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Mum in bid to free Newlove killer
The mother of a Wigan teenager convicted of murdering father-of-three Garry Newlove is calling for a review of the law that condemned him.
Jordan Cunliffe was jailed for 12 years in January 2008, aged just 16, after being found guilty of Mr Newlove's murder through the law of joint enterprise.
Under the 300-year-old law, a person can be convicted of a murder by watching it happen and failing to act.
Jordan, now 18, has always maintained his innocence and denies taking any part in the attack outside Mr Newlove's home in Warrington.
Today his mother Janet, who believes he should never have been jailed, called for ministers to review and reform what she considers an unfair and unjust law.
She said: "Even if they let Jordan out tomorrow I would still want to question this law because it is not right.
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"It all has to change, whether or not it is affecting us or not something has to be done.
"That's what makes my blood boil more than anything, it has been dragged back into use from hundreds of years ago and no-one has looked at it properly.
"This is not just about our family and Jordan, it is about getting justice for other people as well."
Although Ms Cunliffe, originally from Pemberton, does not deny that Jordan was present at the time of the attack on Mr Newlove, she is adamant that not only did he not take part, but he could not see what was happening.
Jordan suffers from an eye condition called keratoconus, something accepted by the prosecution during his trial.
The condition means he can see light, but struggles to distinguish shapes and details, such as people's faces.
Ms Cunliffe, a former civil servant with a masters degree, also maintains that the kick which killed Mr Newlove was struck by his co-defendant Stephen Sorton.
Ms Cunliffe said: "People probably won't like me for saying it, but there should only be one person in prison, not three.
"There's a massive difference between murder and manslaughter as well and I would probably go so far as to say it was manslaughter and not murder.
"There were no weapons, it wasn't premeditated, nobody planned it.
"What happened was a horrible thing, but there certainly shouldn't be three people in prison for murder and Jordan certainly shouldn't be there, not for something that he couldn't even see."
Her fight has led her to join forces with the Innocence Project, an organisation that works to prove the innocence of wrongly convicted people and campaigns for reform to prevent future injustices. Ms Cunliffe will go to Westminster with the group in March.
There she will address MPs about Jordan's case and ask for their support in calling for a change in the joint venture law. She said: "What I want people to say, 'I get it, I know where you are coming from and I'm on your side'."Jordan Cunliffe is planning an appeal against his conviction for murdering Garry Newlove.
His mother Janet knows the best chance he has of succeeding is if there is a change in the law of joint venture.
But she is also conscious that her pursuit of justice for her son will result in a backlash from not only Mr Newlove's family but a public outraged, at what happened to the dad-of-three yards from his home.
Ms Cunliffe, from Pemberton, said: "I always look at it like we are two bookends at opposite ends of this horrific thing.
"It must be terrible for them. But the grief Helen Newlove must have, well I have my own grief and I wake up with it everyday as well.
"The difference is that I have an opportunity to do something, although I am conscious that whatever I do could be painful for them because they will have to go through it all again.
"That's why I've held back for so long, because I wanted it to heal for them.
"But I've come to realise there's never a right time and we can't keep suffering forever just to protect them when Jordan isn't guilty." She added: "I am not doing this to hurt them – but it's got to be put right for us as well."
Ms Cunliffe believes the Newloves should not have to suffer from the opening-up of what are undoubtedly still raw wounds and this could have been prevented had the law been different.
She said: "The Newloves are as much victims of this injustice as we are because if we do get Jordan home and change the law it is going to open up everything for them again.
"I know they are going to get angry at first and feel cheated, all those things. I know it's not going to be easy for them, but if the law had been right in the first place then they wouldn't have had to be victims of the law a second time."
Ms Cunliffe's own sense of injustice stems from a belief that the widespread public outcry over Mr Newlove's death had a "massive" affect on the case and heaped enormous pressure on those involved.
She feels the case came to court too quickly – the defendants were arrested in August 2007 and went on trial in November that year – and let down by Jordan's defence.
Ms Cunliffe said: "Everything felt wrong, you are in such a panic but you believe the jury will see what you see.
"And then it's all done with and you can't do anything."
But her over-riding belief is that Jordan is innocent of the crime.
Ms Cunliffe said: "When you consider this law and how it works, and then consider who Jordan is and what he is supposed to have seen or been a part of with his condition, there is a contradiction."
She insists that only if this is corrected will justice finally have been served.
Ms Cunliffe said: "There's no justice for Garry Newlove if an innocent person is in prison."
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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