe". The case was the oldest referred to the criminal cases
review commission, the statutory body that investigates alleged miscarriages of
justice. The crown did not attempt to uphold the conviction.
During the appeal, the judges heard that a statement given by
a prosecution witness, claiming a man called Donald Johnson had confessed to
committing the crime, had not been disclosed at the original trial.
 |
Cameo Cinema Webster Road |
The crime for which Kelly was hanged shocked post-war
Britain. Leonard Thomas, 44, manager of the Cameo Cinema in Wavertree,
Liverpool, and his assistant, John Catterall, 30, were killed during what was
believed to be a bungled burglary in March 1949.
On the evening of 19 March 1949, the Cameo cinema
in Liverpool, was the scene of a brutal double murder which led to a
miscarriage of justice. The cinema manager, Leonard Thomas, was counting the
day's takings assisted by his deputy, Bernard Catterall, when a masked man
entered their office armed with a pistol. After demanding they hand over a bag
of cash, which it appears they were reluctant to do, the man shot both of them
fatally. He then made his escape from the building empty-handed after
threatening other members of the cinema staff who had come to the men's aid.
 |
Detective Chief Superintendant
Herbert Balmer |
Liverpool City Police launched a huge manhunt for the killer,
the detective in charge of the case was Herbert Balmer. The first major lead
came in the form of a letter from a pair of convicted criminals, a prostitute
and her pimp. Jacqueline Dickson and James Northam. They were prepared to
assist the police with information on the murders in return for immunity from
prosecution themselves. Officers accepted the deal in an advert in the
Liverpool Echo, and eventually met James "Stutty" Northam, who had
been involved in planning the raid. He said Kelly had planned to carry out the
robbery while Connolly kept watch. This resulted in the arrest of, Charles
Connolly, 26 and George Kelly, 27. Kelly had convictions for petty theft whilst
Connolly had been in trouble for brawling. Despite their protestations that
they had never met before and both being able to produce sound alibis for the
evening of 19 March, the pair were charged with the murder of the two men in
the cinema. Kelly and Connolly. They
stood trial at Liverpool Assizes in the city's St Georges Hall on 12 January
1950 before Mr. Justice Roland Oliver. The prosecution's case was that Kelly
had been the gunman and that Connolly had acted as lookout as well as having
planned the robbery. In his evidence, Northam alleged that he and Dickson had
been present in the Bee Hive public house in Mount Pleasant with the defendants
when they were plotting the crime; had seen Kelly loading a pistol; and that
Kelly had borrowed his (Northam's) overcoat for use as a disguise during the
robbery. Dickson stated that Kelly had borrowed a dark scarf or apron to use as
a mask; trying it on in front of the customers of the crowded pub before he and
Connolly boarded a tram to take them to the Edge Hill area. No witnesses to
this action were ever found. Northam claimed he had originally planned to
assist in the robbery but the sight of the gun had frightened him off. Much was
made of the evidence of Robert Graham, a Preston criminal serving a sentence in
Walton Prison at the same time that Kelly and Connolly were on remand there,
who claimed to have carried messages between the prisoners as they sat in
adjacent cells, which would have been unnecessary as the cells were near enough
that the men could converse freely. He also alleged that both Kelly and
Connolly had separately confessed their part in the murders to him in the
exercise yard - both men denied this and it is extremely unlikely that they
would have made such a damning confession to a complete stranger. Graham was
later rewarded for his evidence with a reduction in his sentence. Kelly had spent almost the whole day and early evening of the
murder drinking heavily and many witnesses came forward to confirm the fact
that he was clearly half drunk as the day wore on. The cinema staff however,
were quite certain the man who threatened them outside the manager's office
before sprinting out of the building and away up a side street, so quickly they
could not keep up with him, was not somebody who had been drinking. Forensic
examination of the crime scene and the angle of the bullet wounds in the
victims bodies indicated that the person who fired the shots had held the gun
in his left hand. Kelly was right-handed.
After what was then one of the longest murder trials in British
legal history, the jury failed to reach a verdict and a retrial was ordered,
this time with the defendants tried separately.
The two were then tried separately. Kelly was convicted on
February 8, 1950, and sentenced to be hanged. His appeal was turned down, and
he was executed on March 28 at Walton jail, where he was buried. The
prosecution offered no evidence on the murder charge against Connolly, who was
jailed after admitting robbery and conspiracy charges. The case caused considerable disquiet in legal circles for
many years and there were a number of attempts to have it re-opened. The evidence
put forward by the prosecution had emanated from witnesses who could hardly be
described as being of sterling character. Dickson was a convicted prostitute
and thief who, two years after the Cameo trial was sentenced, with others to a
lengthy prison term for the violent robberies of a number of her clients.
Northam had been a criminal since the age of 14 and had spent much of the 1940s
in and out of prison. Graham shared a similar background. All three stood to
gain by their testimony. The detective who led the investigation, Chief
Superintendent Herbert Balmer had difficulty in corroborating much of the
prosecution evidence during the trial. Most importantly, scant attention was
paid to the fact that another Liverpool criminal, Donald Johnson, had
demonstrated an intimate knowledge of the crime after being arrested for a
street robbery in Birkenhead and had been charged with complicity in the
murders prior to the arrest of Kelly and Connolly. Johnson had been transferred
to Walton Prison from Birkenhead, where he admitted to another prisoner that he
had been involved in the cinema shootings. This man was Robert Graham - the
same criminal who would later tell a court that Connolly and Kelly had admitted
being the murderers. During questioning, Johnson admitted being in the vicinity
of the cinema at the time of the murders and had, in fact been stopped by a
police constable, suspicious of his loitering, who had demanded to see his
identity card and then taken his name. Johnson, during police interrogation,
referred to the murder weapon as being an automatic - which was correct but a
fact known only to the police, the gunman and his accomplices, if any. He
further stated that one of the dead men had been shot whilst on his hands and
knees - again, a fact that only the police knew.
Eventually the case reached the Court of Criminal Appeal in
February 2001 and in June 2003 Kelly's and Connolly's convictions were judged
to be unsafe and were duly quashed. Kelly's remains were taken from their
burial place in Walton prison by his family and he was given a dignified
funeral after a service in Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral.
Links
Sources
Wikepedia
Guardian News
George Skelly
Liverpool Central Library
Liverpool Records Office
Pin It