Bridgewater Four

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Bridgewater Four was the collective name given to the quartet of men who were tried and found guilty of killing teenage paper boy Carl Bridgewater (January 2, 1965 - September 19, 1978). He was shot in the head at close range. After 18 years their convictions were overturned. The case has never been solved.

Carl Bridgewater, aged 13, was shot dead on September 19, 1978 at Yew Tree Farm on the A449 in Staffordshire (approximately three miles north-west of Stourbridge), when he disturbed burglars while delivering a newspaper to the house. The elderly couple who lived there were not at home.

The Bridgewater Four were Patrick Molloy, Jim Robinson and cousins Michael Hickey and Vincent Hickey. All denied committing murder but three of them were convicted. The fourth, Molloy, was found guilty of manslaughter. James Robinson (aged 45) and Vincent Hickey (aged 25) were both sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommended minimum term of 25 years, which would have kept them behind bars until at least 2004 and the ages of 70 and 50 respectively. Michael Hickey (aged 17) was sentenced to be detained at Her Majesty's pleasure, though it was anticipated he would serve a shorter sentence than the two others convicted of murder. Patrick Molloy (aged 51) received a 12-year prison sentence on the manslaughter charge, but died in prison in 1981 as a result of a heart attack.

In February 1997, the latest in a number of appeals finally saw the men's convictions overturned, after the Court of Appeal ruled that the trial had been unfair, due to certain areas of evidence fabricated by police in order to persuade Molloy to make a confession. However the Appeal Judges noted that in the light of Vincent Hickey's confessions to being present at the farm where Carl was shot dead "we consider that there remains evidence on which a reasonable jury properly directed could convict." ^[1]

Despite this, in the light of the judgment, the Crown Prosecution Service had decided not to apply for a retrial involving Vincent Hickey in the public interest or proceed with an outstanding armed robbery charge against him.

Vincent Hickey said: "My conviction has been quashed, so I am absolved and as far as I'm concerned that's the end of it."^[2]

The campaign to free and absolve the four men was led by Michael Hickey's mother, Ann Whelan, and campaigning journalist Paul Foot. Preparations were made for a case against four police officers in the Staffordshire force on charges of fabricating evidence, but the case was dropped in December 1998.

Jim Robinson died on 1 September 2007 of lung cancer at the age of 73.