Miscarriage of Justice Survivor
In 1981 the manager of a betting shop John Suffield was held hostage and tortured in a robbery attempt that went hideously wrong. Kamara was implicated in the crimes by Ray Gilbert, who is still in prison now. The case against Kamara was weak, relying largely on informers. Johnny fought his conviction tirelessly. His conviction was quashed in 2002 after 200 undisclosed statements surfaced during an investigation by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC). Johnnyʼs case was an appalling miscarriage of justice by any standard.
Founder of Life After Life
His appeal ended rapidly and he was freed with nothing arranged, but £46. His plight was filmed and later broadcast by the BBC. Life after Life embarrassed the government into researching the scandal of the lack of after-care provisions for survivors of miscarriages of justice after their release. It resulted in very limited services being provided by the Miscarriages of Justice Support Service.
Kamara, outraged by the lack of provisions, established his own organisation Life After Life to provide the services needed. The issue is tackled in a number of our projects. Johnny has spoken out about the issue many times and on the effect of family life that he has belatedly been able to enjoy. We are proud that he is a supporter of the Fitted-In Project.