Victor Nealon was convicted of attempted rape and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 7 years in January 1997 . On 27th January 1998 his appeal was dismissed and he subsequently made two separate applications to the Criminal Cases Review Commission in 1998 and and 2002 . Both applications were dismissed and the Commission refused to act on what it described as a request for speculative DNA Tests , in reality they were not speculative and arose out of deep seated concerns with various issues in the case .
Those DNA tests were finally undertaken by the new appeal team leading to an application in 2010 . The shocking results of those tests indicated a number of things . Firstly that the exhibits had not been subject to previous formal testing and that this suggested the information provided to the Court was misleading . More importantly in the key intimate areas consistent with the attack on the victim common DNA was found but it did not belong to Victor Nealon but an unknown male .
The Criminal Cases Review Commission has now finally acted upon that evidence and following an extensive enquiry involving two further forensic scientists and various eliminating forensic enquiries together with witness investigations has produced a comprehensive referral report producing strong support for the forensic findings and elimination evidence which can only in the view of the defence lead to one conclusion namely that Victor Nealon’s conviction is clearly unsafe and arguably in view of this and the terrible state of the other evidence relied upon by the Crown that there is a strong case that Victor Nealon is innocent of this offence .
Of course it is not currently known whether the Crown will seek to challenge this case further and indeed what the Courts view will be of this evidence but what is clear is that there is now clear evidence supported by the Criminal Cases Review Commission that the conviction going back 15 years is unsafe .
More news on this case will be posted as it develops .
Victor Nealon is represented by Mark Newby Solicitor Advocate , QualitySolicitors Jordans who working with his client put together a case strategy to overturn the conviction and sought out the fresh evidence which is the subject matter of this appeal .
His Appeal will be led by Peter Wilcock QC of Tooks Chambers .