We Still Get It Wrong: The Comforting Myth of a Mistake-Free Justice System

In Britain, we tell ourselves a neat story: the police are more professional, forensics is smarter, and appeals catch the rare bad case. Miscarriages of justice belong to the past — something we learned from and fixed.

The modern record doesn’t flatter that story. Wrongful convictions still happen, and the system rarely discovers them quickly. It can take years of persistence, fresh science, and a stubborn advocate — long after prison has already done its work.

In May 2025, Peter Sullivan walked free after 38 years when new DNA testing undermined the case that jailed him for the 1986 murder of Diane Sindall. Thirty-eight years is not a blip; it is a lifetime.

It is not a one-off. In December 2024, Robert and Lee Firkins had their convictions for a Cornwall double murder quashed after almost 20 years, with the original case turning on a cell confession later challenged by new expert evidence. In September 2024, Oliver Campbell was cleared of a 1990 London murder; his conviction leaned heavily on confessions taken in police interviews despite severe learning difficulties.

The pattern is familiar: unreliable confessions, incentivised informants, shaky identification, and expert opinion that hardens into “fact” until new science or new scrutiny cracks it. Andrew Malkinson spent 17 years imprisoned for a rape he did not commit, a conviction overturned in 2023 after DNA evidence pointed away from him.

These failures survive because the incentives are human. Once a suspect is chosen, every decision tends to lean downhill: disclosure is contested, doubts are reframed as “technicalities”, and under-resourced defence teams fight an uphill battle against institutional certainty.

Even before guilt is proved, the system can punish. Remand is sold as precaution; it is lived as punishment. Official criminal court statistics show that for defendants entering a not-guilty plea, the median Crown Court waiting time in Q3 2025 was 45.9 weeks. Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee has warned that many are held beyond custody time limits, and that in 2022 a share of people remanded in custody awaiting trial were ultimately acquitted.

If we assume we have “modernised past” injustice, we stop looking — and mistakes become tradition. The point is not to sneer at every verdict. It is to stay humble about a system run by humans under pressure, with imperfect evidence and imperfect incentives. Today’s wrongful convictions are the ones we have not met yet. We will meet them later.

Five recent cases 

• Peter Sullivan — Bebington (near Liverpool), Merseyside. 38 years. Convicted 1987 of murdering and sexually assaulting Diane Sindall (1986). Conviction quashed May 13, 2025 after 2024 DNA testing showed the sexual-fluid profile was not his; prosecution said he would not have been prosecuted if that evidence had existed.

Source: AP News; ITV News Granada.

• Robert & Lee Firkins — Cornwall / Somerset. Almost 20 years. Convicted 2006 of the 2003 murders of Carol and Graham Fisher near Wadebridge. Case relied on “Witness Z” claiming a cell confession; new expert evidence said Z was a compulsive liar; convictions quashed and retrial dropped.

Source: The Guardian (Dec 18, 2024).

• Oliver Campbell — Hackney, London. 11 years in prison. Convicted 1991 for the 1990 murder of shopkeeper Hardip Hoondle. Court of Appeal quashed convictions Sept 11, 2024; key issue: confession evidence from police interviews despite severe learning difficulties.

Source: The Guardian (Sept 11, 2024).

• Andrew Malkinson — Greater Manchester. 17 years in prison (released on licence 2020). Convicted 2004 of rape and assault. Prosecution relied mainly on identification; no forensic evidence linked him. Convictions quashed July 26, 2023 after DNA breakthroughs found a profile matching another man on the National DNA Database.

Source: CCRC (Jul 26, 2023).

• Tom Hayes — London (finance sector). 5.5 years in prison (released 2021). Convicted 2015 of conspiracy to defraud over Libor submissions. UK Supreme Court quashed conviction July 23, 2025, saying the jury was misdirected and the conviction was unsafe; SFO said it would not seek a retrial.

Source: Reuters (Jul 23, 2025).

Remand reality check

• NAO/PAC warning: as of Sept 30, 2022, 32% of the remand population had been held beyond the 6 month custody time limit; 5% had been on remand for more than two years; and 13% of those remanded in custody awaiting trial in 2022 were acquitted.

References

1. Ministry of Justice, Criminal court statistics quarterly: July to September 2025 (published 18 Dec 2025).

2. House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, Crown Court backlogs (report, 5 Mar 2025) referencing NAO findings on remand and custody time limits.

3. Associated Press, “A man wrongfully imprisoned for 38 years weeps as a UK court overturns his murder conviction” (13 May 2025).

4. ITV News Granada, “Man jailed for murder in 1987 has conviction quashed after new DNA evidence” (13 May 2025).

5. The Guardian, “Brothers cleared of Cornwall double murder after spending 20 years in prison” (18 Dec 2024). 6. The Guardian, “Oliver Campbell’s convictions quashed after spending 11 years in prison” (11 Sept 2024).

7. Criminal Cases Review Commission, “Rape and assault convictions overturned following DNA breakthrough” (26 Jul 2023).

8. Reuters, “Ex-trader Tom Hayes wins appeal to overturn rate-rigging conviction” (23 Jul 2025).