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Thursday November 6, 5:09 PM GMT

Bentley Case Sent Back To Appeal Court

The case of teenager Derek Bentley, hanged 44 years ago for the murder of a policeman during a bungled robbery is to be referred back to the Court of Appeal, it was announced.

The Criminal Cases Review Commission, set up earlier this year to investigate alleged miscarriages of justice, said it was sending the case back for the judges to reconsider.

The decision marks a major victory for his family who have been campaigning since his death to clear his name.

They have always maintained that 19-year-old Bentley should never have been executed for his part in the killing of PC Sidney Miles during a break-in at a Croydon confectionary warehouse in 1952.

Pc Miles was shot dead by Bentley's 16-year-old accomplice Christopher Craig after he confronted them on the warehouse roof.

At their trial at the Old Bailey three policemen alleged that immediately before Craig shot Pc Miles, Bentley shouted to him "Let him have it, Chris".

Lord Chief Justice Goddard told the jury that when two people go out on a criminal enterprise which ends in murder, both are guilty in law, whoever fired the shots.

But while Craig, who was too young to hang, was detained at Her Majesty's pleasure and served 10 years in jail, Bentley was sentenced to death. The jury was never told that he had a mental age of just 11.


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