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| Version 1 | Version 2 |
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| Conviction quashed after 27 years | Conviction quashed after 27 years |
| (10 minutes later) | |
| A man jailed for murdering a woman in 1979 has had his conviction quashed at the Court of Appeal after spending 27 years in prison. | A man jailed for murdering a woman in 1979 has had his conviction quashed at the Court of Appeal after spending 27 years in prison. |
| Sean Hodgson, 57, was jailed for killing Teresa De Simone, 22, who was found strangled in her car in Southampton in December 1979. | Sean Hodgson, 57, was jailed for killing Teresa De Simone, 22, who was found strangled in her car in Southampton in December 1979. |
| A case review proved DNA found at the scene was not his. | A case review proved DNA found at the scene was not his. |
| Mr Hodgson is one of the longest-serving victims of a miscarriage of justice in the UK. | Mr Hodgson is one of the longest-serving victims of a miscarriage of justice in the UK. |
| Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, and two other senior judges ruled that his 1982 conviction was "unsafe". | Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, and two other senior judges ruled that his 1982 conviction was "unsafe". |
| At the time of his trial, DNA tests were not available, with the world's first use of such evidence in court not taking place until 1986 in Leicester. | At the time of his trial, DNA tests were not available, with the world's first use of such evidence in court not taking place until 1986 in Leicester. |
| 'Pathological liar' | |
| Miss De Simone's partially clothed body was found in the back seat of her Ford Escort in the car park beneath the Tom Tackle pub where she worked part-time. | Miss De Simone's partially clothed body was found in the back seat of her Ford Escort in the car park beneath the Tom Tackle pub where she worked part-time. |
| Mr Hodgson, who is also known as Robert Graham Hodgson and is originally from County Durham, made various confessions to police before pleading not guilty at his trial at Winchester Crown Court. | Mr Hodgson, who is also known as Robert Graham Hodgson and is originally from County Durham, made various confessions to police before pleading not guilty at his trial at Winchester Crown Court. |
| But his defence said he was a pathological liar and the confessions were untrue. | |
| The prosecution had also been supported during the trial by the fact that blood type analysis available at the time showed that material recovered at the scene belonged to a man with blood of either group A or AB. | |
| Mr Hodgson was in that category along with roughly a third of the male population. | |
| After requests from Mr Hodgson's legal team Hampshire Constabulary and the Forensic Science Service undertook a comprehensive forensic case review in November 2008. | |
| It discovered that DNA evidence found at the scene did not match a sample given by Mr Hodgson. | |
| In the light of new evidence, the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) decided to refer Mr Hodgson's case to the Court of Appeal because it considered that there was a "real possibility that the court would consider the conviction unsafe and quash it". | |
| The Crown Prosecution Service did not oppose the appeal. |