GUY ADAMS: It’s an affront to justice – how blameless persons are spending many years additional in jail since the frame tasked with re-examining their instances is administered by means of… Britain’s grotesquely USELESS quango boss on £130,000 a yr

The Criminal Cases Review Commission operates from a ten-storey place of work block overlooking the gleaming, space-age facade of New Street station in central Birmingham.

It was once opened in July 2022 by means of then govt ‘efficiency’ minister Jacob Rees-Mogg beneath what he known as ‘plans to create a leaner and more efficient public estate’ by means of relocating civil servants from London to the areas.

The Commission, whose 113 staff perform the crucial position of figuring out doable miscarriages in our justice gadget, is considered one of 20 quangos and govt departments that moved into the ultra-modern facility that yr.

Ever since, body of workers had been ready to experience what its site calls ‘comfortable breakout areas, a well-stocked communal kitchen, and great access to transport links and city life’.

That’s the idea, a minimum of. But the truth is slightly other. For on a median day, the ones swanky ‘breakout areas’ and kitchens are weirdly empty.

To blame is one extremely debatable truth: Five years after Covid, the organisation, which is best referred to as the CCRC, continues to let staff paintings completely from house.

Most body of workers display as much as HQ simply ‘once or twice a year, on average,’ it admits, pronouncing the one ones required to project into the construction frequently are participants of the IT division, plus a possibly under-employed receptionist.

Even leader government Karen Kneller, a attorney who gained a £130,000 wage from taxpayers remaining yr, plus £34,000 in opposition to her pension, hardly bothers to pass her dear construction’s threshold.

‘I am probably in the office maybe one or two days every couple of months or so,’ she blithely admitted to a (gobsmacked) committee of MPs remaining month.

This regardless of Kneller dwelling together with her husband Mark Etchells in a semi-detached residence in Handsworth – an insignificant 15-minute force from the place of work she so hardly visits.

If the CCRC’s position was once of restricted significance, or if Mrs Kneller, 61, and her body of workers have been doing a semi-competent task, such unfastened operating practices could be vaguely defensible.

But in truth, the other is right.

On the primary depend, the organisation is in fact crucial certainly. It performs a a very powerful position in upholding religion in Britain’s felony justice gadget by means of reviewing contested instances searching for wrongful convictions.

Among the more than a few (significantly) scorching potatoes it’s these days juggling is the thorny query of whether or not to go back Lucy Letby’s case to the Court of Appeal.

On the second one depend, relating to competence, Kneller stands on even stickier floor.

For the ones MPs she spoke to remaining month, who sit down on Parliament’s Justice Committee, printed an explosive file the day gone by pronouncing the organisation no longer best calls for ‘root and branch reform,’ however that its leader government’s place is now not ‘tenable’.

Last week, we noticed a living proof when Peter Sullivan, pictured, referred to as the so-called ‘Beast of Birkenhead’, walked unfastened after spending an astonishing 38 years in the back of bars for a criminal offense he didn’t dedicate

The MPs have been, if anything else, understating issues. For this tough quango, which chews thru nearly £10 million of public cash a yr, has in recent times transform a byword for chaos and disorder.

A look beneath the bonnet finds that its 50-odd Peloton-riding case staff are authorised no longer simply to paintings remotely, but in addition to select when they are going to in reality be ‘on duty’, due to an absurdly liberal ‘flexi-time’ coverage. This inevitably and steadily puts them on the coal-face at other occasions of the day from colleagues and workforce participants.The internet outcome, critics say, is that it might probably take years to maintain even easy instances, leaving wrongly convicted sufferers to twiddle their thumbs in prison.

Meanwhile, a sequence of high-profile blunders have in recent years noticed Kneller’s Commission blamed for contributing to one of the most maximum ugly miscarriages of justice in leading-edge British historical past. Only remaining week, we noticed a living proof when Peter Sullivan, the so-called ‘Beast of Birkenhead’, walked unfastened after spending an astonishing 38 years in the back of bars for a criminal offense he didn’t dedicate.

A prone guy, who suffers from finding out disabilities, Mr Sullivan were wrongly convicted of the brutal sexual attack and homicide of a 21-year-old barmaid in 1986.

He’d at all times protested his innocence, and his criminal workforce had informed the CCRC in 2008 that DNA research of a semen pattern discovered at the sufferer would exonerate him.

But whilst a forensic method known as ‘Y-STR’, which permits such research, turned into to be had in 2013, the Commission waited till 2021 to reserve correct checks. Even then, it could be any other 4 years prior to he was once acquitted.

Lord Falconer, the previous Justice Secretary, described the Commission as ‘unled and generally regarded as useless’ within the wake of Mr Sullivan’s acquittal.

Lord Garnier, a former Tory Solicitor General, informed an interviewer that the organisation was once in ‘a state of complete collapse’ and desires ‘gripping’ by means of the Government.

Andrew Malkinson served 17 years for a rape he didn’t dedicate prior to his conviction was once after all quashed in 2023. A proper inquiry into the Commission’s calamitous dealing with of the Malkinson case, by means of a KC named Chris Henley, was once printed remaining yr.

Friends of Victor Nealon, who was once wrongfully convicted of tried rape and spent an extra ten years in jail since the CCRC once more refused to hold out fundamental DNA checks that will have proved his innocence, would possibly agree.

As would Andrew Malkinson, who served 17 years for a rape he didn’t dedicate prior to his conviction was once after all quashed in 2023.

He and his criminal workforce had spent greater than a decade pleading with the CCRC to habits DNA checks on samples taken from the sufferer, which he steadfastly maintained would turn out his innocence best to satisfy with obfuscation and refusal. Had body of workers executed their task correctly, Mr Malkinson would had been launched a minimum of a decade previous.

A proper inquiry into the Commission’s calamitous dealing with of the Malkinson case, by means of a KC named Chris Henley, was once printed remaining yr.

It uncovered a list of appalling blunders, neglected alternatives and tacky paintings by means of the quango, whose caseworkers exhibited ‘muddled’ considering, ‘poor’ research and language that was once ‘casual and dismissive’.

Their paintings ‘lacked purpose’ and was once ‘left drifting for many months’ by means of superiors who didn’t trouble to learn proof, Mr Henley discovered.

Importantly, the CCRC’s ‘head of casework’ on the time of each its ‘very poor’ paintings on Mr Malkinson, and Peter Sullivan’s first solution to the organisation, was once its present leader government, Karen Kneller. A public sector ‘lifer,’ certified barrister, and enthusiastic quangocrat, she has spent 3 many years at the govt payroll, together with about 20 years on the CCRC and juggles her present position with a bunch of aspect jobs. They vary from a non-executive directorship of University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Trust, a trusteeship of homeless charity Shelter, and a task chairing an equalities charity calling itself a ‘think fair tank’ named Brap.

All this, and extra, contributed to a car-crash look by means of Kneller prior to the Justice Committee in Parliament remaining month, at which her from time to time woeful efforts to protect the organisation’s tradition met with disbelief from MPs.

Things were given off to a foul get started when the executive government was once requested whether or not she’d but to apologise to Mr Malkinson for the 10 additional years he spent in the back of bars due to the CCRC’s evident incompetence.

‘No, I haven’t,’ she glibly spoke back. ‘Do you think it might be appropriate to pass on that apology now?’ requested an MP. ‘Yes, absolutely,’ she conceded.

There adopted a surreal trade by which Kneller umm-ed and ah-ed that the CCRC is ‘not an office-based organisation any more’, and tried to argue that this was once completely superb as it allowed it to recruit proficient body of workers from in every single place the rustic.

Andy Slaughter, the Labour MP who chairs the Justice Committee, gave that line quick shrift, claiming there was once a ‘hole in the heart of the organisation’ and concluding: ‘I cannot believe you are the only organisation in the country that has not come out of Covid yet.’

Elsewhere within the bizarre assembly, Kneller tried to protect her beneficiant remuneration (she was once passed a 7 in line with cent pay upward push and an advantage of £8,000-£10,000 only a month prior to Mr Malkinson was once exonerated, and within the 2023-24 monetary yr loved any other 9 in line with cent upward push) by means of pronouncing she was once ‘not privy’ to discussions about her wage.

Perhaps most significantly of all, she was once then requested to protect the organisation’s reaction to Mr Henley’s excoriating file.

The KC’s record seems to had been submitted in January remaining yr. But it wasn’t printed for 6 months, right through which the CCRC, which already has a big taxpayer-funded press place of work, paid an exterior PR marketing consultant £14,000 to advise them on tips on how to arrange the inevitable fallout.

Several studies have prompt that the CCRC spent that length making an attempt to water down one of the most file’s findings, lobbying Mr Henley to ‘soften’ his grievance of senior staff.

Asked whether or not such skulduggery had happened, Kneller issued a energetic denial, insisting to MPs that a lot of the extend was once as an alternative completely because of ‘typographical errors and some factual issues’ with the file’s findings.

However, Mr Henley seems to keep in mind issues in a different way, and this week publicly insisted that Kneller’s declare is totally false. He informed the Sunday Times: ‘Karen Kneller misled Parliament. Her answers to the select committee were thoroughly inaccurate.’

The Justice Committee concurs, with that evaluation describing her proof to them as so ‘unpersuasive’ that ‘we no longer feel it is tenable for her to continue as chief executive’.

‘I don’t see how she has any credibility or authority to stick within the position,’ says Neil Shastri-Hurst, a Conservative member of the frame. ‘This is such an important job that to not have a grip on it, which is what we have found, is unforgivable.’

Interestingly, the CCRC didn’t reply once I requested in the event that they have been status by means of the Chief Executive, pronouncing best that they meant to ‘note’ the Committee’s suggestions. Among their urgent duties shall be to after all elect a CCRC chair – ideally one that is ready to paintings complete time.

The earlier incumbent, quangocrat Helen Pitcher, was once pressured to renounce in January after Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood mentioned she was once ‘unfit’ to do the task, after being singled out for grievance by means of Mr Henley.

Pitcher was once being paid £95,000-a-year to paintings two days per week, juggling the position with 8 different jobs, together with a non-executive directorship of United Biscuits and a seat at the Judicial Appointments Commission, the place she earned any other £55,000-£60,000 for operating two days per week. She continues to try this position (which critics noticed as being in war together with her tasks on the CCRC) to nowadays.

Unlike maximum CCRC colleagues, who’re banned from operating on instances when in a foreign country, Pitcher additionally spent huge quantities of time in Montenegro, the place she ran a villa apartment corporate named ‘Perast Paradise Properties’.

In truth, when the CCRC was once thrown into disaster, following Mr Malkinson’s acquittal in 2023, its part-time chair may well be discovered on Instagram posing in naked toes on a ship out of doors an area mussel bar, boasting to her social media fans that she was once ‘having an amazing time’.

Elsewhere, Pitcher has additionally been president of the ‘directors network board’ at Insead, the elite industry faculty out of doors Paris.

At the time she held the placement, her then colleague Kneller spent tens of hundreds of kilos of the CCRC’s money attending more than a few lessons on the establishment, steadily staying at its in-house four-star lodge The Ermitage, which boasts a terrace bar overlooking the Fontainebleau woodland, a health centre, treehouse bar and squash courts.

Quite why this kind of prepared recommend of ‘remote’ operating felt the wish to attend this kind of grand venue in individual is somebody’s wager, however the revelation, first reported by means of The Guardian newspaper in February, added to the sense of chaos round Kneller’s tenure.

All of which represents a shameful and tacky scenario for an organisation based with the most productive of intentions within the 1990s, within the wake of a number of high-profile miscarriages of justice, together with the instances of the Guildford Four and Birmingham Six.

In its early days, the CCRC’s 60 participants of body of workers incorporated a spread of other people skilled in exposing miscarriages of justice, together with retired senior policemen.

Among the 12 commissioners (of which 3 are had to log out a referral to the Court of Appeal) was once David Jessel, presenter of the TV collection Trial And Error, which helped overturn a number of convictions.

He was once joined by means of the forensic psychiatrist James MacKeith, who a great deal contributed to the eventual quashing of the convictions of the Guildford Four in 1989 by means of proving proof were falsified and suppressed by means of police.

Each was once hired on a full-time foundation, and anticipated to wait head place of work on a daily basis, the place the paintings was once performed in a collegiate style. In go back, commissioners have been paid (for the time) a hefty wage of just about £90,000. Today, they’re in contrast paid a day by day charge of a couple of hundred kilos and in large part paintings part-time. It’s in all probability little wonder that 3 of the 12 roles are these days vacant. For lots of the 2000s, the CCRC in large part escaped public grievance. But in criminal circles, there was once rising hostility about each the duration of time body of workers have been taking to believe instances, and their obvious reluctance to ship instances to the Court of Appeal, with best kind of 3 in line with cent being referred.

In 2015, the Justice Committee mentioned the organisation needs to be ‘less cautious’ in taking such steps, however the next yr its referral fee fell to a trifling 1 in line with cent. By then, Karen Kneller were leader government for 3 years.

Questions have been starting to flow into in regards to the calibre of body of workers the organisation was once attracting, together with their paintings ethic.

In 2018 a BBC Panorama investigation entitled Last Chance For Justice shared inner paperwork declaring that case assessment managers have been ‘struggling to cope’.

The programme discovered mins from a gathering by which a commissioner mentioned they ‘doubted whether the work required to uncover certain miscarriages of justice was now being done’.

The commissioner ‘worried about a culture where staff believed finding new evidence was actually seen as troublesome because of the work involved’.

Back then, the Commission (which covers England and Wales, however no longer Scotland) boasted 90 body of workers and a £5 million annual finances. Today, the scale of its personnel has larger by means of 1 / 4, whilst its spending has doubled. But attorneys coping with the organisation consider requirements have persevered to fall, in particular in recent times. Many blame the arrival of so-called ‘home working’.

‘To do their job properly, CCRC staff need to be discussing things all the time and rubbing shoulders and bashing things around,’ says Matt Foot, of the charity Appeal, which represented Mr Malkinson. ‘But they are never in. I find the whole thing quite bizarre.’

Glyn Maddocks, a KC who has effectively represented many sufferers of miscarriages of justice, tells me: ‘It’s outrageous. You can’t do this type of task remotely. It’s an absolute nonsense.

‘People need to be in the office, sitting in the meeting room with colleagues who have experience, discussing what to do next. The whole thing is a farce.’

Mr Maddocks lately represented a person named Oliver Campbell, who in 2024 overturned a historical homicide conviction. His victory adopted a 24-year marketing campaign which had to begin with noticed the CCRC give his software quick shrift.

‘Given that experience, and what we now know about the shoddy job they did on Malkinson, you wonder how many other cases they’ve been incompetent with over the last 28 years,’ provides Mr Maddocks.

MPs agree. But the CCRC’s annual file gives an perception into the tradition of unaccountability that prevails amongst its deeply unimpressive best brass.

Larded with control talk, wokery and irrelevancies (within the opening pages, it announces that 37 participants of body of workers are male, 76 feminine, 19.5 in line with cent hail from an ethnic minority, and 20.8 in line with cent have a incapacity) this record makes use of the advent to stipulate its best ‘strategic priorities’.

Number one at the CCRC’s record is ‘people, being an employer of choice’. Or, to place issues otherwise, ensuring that participants of body of workers are glad.

For an organisation whose raison d’etre is meant to contain overturning grievous miscarriages of justice, this appears like an peculiar factor to classify as a best precedence. But like many a public sector organisation prior to it, the Criminal Cases Review Commission more and more turns out to position the pursuits of its bloated personnel above the ones of the general public they supposedly serve.

Exhibit A, in this entrance, is its overpaid, under-competent, homeworking CEO. She was once remaining evening nonetheless refusing to fall on her sword. And so this ugly scandal continues.