Sam Hallam’s conviction for the murder of Essayas Kassahun was overturned last week by the Court of Appeal, after he had spent seven years in jail.
Barrister Henry Blaxland QC said Hallam, who was 18 when sentenced, had been the victim of a miscarriage of justice brought about by a combination of ‘manifestly unreliable identification evidence’, a ‘failure by police properly to investigate his alibi’ and ‘non-disclosure by the prosecution of material that could have supported his case’.