Andrew Evans case

Andrew Evans (born 1955) is an English soldier from Longton, Staffordshire who was wrongfully convicted and served 25 years in jail after confessing to the 1972 murder of Judith Roberts, a 14-year-old schoolgirl from a village close to the northern outskirts of nearby Tamworth. Evans was stationed at Whittington Barracks near Lichfield – an army base in close proximity to Tamworth – when Judith was dragged from her bicycle and battered to death in June 1972. He later confessed to the crime after seeing the girl's face in a dream.

Evans was charged with Judith's murder in October 1972 after he presented himself at a local police station, asking to see a photograph of the victim, and making a signed statement following three days of interviews in which he maintained his guilt. Although he subsequently retracted his confession, a jury convicted him of murder following a trial in 1973, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment. Advised he had no grounds for appeal, Evans spent the next two decades in prison before his case came to the attention of the British media in 1994, and was taken up by the human rights group Justice when he contacted them about it.

With no other evidence against him apart from his own words, and strong evidence that he was suffering from false memories as the result of anxiety and depression at the time of his arrest, Evans's conviction was overturned by the Court of Appeal in 1997; and he was released from prison. As of 1997 the time he spent in custody was the longest period served by an individual in the United Kingdom as the result of a miscarriage of justice. Evans was awarded £750,000 in compensation from the Home Office in 2000, while the identity of the real killer remains unknown.

Background

The daughter of a schoolmaster, nervous and socially inadequate teenager, he had joined the Armed Forces in the hope of a career, and after his discharge was treated for depression, and prescribed valium for that condition.

Confession and trial

During a series of interviews with detectives, Evans claimed that he had dragged Judith from her bicycle, and then struggled with her in a field. Asked if he was the killer he answered, "This is it. I don't know. Show me a picture and I'll tell you if I've seen it." By this time he believed that he was innocent, and had retracted his original statement. It was claimed that his confession had been made with the use of Brietal, a so-called truth drug that was later discredited for inducing false memories. Prosecution and defence lawyers both agreed the drug's use. Apart from the confession, no other evidence was presented; there was no scientific evidence against him nor any eyewitnesses to support or refute the Crown's case.

The hearing was told that in 1972 Evans had been taking medication prescribed to him for depression, The Court also heard that none of Judith's blood had been found on Evans, and a fingerprint on her bike did not belong to him.

Following the appeal Staffordshire Police said that they had no plans to reopen their investigation into the murder of Judith Roberts, as all lines of inquiry had been exhausted at the time. A spokesman also stated that investigators had followed correct procedure, "and there was never any question of misconduct by any of those officers". The Sutcliffe theory has also been supported by Tamworth-based historian Sarah Clark, whose mother was a friend of the Roberts family.