The ‘Freshwater Five’, who were jailed for a total of 104 years for smuggling £53million of cocaine into the country off the coast of the Isle of Wight, have been given some hope in the battle to clear their names.
Jamie Green and Jonathan Beere were both jailed for a total of 24 years for conspiracy to import the drugs back in 2011. Daniel Payne, Scott Birtwistle and Zoran Dresic also received lengthy prison sentences for their part in the importation. Payne and Birtwistle have since been released from prison on licence.
Now, it has been determined that the case should be put before a judge to decide whether or not it should be sent to the Court of Appeal. It comes as new evidence has been uncovered by lawyers acting for Beere and Payne. The outcome will affect all 5 men.
A date is yet to be set for the hearing.
Emily Bolton, a lawyer from the Centre for Criminal Appeals, has said:
“This is a huge step forward for the case. This is all the men have ever asked for, a chance to present the fresh evidence in a court. The great shame is that it has taken so long”.
I wonder if the authorities do a ‘deal’ with the men IF they are guilty after a few years by offering ‘new evidence’ to free them, provided they give names higher up the pecking order of drug dealing.
They could not ‘let them off’ entirely straight away, and it would not be safe to do so if they squealed early, as they themselves would become targets.
So by giving them a few years punishment in return for information, it gives the authorities what they want, and the prisoners don’t look like they have squealed so they and their families are not so likely to suffer reprisal attacks. Just wonder. Maybe the guys ARE innocent.
Two of them are already out of jail. The other three are probably about to reach parole stage anyhow.
Sadly for them, they were in the area of the MSC orianne, then in freshwater bay where the drugs were found, with a whole host
of customs and border force watching the whole area and calls being made from their boat.
The case has held up so far.
Perhaps they “found these bags” and took them out of greed -and the real criminals boat left empty handed.
There won’t be any “traces of cocaine” as the bags would have been sealed watertight -otherwise it would have been pointless throwing
them overboard from the MSC.
Trouble for them, is the fact that they were in the pick up location and seen in the area the drugs were found later on, having been spotted chucking things overboard. – doesn’t look good for any appeal.