Paul Blackburn

Paul Blackburn (born 1 July 1963, Salford) is a British man who was convicted at the age of 15 of attempted murder, served a life sentence, and was later found to have been wrongly convicted. He served nearly 25 years in prison.

Crime and investigation Blackburn was accused and convicted of the attempted rape and attempted murder of a 9-year-old boy, that took place on 25 June 1978. Blackburn was 14 when the crime was committed. He was initially interviewed by the police on 3 July 1978, after he had turned 15. His second police interview was ten days later, and during this he gave a different account of his locations on the day of the crime. In a third interview, Blackburn was questioned, without being cautioned, on the inconsistencies in his two accounts and was told that the description of the offender matched his own. During this interview Blackburn refused to take part in an identification parade or to provide forensic samples and verbally abused the police. Two of Blackburn's brothers, Fred and Harry, were also interviewed by the police.

Blackburn then confessed to the crime during another lengthy interview with the police, but later retracted his confession. The total length of this interview was four hours and twenty minutes, and there is no record of any breaks being taken. Three hours and ten minutes of the interview consisted of questioning by two senior police officers, and it was only at the end of this period that Blackburn made his confession. During this interview he did not have the services of a solicitor (he was not advised that he could consult one) and nor was he accompanied by a parent or guardian. He was accompanied by an adult, but during the appeal it was decided that this accompanying adult did little to support Blackburn's interests.

Blackburn was not the only suspect for the crime, nor even the only suspect who confessed to it during an interview. Indeed, his older brother Fred confessed but soon retracted his confession. Two other youths also confessed but then retracted.

Conviction Blackburn was convicted on 18 December 1978, and was sentenced to life for the attempted murder and to two years (to be served concurrently) for the attempted rape.

Appeal There then followed a protracted process of appeals. Two appeal applications were initially refused, the first solely before a single judge in September 1979, and the second by the full court on 17 March 1981. In 1995, the Home Secretary was presented with a petition for Blackburn, but he found no grounds to refer the case for review.

The appeal court ruled that Blackburn's confession should never have been used as evidence in his trial, and that the other evidence was "circumstantial and of limited weight," further saying that "there was really no prima facie case against [Paul Blackburn]."

Early life Blackburn had a difficult childhood. His father was an alcoholic, who was often away at sea, but created a climate of fear in the household when present. Blackburn said that his father was violent towards the children, showed them no affection and verbally abused them.

As the sixth of eight children, Blackburn lived in cramped conditions with little privacy.

"In Denial: The Story of Paul Blackburn", by Kevin Fegan. Broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 13 April 2007 - 21:00 Note that most of the information in this article is derived from this radio play.