A MAN who has been claiming for more than 30 years that he was jailed for a robbery he did not commit has lost his latest appeal.
Appeal judges rejected William Beck's claim that he had been the victim of a miscarriage of justice.
Beck, 52, said the ruling was "absolutely shocking" as he left the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh.
His attempt to overturn his 1982 conviction had been supported by the Glasgow Caledonian University Innocence Project, which campaigns on behalf of those who believe they have been wrongly treated by the courts.
The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, which investigates possible miscarriages of justice, had asked appeal judges to look again at Beck's trial.
A jury's majority verdict convicted Beck of stealing a car from the Broomielaw in Glasgow on December 12, 1981, and taking part in a robbery at a supermarket in Livingston. Two post office workers were struck with hammers and bags containing £21,000 in cash were taken.
Beck, originally from Castlemilk, Glasgow, was jailed for six years and an appeal against conviction was thrown out in October 1982. But with the help of his supporters his complaints about the trial were given a fresh hearing in March this year.
His grounds of appeal criticised the legal directions given to jurors by trial judge Lord Dunpark, the eye witness evidence Beck claims was mistaken, the rejection of his alibi and a claim that his legal team had let him down.
All were rejected yesterday by Lord Carloway, sitting with Lords Brodie and Marnoch. Lord Carloway noted that because Lord Dunpark has since died and the shorthand notes taken at the trial were destroyed after 10 years there were difficulties.
But what Lord Dunpark had told the jury had been transcribed for the 1982 trial and appeal judges said the judge could be criticised for some of the things he said.
"Although there were misdirections in the charge these were not, in the event, material," said Lord Carloway.
He added that in dealing with the identification evidence Lord Dunpark had been, if anything, favourable to Beck. He told the jury that eye witness evidence was "notoriously difficult" and that "it was easy to make a mistake if you only get a fleeting glimpse".
The appeal judges also said Beck's lawyers had properly put his defence – an alibi claiming he was in Glasgow with his girlfriend.
Beck left court vowing to take his fight to the Supreme Court.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article