The mother of a man serving life for murder stood alongside the brother of the man he was convicted of killing in a protest outside 10 Downing Street.
Jason Moore has spent nearly a decade in prison over the fatal stabbing of Robert Darby in an East End pub car park in 2005.
The victim’s older brother, Tim Darby, is so convinced that the justice system got the wrong man he has joined the Moore family’s campaign.
Speaking alongside dozens of protesters who had gathered with placards saying “Free Jason Moore”, Darby said: “I think the authorities know he didn’t do it but they don’t want to put things right. There’s just too much evidence now that he didn’t do it … You don’t bang a man up for life for something he hasn’t done.”
Moore, now 53, was sentenced to 18 years in prison for the killing in 2013 and continues to insist on his innocence, meaning he has no prospect of early release.
The bishop of Stepney, Joanne Grenfell, accused the miscarriage of justice watchdog, the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), of failing to investigate the case properly.
The CCRC refused to refer Moore’s conviction for appeal in 2021 despite a dossier of evidence compiled by retired Metropolitan police detectives which cast serious doubt on it.
Standing in front of Downing Street in her purple robes, Grenfell said: “We are here today to protest about the way that the Criminal Cases Review Commission has so far refused to listen to the evidence that shows this is an unsafe conviction; evidence that is so overwhelming that anyone who reads it can hardly believe that it has been allowed to stand, and to keep an innocent man in prison for the last nine years.”
A new application is being prepared to send to the CCRC this month with fresh evidence, including that a key witness has now told the Romford Recorder newspaper this year he was drunk at the time and did not see much in a fleeting glance.
The witness initially chose someone who looked totally different to Moore in a video identity parade before picking out Moore eight years later.
Speaking about the almost 10 years her son has spent incarcerated, Moore’s mother, Jenny Moore, 77, said: “Every day is difficult. It never gets any easier.”
She added: “If someone said to me [before that] people could get sent to prison for something they didn’t do, I wouldn’t have believed them. I’d say there’s no smoke without fire, but you don’t know until it happens to you.”
Jason Moore’s partner, Sandra Dumont, said of his conviction: “Like Jason, I had faith that the truth would prevail. I never dreamed he would be found guilty.”
She recalled his first phone call afterwards: “He said: ‘I haven’t done this. I’ve been cheated out of my life.’”
Lord Monson, whose son Alexander died in police custody in Kenya, is also supporting the campaign.
He said: “I think he is completely innocent. The witnesses said that the killer was about 5ft 10 or 5ft 11 and Jason Moore was 6ft 4. It’s absurd.
“People say we’ve got the best justice system in the world. Well, if ours is the best, God help everyone else. It has great flaws.”
A spokesperson for the CCRC said a comprehensive review “concluded there was no real possibility that the court of appeal would overturn Mr Moore’s murder conviction”.
The commission invited him to apply again with any new evidence or arguments.
