{"id":10269,"date":"2018-01-17T20:34:26","date_gmt":"2018-01-18T01:34:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=10269"},"modified":"2018-01-17T20:34:26","modified_gmt":"2018-01-18T01:34:26","slug":"mailbag-thief-jailed-1976-overturns-conviction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2018\/01\/17\/mailbag-thief-jailed-1976-overturns-conviction\/","title":{"rendered":"‘mailbag thief’ jailed in 1976 overturns conviction"},"content":{"rendered":"

A man who served eight months in a youth jail for stealing mailbags in the 1970s has had his name cleared.<\/p>\n

Stephen Simmons from Dorking, Surrey, was found guilty of thefts from Clapham Goods Yard in south London, aged 19.<\/p>\n

Now 62, Mr Simmons always protested his innocence, but it was not until an internet search uncovered his arresting officer was found guilty of a similar crime that his case was reconsidered.<\/p>\n

The Court of Appeal found he was framed, and overturned his convictions.<\/p>\n

Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett announced: “We would wish only to note our regret that it has taken so long for this injustice to be remedied.”<\/p>\n

\"Stephen<\/a>
Mr Simmons searched for the officer on the internet.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Asked if he was relieved following the ruling, Mr Simmons replied: “I can’t tell you how relieved.<\/p>\n

“It has only taken 43 years, but I have got there at last.”<\/p>\n

Mr Simmons, who runs an audio and phone equipment business in Newdigate, was charged by Det Sgt Derek Ridgewell, of the British Transport Police.<\/p>\n

Speaking to BBC Surrey previously he said: “I found out he’d been sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison for the theft of Royal Mail bags and selling them, and framing people for it.”<\/p>\n

Mr Simmons then applied to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), an independent body which investigates possible miscarriages of justice.<\/p>\n

Det Sgt Ridgewell died in prison in 1982.<\/p>\n

Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A man who served eight months in a youth jail for stealing mailbags in the 1970s has had his name cleared. Stephen Simmons from Dorking, Surrey, was found guilty of thefts from Clapham Goods Yard […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[3173,4666,4665,216],"class_list":{"0":"post-10269","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-uk","9":"tag-court-of-appeal","10":"tag-derek-ridgewell","11":"tag-stephen-simmons","12":"tag-surrey","13":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10269"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10272,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10269\/revisions\/10272"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}