Paul Blackburn - Never free: Another Life Stolen by the State Event

Paul Blackburn was only 15 when the state decided it was time to steal his life from him. Interrogated for five hours without a solicitor present, bullied, threatened and beaten by the same police officers who were supposed to be protecting him, this frightened and exhausted young lad eventually succumbed and signed a 'confession', a worthless dictated statement that he probably didn't even understand.

Convicted, in December 1978, and sentenced to life in prison for the attempted murder of a 9 year old boy, he served 25 years for a crime he did not commit and had nothing to do with before being released on license in 2003. Two years later, in 2005, his conviction was overturned after the Criminal Cases Review Commission referred his case back to the Court of Appeal.

‘What now, for Paul Blackburn?', asks Dr Jamie MacLean, Senior Lecturer in Law and Director of the University of Southampton Innocence Project. ‘Compensation? You might well think so. But this kind, generous and dignified man with an infectious, engaging smile still awaits even so much as a proper apology from the system that has let him down so terribly. Incredibly, he still struggles to believe that he should deserve any better'.