Innocent man’s battle over life in jail

2:46pm Friday 19th September 2008

IT was among the biggest crimes seen in Woodford Green during the 1970s. Now one of the men convicted of involvement could be on course for a massive pay-out after proving his innocence. Sam Adams investigates.

A frail pensioner who spent 23 years in prison for crimes he did not commit is preparing to take the final step in his long battle to clear his name.

Terry Pinfold, 76, a former diving gear manufacturer, was wrongly jailed in January 1978 after three violent bank robberies, including an attack on the Woodford Green branch of Barclays, during which a security guard and another member of staff were shot and injured.

The Woodford raid, on December 6, 1976, made headlines across London after the gang fled with more than £37,000 – a substantial sum at the time – and Mr Pinfold was arrested soon afterwards at his home in Ilford.

He was eventually cleared of all the robbery charges at the Court of Appeal in 1981 after doubts were raised about the evidence against him, but his conviction for robbing a driver of the car that was used in the raids was upheld – for which he served five years in prison.

He was confident that he could get the car robbery charge overturned and begin his life again, but Mr Pinfold’s world fell apart just a month later when he was charged with playing a part in four unsolved murders.

Based mainly on the confession of one of his former employees, Bruce Childs, the case saw Mr Pinfold sentenced to life on one count – for supposedly hiring a hitman to kill another former employee, Terry Eve.

Childs, who was himself sentenced to life after confessing to committing a total of six murders, was later revealed to be a pathological liar.

Mr Pinfold spent the next two decades fighting to overturn the murder conviction as he spent time in some of Britain’s most notorious lock-ups, only managing to keep himself sane by working ten-hour shifts in the kitchens.

He was finally released on appeal in December, 2003, after new evidence destroyed the credibility of Childs’ evidence.

The grandfather-of-ten is now determined to have the car robbery conviction – the 14th and final charge against him – quashed, after the Criminal Cases Review Commission agreed to refer his case to the Court of Appeal.

He said: “I lost so many years of my life serving time for crimes I didn’t commit, so of course I’m angry.

“There were all sorts of inconsistencies and weaknesses in the evidence used to convict me on all of the charges I faced.

“The whole thing has been awful for my family. I missed so much of my children’s lives, and I can’t get those years back.”

The strains of prison life, and of his fight for justice, took a terrible physical and mental toll on the former businessman, who had to have part of his bowel removed after developing colitis during his final years inside.

He said: “I suffered six strokes while I was in prison. You can only get kicked in the b******s so many times before it hits you badly.

“I was seriously ill in prison and had to have a quadruple heart bypass soon after I got out. But I’m feeling OK now.”

Mr Pinfold, who was divorced by his wife in 1990, now lives alone in a flat in Essex.

His determination to see justice done burns as strongly as ever as he waits to hear whether the Court of Appeal will hear his case.

With 13 out of 14 convictions quashed and a decision on the last remaining charge pending, Mr Pinfold could be in line for a large payout for his 23 years spent in jail.

He said: “You see footballers getting millions in lost earnings when they get injuries. What price do you get for a life?”

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