Murder of Wendy Sewell

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In 1974, 17-year-old Stephen Downing was convicted of murdering Wendy Sewell, a 32-year-old legal secretary, 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, Downing's conviction was overturned in 2002. The case is thought to be the longest miscarriage of justice in British legal history,^[1][2][3] 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.