08/08/2013

Convicted Murder Drops Innocence Claims And Confesses 12 Years On

A convicted murder who maintained his innocence for ten years has admitted that he did in fact commit the crime he was convicted of.

35-year-old Simon Hall, was jailed for life in 2003 for the murder of 79-year-old Joan Albert at her home in Capel St Mary, Suffolk.

Hall had always maintained his innocence, launching appeals against his sentence alongside campaigns calling for his release.

The Court of Appeal had upheld his conviction in 2011, and in January this year the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) said it was examining a new claim by Hall, originally of Hill House, Ipswich, that he was carrying out a burglary elsewhere on the day Mrs Albert's body was found, a crime that he had allegedly not told police about before.

Suffolk Police now say Hall has admitted to prison authorities that he did in fact murder Mrs Albert.

When he was sentenced in 2003, he was given a minimum tariff of 15 years in jail.

(MH/IT)

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