The Saunders Law Partnership LLP - Train driver wrongly convicted of burgling his own podiatrist exonerated by Court of Appeal

24 hour police station service: 020 7632 4300

Train driver wrongly convicted of burgling his own podiatrist exonerated by Court of Appeal
(21 January 2010)

A Brighton train driver wrongly convicted of burgling the home of his own podiatrist has been exonerated by a top judge - who declared him an "entirely innocent" man.

John Joseph Gallagher, 43, of Dyke Road, was convicted of burgling the home of James Thompson at (172) Tiverley Crescent North, Brighton, on the evidence of one of his fingerprints found on a drawer, following the break-in, in November 2007.

He protested the fingerprint must have come from the basement of the building where Mr Thompson had his practice and where he had visited as a patient regularly for two years.

However he was found guilty of the burglary at Lewes Crown Court on December 2 2008, and was sentenced to 150 hours community service on January 9 last year.

But now Lord Justice Pill, Mr Justice Bennett and Sir Christopher Holland, sitting at London's Criminal Appeal Court, have overturned the conviction and cleared his name.

Robert Banks, instructed by the the Saunders Law Partnership LLP for Mr Gallagher, had argued there were "spectacular failures by the police" in investigating the burglary, along with "far greater failures by those defending him."

Saunders Law Partnership LLP were instructed to act for Mr Gallagher following his conviction. After telling the court that Mr Gallagher had been "let down by his [previous] lawyers", Mr Banks said Sussex Police had since reviewed and changed their procedures as a result of the case.

Lawyers for the Crown did not oppose Mr Gallagher's appeal.

Lord Justice Pill told the court: "Material has emerged showing undoubtedly that, for most of the window of opportunity during which he was said to have committed the crime, he was at his home. His computer was used and he received a visitor.

"The prosecution accepts that the verdict cannot stand. Mr Gallagher is entirely innocent of the charge of which he was found guilty.

The judge went on: "A proper record of the police search was not kept. Clearly things went wrong on this occasion. There was no record of which drawer the fingerprint came from".

Lord Justice Pill added that prosecutors should have revealed that two teenagers with bad criminal records had already been convicted of offences in connection with the break-in at the time Mr Gallagher was found guilty.

And he told the court: "It does appear that the conduct of the defence on his behalf was somewhat half-hearted, but we will say no more than that.

"He was financially sound. There is no basis for the suggestion that a reliable railwayman, on the morning of his shift, would have committed this burglary and somehow been in association with the criminal element in Brighton.

"We propose to allow the appeal and we have no doubt in this case that Mr Gallagher was not guilty of the offence of which he was charged.

"It is unfortunate that this prosecution was ever brought.

"He always denied this burglary and there was ample evidence to support the protestations of innocence he made.

"Mr Gallagher has been caused very considerable distress from this sequence of events," the judge concluded, allowing the appeal.