It is a scenario that defies the standard logic of the British legal system. Usually, the family of a murder victim is the prosecution’s strongest ally, desperate to see the killer behind bars. But in the case of Jason Moore—convicted of the 2005 murder of Robert Darby—the script has been flipped.
"You don’t bang a geezer up for something he hasn’t done," says Tim Darby, the victim’s brother.
Tim Darby has joined a high-profile campaign to free the man convicted of killing his brother. He believes that Moore is the victim of a miscarriage of justice that has allowed the real killer to walk free for two decades. At BRD Investigations, we have conducted a forensic review of the case file (Ref: 05-JM-2013). Our analysis reveals a conviction built on a foundation so fragile it is on the verge of collapse: a star witness who admits he was "drunk," a physical description that is mathematically impossible, and critical DNA evidence that sat in an evidence locker, untested, for ten years.
August 24, 2005: Anatomy of a Tragedy
To understand the miscarriage of justice, we must first reconstruct the crime. The incident occurred in broad daylight outside the Valentine public house in Gants Hill, Ilford. Robert Darby, a 42-year-old man known to local police, was involved in a roadside altercation.
The confrontation lasted mere seconds. Witnesses described a scuffle between Darby and another male. Tragically, Darby sustained a single stab wound that proved fatal. However, the forensic reality of the scene was messy. The only weapon recovered was a Stanley knife found in Robert Darby’s own hand, covered in his own blood.
This pivotal fact supports a theory the jury was never fully encouraged to explore: that the wound could have been accidental, a result of Darby falling onto his own blade during the struggle, or inflicted by a "Third Man" who fled the scene.
The "Third Man" and the Physics of Guilt
Eyewitnesses at the scene were consistent in their description of the other man involved in the fight. They described him as being of "average height"—approximately 5ft 10in to 6ft—and wearing a distinct blue zip-up sports jacket.
This description presents a catastrophic problem for the prosecution’s case against Jason Moore. Jason Moore is 6ft 4in tall.
In a physical confrontation, a height difference of nearly half a foot is unmistakable. Independent analysis of CCTV footage from that day shows Moore wearing a grey or black pullover with no zip—completely contradicting the "blue zip-up" description given by witnesses.
Furthermore, police actually seized a blue zip-up top from the home of another suspect in 2005—a man who fit the 5ft 10in description perfectly. In a shocking display of forensic negligence, this jacket was not tested for DNA links to the victim at the time, nor during the 2013 trial. It is only now, in March 2025, that the CCRCCriminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC): The independent public body set up to investigate possible miscarriages of justice in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. has finally ordered forensic examination of this item.
The Star Witness: "I Was Drunk"
With no forensic evidence linking Moore to the crime—no DNA, no fingerprints, no weapon—the Crown’s entire case rested on the identification testimony of one man: Abdul Ahmed.
Ahmed was the only witness to place a knife in the hands of the man he identified as Moore. However, the reliability of this identification collapses under scrutiny, violating the safeguards of the Turnbull GuidelinesTurnbull Guidelines (1977): Legal rules judges must follow when a case relies mainly on identification evidence, warning juries that even honest witnesses can be mistaken..
The Timeline of Failure:
- 2005 (Fresh Memory): Weeks after the murder, Ahmed attended a live identity parade including Jason Moore. He failed to pick Moore. Instead, he picked an innocent volunteer who was 5ft 10in with short hair—a negative identification that should have cleared Moore.
- 2012 (Degraded Memory): Seven years later, police presented Ahmed with a photo lineup. Crucially, these photos showed only the head and shoulders, masking Moore's towering 6ft 4in height. Deprived of this physical context, Ahmed identified Moore.
Even more damning is the recent admission Ahmed made to investigative journalist Charles Thomson. When tracked down years later, the "star witness" admitted on tape:
"I was just walking past. It was the blink of the eye. How am I supposed to remember these things? I was drunk!"
The jury convicted Jason Moore without knowing that the sole eyewitness was, by his own admission, intoxicated during the "blink of an eye" event he claimed to witness.
The "Fugitive" Myth: The Osman Warning
If Moore was innocent, why did he flee to Spain after the incident? The prosecution presented this as "flight from justice"—a sign of guilt. This narrative completely ignored a verified police procedure known as an Osman WarningOsman Warning: A formal "Threat to Life" notice issued by police when they have intelligence of a real and immediate danger to someone's life that they cannot prevent..
Following the stabbing, the Moore family was issued a formal threat-to-life warning. Moore's sister testified that the police explicitly stated they could not guarantee Jason's safety. The family sold their assets and fled not to escape justice, but to escape a credible threat of execution. To frame this survival instinct as an admission of guilt is a distortion of the facts.
Systemic Failure: The Pathologist & The CCRC
The systemic failures in this case extend beyond the police investigation. The post-mortem on Robert Darby was conducted by Dr. Freddy Patel—a pathologist who was later struck off the medical register for incompetence in other high-profile cases, such as the death of Ian Tomlinson.
The jury was never informed of Patel’s professional disgrace. His evidence was crucial in determining whether the wound could have been accidental, yet his credibility was fundamentally compromised.
Furthermore, the CCRC has displayed a shocking level of inertia. For years, they refused to test the "blue top" evidence. In their 2021 rejection, they claimed they had tried and failed to locate the witness Abdul Ahmed for 18 months. Yet, the Bishop of Stepney, Dr. Joanne Grenfell, managed to find Ahmed in just two days simply by knocking on his door.
2025: The Breakthrough
The tide is finally turning. In March 2025, following the precedent of the Andrew Malkinson exoneration, the CCRC bowed to pressure and ordered DNA testing on the blue jacket seized twenty years ago.
If Robert Darby’s DNA is found on that jacket—a jacket that fits the "Third Man" description and not Jason Moore—it will be scientific proof of innocence. But while the bureaucracy moves at a glacial pace, Jason Moore remains in high-security prison, where he was recently placed in segregation after a £10,000 contract was reportedly put on his life.
Tim Darby, the brother of the man Moore supposedly killed, sums it up best: "I think the authorities know he didn't do it but they don't want to put things right... You don't bang a man up for life for something he hasn't done."
Comments
Post a Comment