Killer fails in bid to get sentence cut (From Halstead Gazette)

Killer fails in bid to get sentence cut

11:00am Thursday 9th July 2009

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A MURDERER, jailed for life after a St Osyth man was shot dead through the door of his home, has failed in a human rights challenge to his conviction.

David Taylor, 42, of the Hythe, Colchester, was convicted at the Old Bailey in January last year for his part in the murder of 22-year-old John Ward, at his home in Point Clear Road.

He challenged the jury’s verdicts, claiming his human right to a fair trial had been violated. However, his case was rejected by three senior judges at London’s Criminal Appeal Court.

Taylor was one of a gang of men jailed over the events surrounding Mr Ward’s tragic death. The victim was killed by a shotgun fired through the glass panel of his front door, in March 2006.

The prosecution alleged the men had planned a revenge attack on another man, Stuart Higgins, who was at Mr Ward’s house on the day of the shooting.

Taylor admitted going to the area in a car, but denied any knowledge of the presence of the shotgun or that a seriously violent incident was to follow.

He was convicted primarily on the evidence of another man, who drove a car to the scene and then drove Taylor and others away afterwards.

The man, who was later jailed after admitting assisting an offender, said Taylor made a comment about the gun which suggested he knew it was present.

Challenging the the conviction, Taylor’s barrister, William Massey, argued his right to a fair trial under the European Convention on Human Rights had been violated. He argued another barrister in the case had dropped an “unexpected bombshell” in questioning the driver, resulting in “inadmissible” material being brought into the trial.

The material related to the trial judge’s previous comments, made in sentencing the man for the assisting offence, in which he said he considered he had told the truth about the parts played by each participant.

He also argued the judge had then been wrong in refusing to discharge the jury following an application the following day, rendering the subsequent conviction “unsafe”.

However, Lord Justice Keene, sitting with Mr Justice Holman and Judge Michael Stokes, upheld the conviction. He said the judge’s comments had not prejudiced the trial and Taylor’s human rights had not been breached. Taylor and another defendant, Martin James Valentine, 44, of South Ockenden, who were both jailed for life, also saw their minimum terms of 30 years upheld.

Lord Justice Keene said both had long and bad criminal records. Valentine was only released from an 18-year sentence for armed robbery the year before Mr Ward’s murder.

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