Subseriescontains files relating to the case of Carl Bridgewater. Includes correspondence, press cuttings, copy court papers and a video recording.

Background to the case of Carl Bridgewater

Carl Bridgewater, a Nottinghamshire paper-boy, interrupted an armed-robbery at Yew Tree Farm on 19 September 1978. he was later found dead from a shot-gun wound to the head. When arrested for a similar armed-robbery at a nearby farm, Michael Hickey, Vincent Hickey (his cousin), James Robinson and Patrick Molloy were charged with Carl's murder. Patrick Molloy signed a confession stating that the other three men had murdered Carl while he was burgling the house. He was charged with manslaughter and the others with murder. Soon after they were convicted Herbert Spencer, an ambulance driver, was convicted of committing a nearly identical murder at a neighbouring farm, Spencer had also been questioned by police soon after Carl's murder. It later emerged that Molloy (who died in prison on 12 June 1981) claimed he had made his statement under duress and after brutalization by police officers, and had signed a blank form that the police subsequently completed. There had been a complete lack of other evidence against the four and the fingerprints found on Carl's bike did not match any of theirs. Even the foreman of the Jury that found the four men guilty publicly expressed doubts about the safety of their convictions. The investigative journalist and left-wing activist Paul Foot (1936 - 2004) wrote a book 'Murder at the Farm' about the innocence of the four and the possible culpibility of Herbert Spencer. In 1997, the Court of Appeal quashed all four convictions.

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