Murder of Wendy Sewell

rdf:langString Murder of Wendy Sewell

rdf:langString right

rdf:langString "I said I've got blood on my hands can I go and wash them...little did I know at the time that they suspected me!"

rdf:langString —Stephen Downing, describing the situation when police arrived at the scene, 2022

rdf:langString The Stephen Downing case involved the conviction and imprisonment in 1974 of a 17-year-old council worker, Stephen Downing, for the murder of a 32-year-old legal secretary, Wendy Sewell, in the town of Bakewell in the Peak District in Derbyshire. Following a campaign by a local newspaper led by Don Hale, in which Sewell was purported to be promiscuous and dubbed "The Bakewell Tart", his conviction was overturned in 2002 after he had served 27 years in prison. The case is thought to be the longest miscarriage of justice in British legal history, and attracted worldwide media attention. Downing remains the prime (and only) suspect in the case, with police reinvestigations finding that all the alternative suspects suggested by Don Hale could be eliminated from inquiries. Downing, meanwhile, was the only suspect who could not be eliminated, and new forensic evidence indicated that he had committed the murder. He was also recorded confessing to the crime after he was released, although he refused to be re-interviewed by police. Don Hale's book was subsequently criticised for falsehoods and inaccuracies, and police considered bringing charges against him for its contents. When the law of double jeopardy was changed in England and Wales in 2005, allowing individuals who had previously been acquitted of a crime to be re-tried in certain circumstances, Derbyshire Police applied to the Crown Prosecution Service to re-charge Downing. However, as of July 2022, Downing has not been retried. In 2008, six years after his release, Downing was convicted of deception, having previously been arrested but not charged in 2004 of apparent intimidation of a witness only days before a BBC programme was due to be shown that suggested he was guilty. His father was charged with 13 indecent assaults in 2003, and convicted of one committed against a teenager. At the time of his death in 2008 he was awaiting trial on an attempted rape charge.