by Satish Sekar © Satish Sekar (March 20th 2012)
Timings
In the early hours of April 22nd 1972 a police surgeon pronounced mixed-race transvestite Maxwell Confait dead. A fire had just been extinguished at the Doggett Road residence in Catford, South-East London. This would prove to be one of Britain’s most shameful miscarriages of justice. The victim was unsympathetic as far as investigators and even the public were concerned and there were obvious angles to look into.
Establishing the time of death was important and the fire helped to do that, as long as it was linked to the murder. It was investigated as if that was a fact, but it wasn’t. The forensic pathology – horribly botched as it was should have made that clear from the beginning. Somehow, the significance of it was missed by everyone.
The time of death – admittedly a range – was given as earlier that night by the distinguished forensic pathologist James Cameron, who would later be severely criticised for his role in one of Australiaʼs most notorious miscarriages of justice Lindy and Michael Chamberlain – the Dingo Baby case.
At the trial in November 1972 Cameron moved it even further, saying it could have been as late as just half an hour before the fire was extinguished. This was necessary to explain the inexplicable. Why had brutal killers stayed around for hours and then started a fire there? And then knowing that they had done this why had they started some more in that area, knowing it would draw attention to themselves. This was the breakthrough information that led to the arrests and interrogative strategy.
But it was completely wrong. The fire had nothing to do with the murder. Professor Cameron’s original opinion was wrong. His change of opinion at the trial turned out to be even further wide of the mark than he had previously been. While timing death is not an exact science, especially over 40 years ago, Cameron did not check the organ for discolouration. If he had done so he would have realised that the fire had occurred over two days after Maxwell Confait was murdered – this was badly botched by Cameron to put it mildly.
Expert Errors
Cameron would prove to have eminent company in getting the time of this death badly wrong. Professor Donald Teare was one Britainʼs most eminent forensic pathologists at the time and so was Professor Keith Simpson. Both were very experienced and had distinguished themselves in their chosen field, but they too were involved in an investigation of a miscarriage of justice – one of the most notorious miscarriages of justice in any jurisdiction – Timothy Evans – another vindication case1. Evans was wrongfully convicted and hanged in 19502.
Teare was the main pathologist in that case, which became a cause célèbre three years later when a resident at the same address, John Christie was exposed as a depraved serial killer rather than the respectable witness he had been portrayed as at Evansʼ trial.His colleagues Francis Camps and Keith Simpson were also involved, but Teareʼs role was the most controversial and despite his attempts to put right the Confait case, his error – also made by Simpson and Cameron – was crass for experts of such standing.
1 “I am happy to express my agreement with the conclusion of the Commission that Timothy Evans has been exonerated of the murders of his wife and child”, Lord Justice (Sir Stanley) Burnton said in a judicial review of the Criminal Cases Review Commission in 2004 by members of Evansʼ family. “It is recognised that he committed neither murder. The free pardon which he was granted was a formal vindication and when granted the only available vindication of the only murder of which he had been convicted. The Home Secretary did all he could. The subsequent payment of compensation to his surviving family assessed on the basis that he was wholly innocent makes the position abundantly clear. I hope that these public expressions in open court of his innocence will give some solace to his family”.
2 It took sixteen years to secure the Royal Pardon, but that caused problems as it made it impossible to prove him innocent as he was no longer convicted of any crime – just accused of the murder of his wife Beryl. The Brabin Report ordered by then Home Secretary Sir Frank Soskice suggested that Evans was innocent of killing his baby daughter Geraldine, but was guilty of killing Beryl, so British justice had not hanged an innocent man, it had just hanged him for the wrong crime. Soskiceʼs successor Roy Jenkins rejected Brabinʼs conclusions and awarded a Full Pardon. Despite this some still believe Evans guilty of one or both murders.