British police refuse to apologize for negligence that left an innocent man in jail for many years

It's routine for police to suspect and test confessions but the British police were too lazy. They just locked a crazy guy away and let a really dangerous crazy guy walk free. Case solved! And nothing could move them off their fat behinds after that

Police yesterday named a dead man as the killer of a barmaid 30 years ago. DNA taken from the body of David Lace, which was exhumed last month, matched samples in the car where Teresa De Simone, 22, was raped and strangled.

Astonishingly, police had ignored a confession from Lace, and an innocent man served 27 years in jail for the crime.

The body of David Lace was exhumed in August, and his DNA matched that found at the scene where Teresa De Simone was murdered in 1979. A troubled loner with an aggressive temper and a string of theft convictions, Lace was just 17 when he committed the brutal killing in Southampton in 1979. He confessed to police four years later, after being arrested for theft, and begged them to send him to prison, saying he could not cope with the guilt. But by then mentally-ill Sean Hodgson had been jailed for life and detectives dismissed Lace's confession.

In one of the worst miscarriages of justice in British history, Mr Hodgson served 27 years before new DNA evidence proved his innocence earlier this year.

Lace killed himself in 1988, four days after the ninth anniversary of the murder.

Yesterday Hampshire Police said it was 'regrettable' Mr Hodgson had spent so long in jail. But the force declined to apologise, even though he could have been freed 11 years ago if Lace's confession and DNA evidence had been made available to his lawyers.

The case has now been referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission amid criticisms that the original detectives made a series of blunders. Crucially, they failed to take a blood test from Lace in 1983 or pass his file to the Director of Public Prosecutions. They simply dismissed him from the investigation.

It emerged yesterday that Lace had been kicked out of his family home as a teenager due to behavioural problems and lived in a series of care homes. On the day of the murder, December 4, 1979, he had stolen cash and a rucksack from his lodgings in Portsmouth and walked to Southampton. There in the evening, he saw clerical worker Miss De Simone, a part-time barmaid, in a pub car park.

In his 1983 confession, he said he tapped on Miss De Simone's car window and asked her the time. He then forced his way into the car, locking the doors to stop her escaping. He raped and strangled her in a violent struggle, leaving her body in the back seat and fleeing with her handbag and jewellery.

But detectives found 'numerous and significant inconsistencies' in his description of the car and Miss De Simone's clothing. They did not take a blood sample, which would have shown he had the same blood type as the killer. They did take samples, however, from some of the six other men who confessed to the crime, suggesting that they did not take the Lace confession seriously. Officers also failed to pass his file to the Director of Public Prosecutions, predecessor of the Crown Prosecution Service.

Detective Chief Inspector Phil McTavish said yesterday: 'We would have expected a referral to the DPP. We found no evidence that this was done.' He added: 'It's clear that samples were obtained from some of the suspects, but there is no indication one was taken from Mr Lace.'

A year after his confession Lace robbed a post office at knife-point and was sentenced to five years and nine months in jail. Shortly before his suicide, he told friends and family he had killed someone in Southampton years earlier when 'things got out of hand'. He killed himself on December 8, 1988.

When the De Simone case was reopened in March this year, police found Lace's confession and a crosscheck on the DNA database found a close match with his sister. This led to the exhumation of his body last month. The DNA match means there is just a billion-to-one chance that he was not the killer.

Mr Hodgson, now 58, from County Durham, had also initially confessed to the murder. He retracted the confession but was convicted at Winchester Crown Court in 1982, despite evidence that he was a pathological liar and had falsely claimed to have taken part in 200 crimes.

Mr Hodgson could have been freed in 1998 but for a mistake by the police. His lawyers asked for permission to re-examine forensic evidence, but were told it no longer existed or had been lost. But in March, when Mr Hodgson appealed again, the crucial DNA evidence was provided and proved his innocence.

Mr Hodgson's lawyer, Julian Young, said he intended to sue for compensation. He said: 'It appears the police, for reasons obviously I don't know - I've never seen the file - decided they were not going to treat Lace as a suspect.' Mr Young said a fresh appeal could have been launched much earlier if Mr Hodgson's lawyers had known about Lace's confession.

Miss De Simone's mother, Mary Sedotti, said last night: 'When Lace made his confession he seemed to know a lot but I suppose the police thought they had the right man in prison so they never went much further. Knowing what I do now, I wish they had. 'We are just relieved, I suppose, that all this has come to a close. I didn't think they would find anybody after all this time.'

Original report here



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