Killer’s freedom bid moves to Europe

A convicted killer is looking to Europe to overturn his murder conviction and has protested his innocence from behind bars.

Jordan Towers was 16 when he was jailed for life with two other teenagers for murdering young dad Kevin Johnson, 22, in Sunderland in 2007.

Towers admitted being at the scene of the fatal knife attack with murderers Dean Curtis and Tony Hawkes, but has always denied he stabbed Mr Johnson. Towers claims he is a victim of a “miscarriage of justice”.

He was convicted and sentenced to a minimum of 13 years in jail under the controversial joint enterprise law. The 300-year-old legislation means a jury can find defendants guilty of a violent crime if they encouraged the main attacker.

Now Towers’s sister Ashleigh is preparing a case to go before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in a bid to have her brother freed. The European court has agreed to deal with the case.

After visiting her brother in Durham’s high security Frankland prison on Wednesday, Miss Towers said: “He accepts he was there but he will not accept responsibility for murder because he didn’t do it. This is a test case not only for Jordan but for others convicted under this unfair law of joint enterprise.”

The freedom bid will anger Kevin’s dad John Johnson, of Ryhope, Sunderland, who has campaigned for “life means life” sentences for killers. But Towers’s legal team claims he did not get a fair trial because he did not give evidence he believed could clear himself.

Trial judge David Hodgson agreed that Towers did not stab the victim but said he was involved in the violence which caused the death of dad-of-one Mr Johnson.

Miss Towers, of Sunderland, has studied law for the past six years in the hope of securing her brother’s release. Earlier this year, his lawyers fought to have his conviction referred to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) the independent body that investigates suspected miscarriages of justice. But three appeal court judges threw out his bid for freedom.

Miss Towers is now preparing a fresh appeal to the UK courts, and is supported by law firm Birnberg Peirce & Partners, which won the appeals for the Birmingham Six and the Guildford Four.

Meanwhile, her appeal to the ECHR on the basis that her brother did not have a right to a fair trial a human right under European law has the backing of campaign group Joint Enterprise Not Guilty by Association. A spokeswoman for the campaign group said she hoped Towers’s case would be one of a string of similar cases reviewed by European judges.

In December, the director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer, issued new guidance that the younger a suspect, the “less likely” it is that charges will be brought against those who play minor roles in joint enterprise cases.

Solicitor Nigel Leskin, of Birnberg Peirce & Partners, said: “The law of joint enterprise is changing. Now (for a prosecution) you need to have active engagement and participation but, in Jordan’s case, this did not happen. He should not have been convicted of murder.”