'A Bitter And Dark Day' - Families Of 'Freshwater Five' Fishermen React To Court Of Appeal Verdict

The families of the 'Freshwater Five' fishermen have described the outcome of today's Court of Appeal verdict into drug smuggling convictions as 'a bitter and dark day' and say their faith in the justice system is 'shattered'.

Two members of the ‘Freshwater Five’ – all of whom maintain their innocence of a £53m cocaine smuggling plot – lost their bid to have their convictions overturned today despite the Court of Appeal finding that a failure to disclose evidence at their trial “should not have happened”.

The ‘Freshwater Five’ had been sentenced to a total of 104 years’ imprisonment at Kingston Crown Court in 2011 after being convicted by an 11-1 majority jury verdict.  

Scaffolding business owner, Jonathan Beere, fishing boat skipper Jamie Green and crew member, Zoran Dresic, were each handed down 24 years’ imprisonment, while fishermen Daniel Payne and Scott Birtwistle received 18-and 14-year sentences respectively.

Three of the men – Jamie Green, Jonathan Beere and Zoran Dresic – are still in prison.

Last month (February), judges considered fresh expert evidence that the lawyers for Jonathan Beere and Daniel Payne argued undermined the prosecution’s case that they conspired to use a fishing boat to collect drugs from a containership in the English Channel and later deposited them in Freshwater Bay off the Isle of Wight.

The new evidence, uncovered by law charity APPEAL, was based on radar data from a law enforcement vessel which the Crown failed to hand over at trial.

In its judgment, the Court of Appeal said of this disclosure failure, “what happened should not have happened” and that the prosecution expert who extracted the data made a “serious and surprising mistake” in not supplying it to law enforcement investigators.

Today (Thursday) the Court of Appeal upheld the decision to convict the men.

Emily Bolton, Director of APPEAL and solicitor for the ‘Freshwater Five’, said:

“Miscarriages of justice don’t just happen in the trial courts – today one happened in the Court of Appeal. The Court handed down a judgment which simply underscores just how profoundly broken the criminal appeals system is in this country.

“There is no dispute that this is a case in which law enforcement and the prosecution failed to hand over crucial evidence to the defence at trial. As we showed in the court hearing, that new evidence undermines the prosecution’s case on several fronts and gives a totally different picture to that which was presented to the jury.

“Yet, in a yet another failure to correct a miscarriage of justice, the Court of Appeal has said today that none of this matters.

“The Court has substituted its judgement for that of the jurors in a way that fundamentally undermines the principle of trial by jury.

“Further, the Court’s ruling effectively gives law enforcement a licence to perpetuate evidence disclosure failures in future. It sends a deeply troubling message that they can withhold crucial information from judges, juries, and defendants and get away with it.

“We have no doubt that law enforcement holds further evidence which supports the Freshwater Five’s innocence. Yet our opaque, unaccountable justice system continues to prevent the truth from coming to light.

“To those with short memories, it is worth bearing in mind that it took three appeals before the Birmingham Six finally had their names cleared. The Freshwater Five, their families and the APPEAL team will keep battling for justice and reform.”

The Freshwater Five families issued the following statement:

“This is a bitter and dark day for the men and their families. Yet again, our faith in the criminal justice system has been shattered.

“These men are innocent and have collectively spent decades in prison for a crime they did not commit. They have missed births, the deaths of close family members, and countless other irreplaceable family moments while our so called ‘justice’ system has kept them kidnapped behind bars.

“Today, in ruling against Jon Beere and Danny Payne, the Court has once again whitewashed over what has happened in this case, just four days after Jon’s father died, having lost his battle to hold out long enough to see his son vindicated. At this next funeral we will be mourning the death of Jon’s father, but also the death of British Justice. This pitiful judgement is just yet another example of the system protecting itself from embarrassment and criticism.

“If the Court of Appeal and the Criminal Cases Review Commission won’t correct this mistake, where else do we turn?

“British justice is broken, and we will never trust it again.

“But we have faith that the truth will out. In every round of this case, more and more people have come forward with information about what really happened. We are not the only ones waking up in the night worrying about this case - people involved in the original investigation are having trouble sleeping too – there are whistle blower protections and those with a conscience will come forward.

“The five men and their families would like to place on record their sincerest thanks to the legal charity APPEAL for their relentless work, and for walking through this nightmare alongside us. We also want to thank barristers Joel Bennathan QC and Annabel Timan for their painstaking advocacy, and the experts on the appeal who worked for hundreds of hours for free in their quest to uncover the truth.

“We ask for privacy during this difficult time, as we come to terms with this decision. The war is not over, and you haven't heard the last of us. Once the dust has settled, we will be back fighting for this horrific miscarriage of justice to be overturned and making sure the public knows the full story of not just what happened here, but of the efforts that have been made to cover it up.”

Summarising, the Court of Appeal, said:

"Standing back and looking at all the evidence available at trial as well as the evidence now available, whilst the evidence is circumstantial, this was as the CCRC concluded a “compelling prosecution case of conspiracy to import cocaine.

"The Grounds of Appeal do not begin individually or collectively to cast doubt on the safety of these applicants’ convictions.

"The applications for leave to appeal conviction are accordingly refused, as are the applications for an extension of time and to adduce fresh evidence."