In the early hours of the 10th December 1988, Shane Griffin, met Norman Duncan, an old friend, at a party in South London. Duncan's claim of homelessness led Griffin to invite him to share his room at 25 Lawrie Park Road, Sydenham, South London. Mark Jobbins already shared this room with Griffin.
Later that same day in Sydenham, Mr Martin Membury noticed Griffin, Duncan and Jobbins examining his Triumph Spitfire car parked in his drive. Two days later in the early hours of the
12 - 13 December 1988 Griffin and Duncan drove back to Mr Membury's drive in a stolen mini motor car. Whilst Duncan kept watch Griffin forced the ignition and stole the Spitfire.
Despite the police claim that they raided 25 Lawrie Park Road on the 19 December 1988 as a result of an anonymous tip off, it is probable that the police decided to raid the house after the discovery of Jobbins and Duncan's fingerprints on the Spitfire.
Initially all the suspects arrested from 25 Lawrie Park Road, including Raphael Rowe and Michael Davis who also lived in the same house, (which was divided into flatlets), were taken to Croydon police station. In the midst of sensational media coverage all the suspects were then transferred to Reigate police station where they were all questioned by Surrey police officers.
Under the cloud of the Lockerbie disaster on the 21 December 1988 Rowe and Davis were charged with the murder of Mr Hurburgh and three aggravated robberies. Duncan, Jobbins and Griffin were not charged with any offence, even though they :-
Instead they became key prosecution witnesses for the police. Duncan and Griffin claimed that Rowe asked them on the 12 December 1988 to steal him an MG motor car for use as spare parts, but that they stole a Spitfire by mistake. Rowe challenged the allegation, and Mr Membury's evidence that the three white men were examining the Spitfire on the 10 December two days earlier
than the alleged request, supported Rowe's challenge.
The fact that Griffin and Duncan abandoned the stolen Mini car they were driving when they stole the Spitfire on the 13 December 1988, suggests that they had stolen the Spitfire car for their own purposes and not for, or at the request of Rowe.
At the trial several independent witnesses told the jury that they had seen the Spitfire at times that TOTALLY DISMISSED the prosecution case against the three black men accused of the M25 Crimes !
At the trial the trial judge Mr Justice Auld said, If Karen Garrett and her boyfriend saw this very Spitfire in the car park at the White Bear public house at about 9.15p.m. that evening, the prosecution case is even more impossible, but did they see that Spitfire?
The reason the trial judge said the case against Rowe and Davis would be even more impossible if the green Spitfire seen at 9.15pm was the same green Spitfire found near the muder scene, was because the prosecution accepted the defence case that Rowe and Davis
were in the company of four witnesses eight miles away at 9.15pm.
Following Mr Justice Auld's suggestion of such a 'possibility' in his summing up and the convictions, this issue became of paramount importance to the defence case. Further enquiries made by the London Programme and solicitors (after the innocent mens convictions) revealed that such a scenario was indeed impossible.
Mark Hugall who is area organiser for Triumph Sports owners stated on the London Programme broadcast in October 1992, "In 1988 I was Surrey area organiser as I still am now. I've never seen another British Racing Green or green Spitfire Mark 3 in this area or even coming to our meetings or even to a national meeting. Green was a very unpopular colour as it is today still. The likelihood of seeing a British Racing Green Mark 3 is very low but to see two on one evening is, is virtually impossible."
Mr Membury, the owner of the Spitfire and a car dealer, also confirmed that he had never seen another green Spitfire on his travels around the South East and London, and that is why he went all the way to Southampton to buy the green Spitfire.
What would the trial judge, moreover, what would the jury have made of this evidence ?
It is a travesty of justice that this information was not available to the defence at the trial.
Mr David Ivens, a witness who was interviewed by the police also confirmed that he saw the green Spitfire abandoned in the field two hundred yards from the White Bear Pub and scene of the murder between 10 and 10.30p.m. on the 15th December 1988.
These two sightings of the Spitfire, at times when Rowe and Davis had concrete alibis, was further compounded by the evidence of a crucial witness, Mr Peter Fyffe. He stated that on the 15 December 1988 he took his family and some friends to the Horse of The Year show at Olympia. After leaving the stadium at 11.30p.m. he dropped his friends home and continued to drive home along Blackmans lane. As he reached Skidhill Lane junction at 12.30a.m. he saw through the headlights a Triumph Spitfire parked in the field opposite. Mr Fyffe said the car was green and had a Union Jack on the wing.
The trial judge said in his summing up: "The relevance of that evidence is that it marks the time of the arrival of the robbers, whoever they were, at the scene of their first offence that night. It is conceded by Mr Bevan - indeed, it is inevitable, is it not, that the Spitfire seen by Mr Fyffe in his headlights as he drove home from Olympia that night, must have been this very Spitfire stolen from Mr Membury by Griffin and Duncan."
All three sightings of the Spitfire point to the innocence of the convicted men.
Were the robbers the occupants of the Spitfire when it was seen by the independent witnesses at
9.15pm ?
Who were the occupants ? Was it Griffin, Duncan and Jobbins? Unlike Rowe and Davis they have no alibi witnesses to show where they were during the times the Spitfire was seen by the witnesses.
As stated by the trial judge, Mr Fyffe's evidence marks the time of the arrival of the robbers at 12.20a.m.
Mrs Jennifer Pooley had never met Raphael Rowe or Michael Davis before. At the trial she stated " I remember an occasion on the 15 December 1988, when Tracy brought some friends home. Those friends were Raphael, Michael and Kate ........I do remember quite specifically the time at which Tracy's friends departed, it was at 12.20a.m.. I remember looking at the clock because my daughter Sharon's boyfriend left with them...........his name was Justin Frost.
Mr Frost also told the trial jury that he did not know Rowe and Davis and had only met them when they were introduced to him at the Pooley house on the night of the 15 December 1988. He went on to explain how he drove them back to their flat with Kate Williamson on the night of the 15th arriving at 12.30a.m.
Why have all these independent witnesses evidence, which unequivocally proves that Rowe and Davis could not, and were not in the Spitfire when it was seen at 9 p.m., between 10/10.30 p.m., and when it was abandoned in the field at 12.30a.m. been ignored ?
Raphael Rowe, Michael Davis, Paula Martinez, Siobhan Cavannagh, Tracy Pooley and Kate Williamson were together in Davis' room at 25 Lawrie Park Road socialising on the 15 December 1988 between 8p.m. and 10.30p.m. At about 10.30p.m. Miss Pooley suggested that the group went to her parents house.
At about 10.45p.m. Rowe, Davis and the four girls left and caught a bus from just outside 25 Lawrie Park Road to Penge, South London, to visit the Pooley household. Miss Martinez decided to go home and remained on the bus when the rest got off. Miss Pooley's mother Jennifer, sister Sharon, brother Tony and Justin Frost, a solicitors clerk, were all at the Pooley house.
At 11.30p.m. Miss Cavannagh went home. At midnight Sharon Pooley offered to drive Rowe, Davis and Miss Williamson, who planned to spend the night with Rowe, back to 25 Lawrie Park Road as she also had to take Frost home. At 12.20a.m., after Rowe and Davis had finished eating, they all left. Rowe, Davis and Miss Williamson were dropped off at 25 Lawrie Park Road at about 12.30a.m. Davis went straight to his room and Rowe and Williamson went to Rowe's room.
These independent witnesses gave consistent accounts and corroborated Rowe and Davis' accounts which they had given to the police immediately after they were arrested. It was accepted by the Crown that Rowe and Davis were in the four girls company during the times stated. The prosecutions own evidence proved the fact that Rowe and Davis were being dropped off at their home at 12.20a.m.
The prosecution said the fact that Rowe and Davis were being dropped home at 12.20a.m. , and the fact that the Spitfire was at the scene of the crime was a MYSTERY they had no answer for.
The answer is simple. They are INNOCENT and have been wrongly convicted.
M25 CASE CAMPAIGN
FIRST SIGHTING
Miss Karen Garrett, a school teacher, and her boyfriend Mr Malcolm Macdonald, stated that they went for a drink in the White Bear public house in Fickleshall at about 9p.m. on the evening of the 15th December 1988. (This was the same pub where Mr Hurburgh and his friend Mr Ely were drinking before they were attacked and Mr Hurburgh was killed). However on arrival they decided not to drink there because they did not like the live band, and so they returned to their car parked in the public house's car park. As they walked to the car, Mr Macdonald pointed out a green Triumph Spitfire to Miss Garrett which was pulling into the car park.SECOND SIGHTING
THIRD SIGHTING
NEXT
MAIN
INTRODUCTION