Two Of Isle Of Wight's 'Freshwater Five' Fishermen Lose At Court Of Appeal

UPDATED: Two fishermen convicted of smuggling cocaine off the Isle of Wight have lost at the Court of Appeal.

Lawyers acting for Jonathan Beere and Daniel Payne presented judges with what they believed was fresh, expert evidence which disproved the prosecution’s case. The appeal was heard in the Royal Courts of Justice on Feb 23-26.

It is said the men conspired to use a fishing boat to collect drugs from a container ship in the English Channel on May 29, 2010 - before depositing them in Freshwater Bay, off the Isle of Wight.

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.

Prior to the hearing, Daniel Payne and Scott Birtwistle had been released from prison on licence, having served the custodial portion of their sentences. Jonathan Beere, Jamie Green and Zoran Dresic remain in prison.

All have maintained their innocence in the years since the conviction.

In 2011, Kingston Crown Court heard the Galwad-Y-Mor crossed the path of the Oriane, a container ship sailing from Brazil, which collected 250kg of cocaine at night, in May 2010. The jury was told the group had tied 11 holdalls containing the cocaine together using rope, and had attached them to a buoy and deposited them in Freshwater Bay.

At the appeal hearing in February, lawyers for Beere and Payne argued that new radar evidence showed that the Galwad-Y-Mor never crossed behind the Oriane and said their convictions were unsafe.

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

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."

*UPDATED 11.40am

*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”