A man whose brother was stabbed to death almost 20 years ago is campaigning for the man convicted of killing him to be released from jail.
Jason Moore is serving a life sentence for the 2005 knifing of Robert Darby in Ilford, East London. But Robert’s family insist Moore did not commit the crime.
Moore’s family and legal team are gathering evidence to appeal the 2013 conviction. And Robert’s brother Tim is backing their fight.
Tim said: “We knew who killed my brother four hours after the incident. The wrong man is in there for something he never did.”
Tim claims police told him before the 2013 trial they had no evidence.
Moore was given a life sentence with a minimum of 18 years.
Moore, now 53, admitted Robert, 42, had threatened him and that he had been at the car park of the Valentine pub in Gants Hill, Ilford, at the time of the murder.
But he insisted he was in a car when the stabbing took place. After the trial, Tim, 63, teamed up with Moore’s sister, Kirstie, 51, as she started gathering information.
Moore’s case was rejected by the Court of Appeal in September 2017 and the Criminal Case Review Commission last year refused to reconsider his conviction. Now a witness to the killing has admitted he had been drinking at the time of the incident.
The witness picked Moore out of a photo ID parade seven years after the murder, in 2012.
But he claims he told police he had been drinking when he saw the stabbing, the Romford Recorder has reported.
This information was never mentioned in court or disclosed to the defence, Moore’s legal team insist.
Kirstie Moore said: “For the past nine years, my brother has been locked up for a crime he did not commit.
“There was no forensic or CCTV evidence indicating Jason’s guilt. All the police had was an unreliable eyewitness whose patchy account of what happened outside the Valentine in Perth Road on August 24, 2005, was riven with confusion and contradictions.”
It has also emerged that a pathologist whose findings were presented in court had been struck off for “serious misconduct” before the trial began. The jury was not told of this.
Moore’s legal team plans to submit another CCRC application this month.
Kirstie said: “This whole experience has been like getting hung, drawn and quartered. We’ve pulled apart as a family with the emotional turmoil.”
Tim, from Hornchurch, East London, said: “The police told us at Jason’s committal hearing: ‘We have got no evidence.’
“Ultimately, nobody ever saw Jason in the street at the time. He was sat in the car when it happened.
“Me and the Moores share information and we want to get this sorted out.
“If you get jailed for something you didn’t do and you have to serve a couple of years, maybe you just get on with it.
“But you don’t jail someone for life for something he hasn’t done. The killer’s still out there – walking around knowing he did it.” The murder trial at the Old Bailey heard Robert had been threatening his ex-girlfriend and Moore, whom he wrongly believed was her new lover.
Tim added: “It’s not only ruined Moore’s life but it’s ruined ours.
“Nobody seems to want to know. They have a body in jail. They have a result. That’s how the police see it.
“It’s just a body to them. Meanwhile, we’re not getting justice for my brother.” Moore left the country after the murder and lived in Spain and Dubai. But he returned to the UK in September 2012 and gave himself up in a bid to clear his name.
He has maintained he did not kill Robert and refused to take part in an early release programme at HMP Oakwood because it involved admitting his guilt.
The Met Police said: “We will assess any new information. This investigation remains closed, but should circumstances change we will assess them.”
Moore’s co-accused, Martin Power, 47 at the time, was acquitted.
