Michael Naughton & Bristol University Innocence Project
Michael Naughton who is referred to in previous Parts of this blog series and who is also mentioned on page 11 of the criminal cases review commissions statement of reasons here (Under the title of UoBIP = university of Bristol innocence project), works at Bristol university and he became involved with actual, factual guilty killer Simon Hall’s innocence fraud spin campaign early on.
Michael Naughtin’s online bio here reads in part;
…his work, which specialises on the problem of ‘miscarriages of justice’, with a particular focus on the wrongful conviction and/or imprisonment of factually innocent victims.
Michael Naughton decided to start an innocence project in 2004 the year after he had submitted his PhD thesis, which he chose to call Miscarriages of justice : exception to the rule?
The innocence project, referred to by some people as the innocence ‘fraudject’ due to the high number of guilty killers and rapists it helps free from prison, was based on the American version of the innocence project, co-founded by American lawyers Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld in 1992.
Stephanie Bon
It is not known exactly when Stephanie Bon first made contact with Michael Naughton and if Stephanie, or manipulative killer Simon Hall, wrote to Michael after hearing about the launch of Bristol university’s innocence project.
However a 2005 media story indicated Michael Naughton had been contacted by many killers, including the killer of Jill Dando; serial stalker, rapist and predatory sex offender Barry George, as well as “the family” of sadistic serial killer and psychopath Michael Stone.
Both killers were referred to in Part 17d, which can be read by tapping on the button below;
2005
Excerpts from the 2005 media story which centred on Michael Naughton and his “frustrations” with the criminal cases review commission (Referred to in Part 15 here) read;
The shelf above Mike Naughton’s desk in Bristol University’s law school is heaving with files of letters from prisoners who claim they were wrongly convicted and want help.
“It shows just how desperate so many people are”
says Naughton, a lecturer in criminal law.
“They have got nobody else to turn to so they are prepared to put their futures in the hands of a project led by university students. It really is quite disturbing”
Naughton’s office has become the bustling nerve centre of the University of Bristol’s Innocence Project which aims to provide free assistance to the victims of miscarriages of justice languishing in prison.
Students have been giving up their free time to sort through the mountain of correspondence.
“They should be out drinking or chasing the opposite sex but they are here getting stuck in” says Naughton
Barry George, the man convicted of killing the television presenter Jill Dando, has written to the project.
Naughton has also had contact with the family of Michael Stone, who has twice been convicted of murdering Lin and Megan Russell and whose latest appeal failed in January.
Many other notorious figures – Naughton will not name names – have been in touch.
Over the coming months and years undergraduates will work with local criminal lawyers, who are giving their time for free, on five cases which they believe stand a chance of being referred to the appeal court.
Naughton hopes that the six-month-old Bristol project will be the first of many to be launched at universities across the UK to create an “innocence network” of students working to free prisoners they believe have been wrongly convicted.
“It’s still very early days but we think there is a gap in the present system which needs to be filled”, he says.
Innocence projects are active in the US, Canada and Australia.
The best known was co-founded in 1992 by Barry Scheck, one of the lawyers who represented OJ Simpson at his trial.
Excerpts by Steven Morris for the Guardian from his article headed Students to the rescue dated the 14th July 2005
Jill Dando’s Killer Barry George & His Confession To His Murder
Like killers Simon Hall and Michael Stone, Barry George used numerous aliases, including the alias Barry Bulsara.
Killer Simon Hall had used the name James Shiperlee, which was noted on his prison files;
Like killer Simon Hall, killer Barry George was reported to have gone on to admit to his guilt to his murder of Jill Dando, as was reported here and here.
Also like killer Simon Hall’s immediate family members (Lynne, Phil and Shaun Hall) and others, killer Barry George’s uncle Mike Burke and his sister Michelle Diskin Bates chose to deny killer Barry George’s murderous crime and instead made excuses for him, his personality and his behaviours.
Excerpt’s from a 2002 Mirror newspaper story here reported some of killer Barry George’s uncle Mike Burke’s excuses;
Uncle Mike Bourke (sic) said:
“He was warned people might try and tape his conversations or put words into his mouth.
“I just don’t think Barry would say anything like this. It is complete fiction. He has been on his guard.”
Mike, of Co Limerick, Ireland, added:
“He has been a bit depressed lately because he knows a lot hinges on it. But he has done nothing to make his family doubt he is innocent”
However Mike Burke stated in the book he went on to write and publish;
On Sunday April 7th I heard on BBC Radio 4 news that the News of the World had a cassette tape of Barry allegedly confessing to the murder.
I bought the paper and read the story which I found difficult to believe.
It alleged that Barry said to other prisoners
’…because I was the man who committed the murder’.
I phoned the number given and listened to the tape recording which sounded like Barry though the sound quality was very poor.
I had warned him that something like that could happen.
The source of the tape was a by then deported Polish thief who claimed he used his tape recorder to record fellow prisoners’ music
Excerpt by Mike Burke from his book Mike’s Story: Barry George & the Jill Dando murder;
Mike Burke headed up the fraudulent public relations spin campaign to free his murdering, serial stalker and predatory rapist nephew Barry George.
However Mike Burke did state in his book he harboured doubts about his nephew’s behaviour, evidenced by his following statement;
I was again concerned he was trying to threaten me.
This type of behaviour undermined my belief in him
Exceprt from Mike Burke’s book Mike’s Story: Barry George & the Jill Dando murder
2002: Michelle Diskin
In 2002 a Scottish organisation, which was set up by one* of the six IRA terrorists who was convicted for the murders of twenty one people, and injuring 182 people, following two pub bombings, published Barry George’s sister Michelle Diskin’s excuse for her killer brother Barry George having admitted to his murder of Jill Dando.
A screenshot of Michelle Diskin’s published excuse is reproduced below;
*Three of the six men who were convicted of the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings admitted to being members of the IRA and also admitted to having planted the bombs.
In 1987 all six men had their murder convictions deemed “unsafe and unsatisfactory” by the court of appeal, but to date all six men have been unsuccessful in proving their innocence.
Similarly to killers Simon Hall and Michael Stone, Mike Burke wrote about a suicide attempt his nephew Barry George had made a couple of months after he was found guilty for his murder of Jill Dando.
On the 16th of September 2001 there was a story published in the Mail on Sunday, and according to Mike Burke here, a prisoner by the name of Daniel Reece had saved killer Barry George from an “alleged hanging attempt”.
INNOCENCE FRAUD WATCH 
15 thoughts on “Killer Simon Hall: Michael Naughton, 2005, Bristol University Innocence Project, Innocence Network UK, Barry Scheck, Peter Neufeld, Stephanie Bon, Killers Barry George & Michael Stone, Mike Burke/Bourke & “Justice for Barry”, The Illusory Truth Effect, Coercive Persuasion, Gaslighting & Murder Confessions – Part 17g©️”