Breaking eggs to make omelettes

Detective Sergeant Frederick Fairfax climbed on to the roof, and managed to grab Bentley. Craig shouted defiantly at the detective and Bentley managed to break Fairfax’s grip and is supposed to have shouted “Let him have it Chris”. Craig then fired the gun grazing the police officer’s shoulder. Despite being wounded Fairfax continued after Bentley and managed to arrest him.

Bentley was already in custody when other police officers arrived and went to the roof. Police Constable Sidney George Miles was one of the first and was shot dead by Craig who then leapt from the roof on to the road 30 feet below. He fractured his spine and left wrist but was arrested.

Even if Craig was found guilty of murder he could not be sentenced to death; 16 was below the minimum age of 18 for execution. However, Derek Bentley who was in custody at the time of the shooting, was over 18 years and could be sentenced to death.

It was clear was that Derek Bentley was illiterate and mentally subnormal. He was ill prepared to undergo cross-examination and did not present a “good image” to the jury; not surprising considering his mental age of 11.

The jury took just 75 minutes to find both Craig and Bentley guilty of PC Miles’ murder. Due to his being below 18 at the time of the offence, Craig was sentenced to being detained at Her Majesty’s pleasure. Bentley was sentenced to death.

Various appeals highlighting the ambiguous evidence, Bentley’s mental age and the fact that he did not fire the fatal shot, were all rejected by the then Home Secretary.

On 28 January 1953, Derek Bentley was hanged at London’s Wandsworth Prison. Christopher Craig served 10 years in prison before being released.

On July 30, 1998 the Court of Appeal overturned the controversial conviction of Derek Bentley. In an unprecedented and damning attack, the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Bingham, ruled that his predecessor and Bentley’s trial judge, Lord Chief Justice Goddard, had denied Bentley "that fair trial that is the birthright of every British citizen".

In a 52-page judgment, Lord Bingham placed the blame for the miscarriage of justice with Lord Goddard. Describing Lord Goddard as "blatantly prejudiced", Lord Bingham concluded that he had misdirected the jury and that in his summing-up had put unfair pressure on the jury to convict. Bentley received a posthumous pardon.

Mahmood Hussein Mattan

Mahmood Mattan was born in Somalia. He met his wife, Laura, in the late 1940s. Mahmood was a merchant seaman. Laura’s family did not approve of the marriage and due to the amount of racial prejudice they were forced to live in separate houses in the same street in Cardiff.

March 6, 1952 Lily Volpert, 42, was found murdered at her pawnbroker’s shop in Cardiff’s docklands area. Her throat had been cut with a razor and £100 had been stolen. Within hours of the discovery Mahmood Mattan, 28, was arrested by the Cardiff City Police.

The main witness at Mahmood’s 1952 murder trial, Harold Cover, claimed to have seen Mahmood leave Lily Volpert’s premises on the night of the murder. Cover had also been a suspect in the Volpert murder.