HIS Honour Judge Nicholas Hilliard QC, one of the most senior judges in the country, presided over the Old Bailey court proceedings that ran from November 19, to December 17, 2013. He was appointed to the office of Common Sergeant of London in the Central Criminal Court in May 2013 and was aged 54 at the time of this murder trial.

Very costly mistakes were made and, along with lies told by witnesses, it has resulted in a gross miscarriage of justice.

The judge told the jury to ignore the ID parade viewed by main eye-witness Abdul Ahmed in October 2012 in respect of Jason Moore. But it was Ahmed picking out Moore at this – the witness’ FOURTH – ID parade that empowered the CPS and MPS to charge Moore. Without the vigorously disputed result of this ID parade – remember, it was the subject of an alleged breach of Code D (see ID Parades) – there would have been no charges against Moore. Why did the judge allow this absolutely crucial ID evidence to be heard in court? Why didn’t he rule it as inadmissible from the outset? Once the jury had heard this damning evidence against Jason, how could they later be expected to erase it from their thoughts and deliberations?

 

In his summing-up speech, the judge told the jury that eye-witness accounts can be very unreliable. He told the jury: “If you think ****** or Moore were in danger, bearing in mind the victim had a knife and it was raised, you must find self-defence.”

Judge said he believed Moore knew about an imminent and potentially violent meeting involving him, ****** and Darby and therefore regarded it as an aggravated factor. We have since proved that there was no plan for any of the parties to meet until just a few minutes before the incident, when ****** phoned Darby from a call box.

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Tim Darby’s verdict

Tim Darby knew as soon as Moore was found guilty and his co-accused ***** was acquitted that the jury had made a terrible mistake. Indeed, he was so shocked and incensed that he wrote to Judge Hilliard to express his deep concerns about the handling of and outcome of the trial.

Tim says: “Once Moore was wrongly convicted, I did write a letter to Judge Hilliard complaining about what had gone on and explaining about new evidence that had since come to light. The Judge did reply, asking me to 'give the Appeal system a chance'. 

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"On page 3 of *****’s defence statement, he admits offering Robert some money so he could go away on holiday in the hope that this would improve his mental well-being. However, This part of *****’s defence DID NOT come out in court, so the jury didn’t hear it, coupled with the fact that they were not given a copy of *****’s original prepared defence statement.

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"It has been explained to me that Robert never, ever threatened Moore and certainly wouldn’t have been at all bothered about Moore seeing his ex-girlfriend, Adele Rayner, two or three times. After all, they had split up and he had moved on to a new relationship with a girl called Mandy. Robert had no trouble whatsoever attracting girlfriends.

 
"I understand that there were a few occasions, when Robert was intoxicated and his anti-depressants were having an adverse effect, that he could be a bit abusive over the phone to Moore, but that had nothing to do with Rayner. Neither did it have anything to do with extorting money from Moore, although I can see how my brother might have regarded Moore as a bit flash, someone who enjoyed living the high life.

"As for the judge’s words about Moore’s behaviour in the witness box, of course he was occasionally a bit argumentative and not happy and became very agitated and frustrated at certain lines of questioning. Who wouldn’t be in his dire situation? Moore was up there fighting for his life and yet had to sit calmly listening to liars set him up and bury him in front of the jury. 

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"The judge said of Moore: 'I am just less than sure that you intended to kill him but you certainly intended to cause him really serious harm when you stabbed him. Once to the chest with severe force, dividing a rib before piercing his heart. You have shown not one shred of remorse'.

"Why would Moore show remorse for a crime he didn’t commit?"

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Tim Darby continued: "The judge also mentioned that Moore left the country and stayed away for seven years.

"Moore fled abroad on the night of the incident in fear of retribution from Robert (had he survived and recovered) and, apparently, his associates and our family. Although he played no part in the stabbing, he has never denied being at the scene as the innocent passenger in *****’s car.

"But my family were on the case from day one and quickly understood that Moore was not the stabber – as was quickly confirmed by police officers I spoke to.

"Moore’s youngest sister Rhonda, who drove him to Spain, also feared for her safety and emigrated to America. Moore’s parents were given Osman warnings by police who considered there to be a real threat of danger to their lives. They fled to Turkey. 

"***** left the country, too – and stayed on the run for longer than Moore. Now why would he have left Essex if he hadn’t killed my brother? What was he running from?

"Moore stayed away longer than he ever intended to because he was waiting for ***** to go back, hand himself into police and explain everything – probably to plead self-defence."
 
Judge Hilliard said: "The sentence for murder is imprisonment for life, but I have to set the minimum term you must serve before you can be considered for parole. For this offence committed in 2005 the starting point in setting your minimum term is one of 15 years’ imprisonment. There must be a substantial increase because I am sure you were armed that day with a knife and took it with you to the proposed meeting, prepared to use it unlawfully if the opportunity arose and if the mood took you. In the event, on the jury’s verdict, both came to pass. But the increase is less than the 25 years starting point Parliament provided for after 2005.  

"In addition, the offence is aggravated by the fact that you left the country the same day and evaded the course of justice for seven years. I note that you returned to this country on a false passport on about 10 occasions in the interim when it suited you to do so. Mr Howker accepts that at the least the delay added to the burn (sic) on Mr Darby’s family."

Tim Darby added: "The judge got this assumption totally wrong. I hold no grudge against Jason Moore. That much is obvious from my comments on this website and the fact that I am campaigning for his release. 

"As for the ‘aggravated’ factor applied by the judge to add three more years to Moore’s life sentence, this was all down to a simple misunderstanding by Moore regarding the infamous phone call from the co-defendant's girlfriend, which is dealt with in the section about her." 

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