50-year old Barry Selby was attacked in the bedroom of his home, in Rayleigh Street, East Bowling, shortly after 2am on Monday, October 14, 2013, while his wife and daughter were present. Five men drove to his home and smashed open the front door . Three of the intruders went upstairs and confronted him.
Mr Selby was shot in the leg and doused from head to foot in sulphuric acid. He suffered 50 per cent acid burns and died in hospital four days later when his vital organs failed.
Lee Calvert, 23, of Stirling Crescent, Holme Wood; Joseph Lowther, 22, of Copgrove Road, Holme Wood; Robert Woodhead, 28, of Fred's Place, Tyersal; and Andrew Feather, 23, of Heysham Drive, Holme Wood; had all denied murder, but were convicted.
According to Lee's family, there was no forensic evidence to connect the men to the attack. Four months after the attack, the victim's wife identified Lee in an identity parade, but she admitted her family had shown her pictures of Lee on facebook. The only other evidence was a drug addict who subsequently admitted he was lying. Two witnesses have come forward to say that the addict had bragged about stitching Lee up. "He was convicted from an identity parade months after the murder. He had to wear a balaclava and he was convicted because someone said they recognised his eyes." according to Lee's mother.
Michael Stone was convicted of the 1996 killings of Lin Russell and her daughter Megan, six, and the attempted murder of Megan's sister Josie, nine, on a remote footpath near Canterbury, UK in 1996.
Stone consistently maintained his innocence, but was convicted mainly on the testimony of a jailhouse informant who claimed he confessed through a heating pipe between the cells. At the first trial two other informants also claimed he confessed, but one retracted and the other was discredited.
There was no forensic or eyewitness identification to connect Stone to the crime. Eyewitnesses saw a beige car used by the killer, but Stone drove a white car. Stone was a heroin addict, with a record of violence and stealing from garden sheds, but the remote rural location is a very unlikely place for a burglary or robbery.
A forensic specialist has said that advances in DNA techniques not only confirmed no link between Stone and the crime, but showed the likely presence of another man at the scene. Samples obtained from the family of Levi Bellfield, who was convicted for the murder of schoolgirl Millie Dowler and two women, showed a possible but unprovable link to him.
On July 23, 2011, fire officers arrived at a garage in Selly Oak, Birmingham, and found two men crouching outside with severe burns, and a burning propane cylinder inside.
Mr Wilding, 41, had suffered fatal burns to half his body. Mr Cotterill, then 34, endured terrible injuries, spent 48 days in intensive care and lost all his fingers.
Stephen Newman, who admitted being present, was convicted in 2012 of deliberately directing the flame from the cylinder at the two men, and sentenced to 23 years in prison.
Mr Wilding and Mr Cotterill had found the disused garage off an alleyway and turned it into a squat. Stephen and others visited the building the day before and the three had been drinking heavily.
Stephen says he did not light the cannister, and it was was activated by Mr Wilding in an attempt to dry damp trousers belonging to another individual. He heard the cannister hiss, and residents near the garage heard the same noise, believed an explosion was imminent and urged those inside to flee. CCTV footage shows him exiting the scene alone.
A local newspaper after viewing witness statements and conducting interviews has concluded that there are, at the very least, significant questions that remain unanswered.
After losing an appeal against his conviction, Stephen has been on hunger-strike, and has not eaten for three weeks.
Anthony Davis was wrongly convicted of the murder of a man who was beaten and abducted from his home in August 2007, during a botched robbery.
There was no evidence other than the word of the true perp who was given a light sentence, apparently in exchange for testimony.
Evidence was ignored by police, hidden from the defence, and not available to the jury nor to the court that subsequently rejected his appeal : cell phone analysis and a bloody footprint made by a distinctive pair of Nike trainers, the same as those retrieved, by the police, from the home of Sonny Stewart.
But Davies's barrister, Benjamin Nolan QC, told Panorama it had been a bogus charge created for Sonny Stewart, who had "slipped up" during the police interview.
Davies, now 31, along with three other gang members, lost an appeal against conviction two years ago.
Report Salford Star, May 2015, pages 9 and10.