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Susan May Article

The following is the original text for an article printed in a newspaper recently. The editor if the paper unfortunately changed certain points which made it less accurate. For example, it was said that the meeting took place in December. In reality it took place in October. I have therefore produced here the original text.

A WOMAN convicted of killing her aunt has spoken in public for the first time since she was released on parole earlier this year.

Susan May, 60, who was jailed for life in 1993 for the murder of Hilda Marchbank, an elderly pensioner killed in her home at Tandle Hill Road in Oldham, addressed a miscarriage of justice conference at the Friends Meeting House in Manchester on Saturday. May has always protested her innocence and has a large number of supporters in the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

“I have found it quite amazing that I am sat up here talking to you here today.”, she began, remarking up on how she always believed she would never be released from prison unless she won an appeal against her conviction, “I am still a convicted person and the way I conducted myself in prison, constantly maintaining my innocence and refusing to do the courses, I never expected to be released from prison. I lost count of the times it was drummed into me that I would never get out of prison.”

Prison rules state that a person should only be eligible for parole if they accept guilt and undertake the necessary courses to become rehabilitated. However, despite refusing to participate in the rehabilitation process, Susan May was released in April this year after serving her entire twelve year tariff. Her murder conviction still stands but she is determined to clear her name and gain justice not only for her, but also for her aunt.

May gives credit for her release to a particular member of staff at Foston Hall Prison. Governor Reid, she says, could not believe that May, a model prisoner, was being penalised for maintaining her innocence. “I owe it to her that I’m sat here today.”, May told the delegates of the conference, set up by the United Against Injustice campaign organisation.

May believes more prison staff should follow Governor Reid’s example. “Somebody who maintains their innocence like I did, there is something in it. You have got to realise you don’t do this for years and years and years without it being a truthful message that you are innocent.”

May maintains what she claims to be a miscarriage of justice, has left her deeply damaged: “There is an anger, a frustration, a hurt and a pain and it’s all consuming and I still feel like that today even though I am out of prison but I don’t feel free. Since I’ve come out I’ve really struggled because prison is damaging. I’ve been damaged because what I’ve been through, what I’ve seen and what I’ve experienced in prison. It is damaging. I’m damaged and I might be damaged for the rest of my life. I don’t know.”

The Criminal Cases Review Commission is currently examining May’s conviction on the basis of evidence that was never presented to the jury at her trial. If they believe the evidence casts doubts about her guilt they have the power to refer her case to the Court of Appeal.

At trial it had been claimed a palm print, belonging to May, in a bloodstain on a wall near Mrs Marchbank’s body showed May had touched the wall while her hands were covered in blood. Since May’s conviction a leading German scientist, Professor Brinkman, has demonstrated the stain was not blood, which May’s defence team argue significantly undermines the case against her because it only links her to the scene of the crime rather than crime itself. Other evidence, which allegedly links known criminals to the crime, was only made available to her solicitors after the trial.

Susan May is certain that the evidence, if the trial jury had been made aware of it, would have forced the prosecution’s case against her to collapse. “My case never heard any defence evidence and to this day I am hoping to go back to appeal but in the two appeals that I’ve had, and at my trial, not one defence expert witness has ever stood up and said what we know is right in my case.”, she said.

For more details about Susan May visit www.susanmay.co.uk

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