Killer Simon Hall: The Innocence Fraud Of Sadistic Killer Kevin Nunn, The Illusory Truth Effect, Coercive Persuasion, Gaslighting, Stephanie Bon, Ann Craven, Andrew Green, Michael Naughton, Claire McGourlay, The Forensic Institute, Allan Jamieson, Tiernan Coyle & CCTV Stills – Part 17f©️ 

Stephanie Bon, Andrew Green & Michael Naughton

Stephanie Bon wrote the following in September 2006 to Andrew Green, CCing Michael Naughton;

Stephanie Bon

Hello Andrew

I was talking to Michael today about an idea that has been at the back of my mind for a while now..

I have been contacted a quite few times by people in our situation whom I always redirect to you, also people who are interested in volunteering and again, I have referred them to you

I had an email last week from a girl from Suffolk (near me); her brother has been arrested by the same detective as Simon and Michael Heath is also the pathologist for the prosecution… there seems to be a pattern emerging…

As the case is awaiting trial she wasn’t able to give me too much information on it but in her words, everything is circumstantial… Anyway, as I said, I offered my support as always and advised her to contact you and Innocent

I was just wondering if it could be good to perhaps try and organise some kind of family support days, perhaps once a month (or more or less dunno yet), initially, just to support people morally maybe? Who knows we could get a guest once in a while, someone with knowledge, even if just to reassure people that they are not alone. We could pass on Innocent details, promote the Innocence Project and generally show people that there is help out there if you know where to look.

I know that when I started, it took me ages to find you and Ann and it’s thanks to you two, I am here today.

I would hate to know of anyone struggling on their own, been there, done that.. it’s tough.

I know that in our case Simon’s parents are completely lost, have no faith and don’t think that anyone is here to help, I know better and this is why I run the campaign.

If anything was to happen, I would want it to be part of Innocent, not as in you do the work (well I would need some advice of course) but as in, this isn’t something I would do off my own back, it would just be great to see Innocent grown and develop down here, the closest we have is London or Kent which isn’t that near and who knows it may be more accessible.

Like I said above, this is just an idea and I would not go ahead without your blessing or proper advice, it’s just something I thought of and I would very much like your feedback on it.

I have copied Michael in as we discussed this today and he knows that my motivation is not for personal gratification, I just want to help people like I get help everyday, even if I just help facilitate it, I’m not sure how many people would be interested but it’s worth a thought

Excerpts from email correspondence from Stephanie Bon to Andrew Green September 2006

The Innocence Fraud Of Sadistic Killer Kevin Nunn

The girl referred to in Stephanie Bon’s correspondence to Andrew Green was/is a woman, and appears to have been the sister of Dawn Walker’s killer, Brigitte Butcher.

Sadistic killer Kevin Nunn

Sadistic killer and innocence fraudster Kevin Nunn lost his last appeal the year after Simon Hall’s guilt to his murder of Joan Albert was exposed.

The June 2014 supreme court judgement can be read here.

On the first page of the judgement it can be seen that the UK innocence network chose to intervene in Kevin Nunn’s appeal.

An excerpt from a Bristol university school of law article headed Innocence Network UK at the Supreme Court 13 March 2014 reads;

INUK was granted leave to intervene in the matter because of the experience of its member innocence projects in assisting alleged victims of wrongful convictions to make applications to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC).

The CCRC is the body that reviews alleged miscarriages of justice and refers cases back to the appeal courts if it is felt that there is a real possibility that the conviction or sentence will not be upheld. 

Andrew Green claimed via his twitter bio to be an “expert on criminal cases post trial”.

and his Linkedin bio stated he is a case supervisor at the miscarriage of justice review centre based at Manchester university.

Claire McGourlay & Defunct Innocence Network UK

It was reported here that Claire McGourlay set up the Manchester miscarriage of justice review centre in November 2017.

And a university of Sheffield school of law newsletter regarding Claire McGourlay read;

In October 2007 Claire McGourlay set up the first Innocence Project in South Yorkshire.

She secured funding from the White Rose Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning in Enterprise.

Her objective was to give students a unique insight into this area of criminal justice.

This project utilises a mentored teaching environment to maximise learning opportunities for students, each Innocence Project (IP) is student-led and centres upon research into alleged wrongful criminal convictions.

Students are involved in reviewing real criminal cases giving them a unique insight, and valuable first-hand experience of the criminal justice process.

Some cases where evidence can be accumulated to support a wrongful conviction are referred back to the Courts of Appeal via the Criminal Cases Review Commission.

The students and the School also became part of a wider national body called the Innocence Network UK (INUK) where the students attend training courses about protocols and professional work.

In fact 14 students attended one such training event in Cardiff 24-26 October 2008.

Innocence produces Sheffield Law Graduates more equipped for professional practice and research beyond their studies and makes them more attractive potential employers.

The teams are already working on their first cases comprising two murders, a rape and a serious assault.

On the 15th April 2008 Claire addressed the INUK national meeting ”Working with campaign groups and victim support groups” at which the Attorney General was present and she has also been invited to sit on the first INUK Committee.

On 30 April 2008 the IP students led a session on the benefits of the project to staff at the School Spotlight on learning and Teaching day.

University of Sheffield School of Law December 2008 newsletter

The Forensic Institute, Allan Jamieson, Tiernan Coyle & Fibre Evidence

During the 11th Annual Forensic Research and Teaching (FORREST) Conference, Glasgow, which was held in 2015, Andrew Green gave a presentation called When is Fresh Evidence Fresh and True? the treatment of scientific expert evidence and experts in the Court of Appeal Criminal Division (CACD) of England and Wales.

Screenshot taken from The Forensic Institute website

Bad Science, bad law was also included in a list published by The Forensic Institute for the 2015 conference

Screenshot taken from The Forensic Institute website

and next to a photograph of Michael Naughton it stated;

I will speak about science and justice as you suggest with examples from the literature and cases that I have worked on that have proven guilt as well as undermine the evidence of guilt.

Screenshot taken from The Forensic Institute website

It is not known if Michael Naughton did speak about science and justice as was claimed in the above however Andrew Green, who says he was invited by Allan Jamieson did speak at the event and published his talk – see here for full context;

The same Andrew Green who refers to himself as a “criminologist” and claims to be an “expert on criminal cases post trial” chose to use the case of actual, factual, guilty killer Simon Hall )whose innocence fraud was exposed in 2013) as part of his talk.

Below is an excerpt from hornswoggler Andrew Green’s talk;

Andrew Green

To the CACD (Court of appeal criminal division), some forensic scientists must appear to subvert the nature of the evidence on which prosecutors rely.

In the case of Simon Hall ([2011] EWCA Crim 4), the prosecution relied on matching fibres from the crime scene to that found in Hall’s home.

There was no garment to which the fibres might be matched and fibres were of common types, so the proportions of fibres at each scene were compared, and these proportions were found to have matched.

In particular, the prosecution expert instructed for the trial found a small number of uncommon green fibres were found at the scene and at Hall’s home, and it was this that probably convinced the jury to convict Hall.

But at the appeal, a fibre expert, Tiernan Coyle was instructed on behalf of Hall, and he established the fibres said to be green were in fact black and indistinguishable from a large proportion of other fibres from both sites.

The argument (which is long and complicated) centred round the likelihood that the proportions of varying fibres from each site matched.

Coyle’s argument was (if I understand it correctly) that no one knows what proportions of any fibres exist in the environment in general and whether the proportions at the sites differ significantly from fibres which have gathered elsewhere.

Excerpt from Andrew Green’s talk When is Fresh Evidence Fresh and True?
Photograph allegedly from the 2015 conference (Source)
Photograph allegedly from the 2015 FORREST conference (Source)

Andrew Green did not attend killer Simon Hall’s trial for his murder of Joan Albert and therefore had no comprehension of all of the evidence presented to the jury.

Therefore his speculative comment on what “probably convinced the jury to convict Hall” is the same type of fraudulent nonsense already demonstrated throughout this blog series, and in other cases of the innocence fraud phenomenon.

The Hall Family’s Concoctions & Stills From CCTV

As have already been highlighted in previous Parts of this blog series, the prosecution relied on a whole lot more than the “matching fibres from the crime scene to that found in Hall’s home” as referred to by Andrew Green during his 2015 presentation.

It is still not known how the criminal cases review commission (CCRC) were able to magic away all the other evidence which was heard throughout Simon Hall’s February 2003 trial.

It is also still not known how the CCRC were able to magic away another main plank of the prosecution’s case, namely the Hall family’s concoctions.

Stills were extracted from CCTV footage of Simon Hall from the time he withdrew cash from the cash point machine located at Tesco’s on Saturday the 15th December 2001, where he purchased the black mole skin type trousers.

These stills were made available to the jury during the February 2003 trial, as was referred to at the foot of page 41 and top of page 42 of the judges summing up here.

Therefore it’s possible the jury were convinced killer Simon Hall was lying with regards the clothes and shoes he said he had been wearing that night and the following morning, as opposed anything to do with the fibre evidence.

For an alleged “expert on criminal cases post trial” it is interesting how criminologist Andrew Green doesn’t question how or why actual, factual guilty killer Simon Hall was wrongly convicted and sentenced for a ‘burglary gone wrong’ as opposed to his murder of Joan Albert having been sexually motivated.

Link to Part 17f here

Killer Simon Hall: Phoebe Grant, Wild Goose Chase Over Brown Chunky Ankle Boots, The Portuguese Man, The Private Investigator & Alan Cauldwell & The Attendance Notes – Part 12a©️ 

Phoebe Grant – Photograph courtesy of Sarah Grant

31st July 2002

Six days after Simon Hall was charged with his murder of Joan Albert, Phoebe Grant visited with Simon Hall’s solicitor Alan Cauldwell, along with Shaun, Lynne and Phil Hall.

According to Alan Cauldwell’s Attendance Note the meeting was organised so that they could all meet with Simon’s new solicitor and “discuss the further conduct of Simon’s case and give whatever initial helpful information they could”.

The 31st July 2002 Attendance Note read as follows;

Attending Shaun Hall, Simon’s brother, when he came into my office having travelled down from Ipswich with his parents and with Phoebe Grant, his brother’s girlfriend so that they could meet with me, discuss the further conduct of Simon’s case and give whatever initial helpful information they could

Solicitor Alan Cauldwell

I initially met with Shaun on his own to obtain from him certain background detail which is embodied in a defence witness statement on the file

Having spent some time with Shaun on his own, I then attended Phoebe Grant on her own

She confirmed that she and Simon moved to Hill House Road, Ipswich on the 17th May 2002.

She told me that with regards to furnishing, she had some things to bring with her from her mum’s house

She was basically able to bring with her, her bed and a couple of chairs

Simon brought with them a sofa and a chair which she believes was his grandmothers

As regards to what clothing he had at the time, she described him as having a couple of jeans, work trousers, beige pull-over, black fleece and another top coat type jacket

As regards to the black fleece, this was lying in the back of Simon’s Toyota Corolla when she had last seen it

Phoebe accepted that she has only really known Simon since January of this year.

During the time that she has known him, he has never behaved in anyway which has given her cause to doubt him or believe that he could have committed such crime as what he has been charged with

Since learning of the police’s interest in Simon’s brown ankle boots, she has been doing her best to track down Graham Harvey who is simply known as ”Harvey”.

He (sic) has been to Vicky, his girlfriend’s house. Vicky’s brother answered the door, apparently Vicky was in bed.

Phoebe said that she was looking for Harvey in order to try and track down his brother Mark.

This was to try and recover the boots that Simon had loaned to Mark via Harvey.

After some little while and discussion with Vicky, her brother returned to the door, where Phoebe was waiting and gave three possible contact telephone numbers for Mark.

Phoebe also stated that in the areas, a local tearaway, by the name of Ben Hockley she says is aged about 15, is heavily into drug abuse and was believed to be in Capel St Mary over the night of the 15th to the 16th of December

She has heard about him and it makes her feel that he is far more capable of committing the crime that Simon was.

Likewise, there is another Portuguese man whose name she did not recall, who was running with Ben Hockley, who could equally could have been involved

She then recalled that the police had actually taken the black fleece from the back of Simon’s Toyota Corolla last Saturday. That would have been the 27th July

She was concerned about the damage that PC Hutson had caused to their property when he had attended to arrest Simon, and also a neck chain of Simon’s which had gone missing, along with Simon’s credit cards, cash cards and mobile phone.

I explained that the mobile phone and cash cards were certainly believed to be amongst the property held by the police, given the cheques that I knew they had run and numbers called on the phone and enquiries into usage of cards

As regards to the other items which she believed to be missing and the damage to the property, she should lodge a written letter of complaint with the local inspector at Ipswich police station so that might be looked into as a separate civil matter to be pursued alongside the running of Simon’s defence case

I asked her what she knew of Simon’s best friend Matt Walton.

He apparently has not been spoken to by the police. She thinks Matt’s brother Andrew was under suspicion and may have been spoken to by the police

I then spend some time as I have done with Shaun, and explained to Phoebe how we were putting together Simon’s defence case, what counsel would be instructed and the likely timetabling of events would be how matters would proceed from our attendance at court

Shaun and Phoebe were then joined by Simon’s parents, as I had brought his parents up to speed again on what we were doing to prepare his defence case, what counsel I had instructed and reassuring them all I would be meeting Simon in interview at Norwich prison tomorrow

I then spent some time explaining that part of what I would be looking to do with Simon tomorrow, was take instruction with regard to the making of a bail application next Tuesday.

No one could guarantee that bail application could be granted, however I did assure them that we would give it our best efforts

Alan Cauldwell Attendance Note dated 31st July 2002

The Sofa, Black Mole Skin Type Trousers & Brown Chunky Ankle Boots

It is not known if Simon Hall, or another member of the Hall family told Phoebe Grant the sofa Simon took with him to Hill House Road had belonged to Simon’s grandmother.

However the sofa had actually belonged to Matt Walton’s (Matthew W) mother.

Fibres from the black mole skin type trousers linking Simon Hall to his murder of Joan Albert were recovered from this sofa by police forensic officers at Hill House Road, in Ipswich in June 2002.

Matthew W told Suffolk police;

…for reasons which shall become clear I am currently staying with a girl I know as Phoebe Grant at her address in Ipswich.

Phoebe is the girlfriend of my best friend Simon Hall and they share a terraced house together

The reason that I am staying with Phoebe is because Simon was arrested in connection with an elderly lady called Joan Albert being murdered in Capel St Mary, Suffolk.

Phoebe asked me stay with her as she didn’t want to be there on her own.

Also Simon’s mum and dad, Lynn and Phil also asked me to take care of Phoebe.

Seeing as Simon and I have known each other virtually all of our lives I was happy to do this. Simon at the moment is in Norwich prison

I think 2-3 days had passed after Simon was arrested that I then went and stayed in his house

..my mum gave Simon a three seater sofa which is mainly blue and may have a small pattern on it.

Mum gave this to Simon some between I believe October 2001 and December 2001. This came about when Simon was with me at mums and she was on about getting rid of the sofa and Simon asked if he could have it.

Mum also gave Simon a pouffe/footstall (sic) to match the sofa. I actually delivered the sofa and footstall (sic) to Simons mum’s house where it was stored in her garage

Both the sofa and footstool are at Simon Hall and Phoebe Grant’s house.

The footstool is in the front room with a throw over it.

The sofa is is in the middle room. Both of these rooms are downstairs

Excerpts from Matthew W’s police witness statement dated 21st August 2002

Although Phoebe Grant first met Simon Hall in December 2001, Phoebe would not have known “what clothing he had at the time” or the types of clothing Simon had previously owned.

Killer Simon Hall had previously owned a pair of black mole skin type trousers, before replacing them with another pair from Tesco’s, Copdock on Saturday the 15th December 2001.

Matthew W stated of the previous pair of black mole skin type trousers;

I have been asked if Simon Hall has ever had or has any soft or velvet type clothes.

I can say that to my knowledge whilst he was in a relationship with Zoe *******, he had a pair of black ’moleskin’ type jeans which I believe Zoe burnt when they split up

On Monday 17th December 2001 I went to work

At that time I was on site in Dilbridge Road, Colchester around 8.15am

I had been working on this site for several weeks and Simon Hall knew that I was working there and had been there previously

I would say that it was between 8.30 and 9am on Monday 17th December 2001 when Simon turned up where I was working.

As far as I can recall this was the first time Simon had called on site at that time in the morning.

I said that Simon had been there before and he had but that was usually a lunch-time.

He brought me a cup of tea up before now

I was not really surprised to see Simon at that time in the morning. Simon looked upset, he looked a bit ’down mouthed’.

He told me that he had been into his work which was State Chemical and said that he needed a couple of days off to be with his mum as there had been a murder in Capel, that it was Joan his mums friend.

He said that his mum was upset and he wanted to be there to comfort her

Between December 2001 and now I can honestly say that I have not noticed any changes in Simon’s behaviour, his mental state nor his physical appearance.

I should say that this would be up until his arrest

I would describe Simon as being one of the nicest people I know and has been happy lately, just like he used to be when we were about 18 years old

Excerpts from Matthew W’s police witness statement dated 21st August 2002

The “brown ankle boots” Phoebe Grant had spoken to Simon Hall’s solicitor Alan Cauldwell about on the 31st of July 2002 were the same “pair of chunky brown boots” Phoebe went on to tell Suffolk police about in November 2002.

Phoebe Grant stated;

About 10.10am on Wednesday 20th November 2002 I was shown a set of photographs by DC 989 Carr marked exhibit NC/14 showing Simon Hall with family

In one of the photographs Simon is seen wearing what I would describe as a pair of chunky brown boots.

DC Carr asked me if I knew where they were now

My only knowledge is that Simon had loaned them to a friend of his named Mark ****** I think at the beginning of this year

I cannot recall seeing Simon wearing the boots or what make they were but I know he got them from a catalogue some time prior to my meeting him

Excerpts from Phoebe (Hannah) Grant’s police witness statement dated 20th November 2002

It is not known if Phoebe Grant ever actually saw Simon Hall wearing the boots and Phoebe would only have known the boots were purchased via a catalogue after having been told this by Simon Hall or by a Hall family member ie; Lynne, Phil or Shaun Hall.

Boot Were Disposed Of In February Or March 2002

However Suffolk police had established in September 2002 these boots had been disposed of in a “council bin” sometime in February or March 2002 by the mother of the teenage boy who eventually came to wear the boots after his older brother had given them to him to wear.

The mother of the teenage boy who eventually ended up with the boots stated;

Some time in early February 2002 I was aware that Mark my 17 year old son had a pair of brown boots, amongst some other clothing the boots were in a Tesco carrier bag

I noticed them in the cupboard in the living room, at some point Mark wore the boots in my presence

I examined the Tesco bag and found the boots were a pair of brown boots, dirty, leather with cracks on the leather, they were casual ankle type boots with 10 eyelets

The boots were damaged, that is the soles of the boots were hanging off the upper of the boots

I spoke to Mark and asked him if he wanted the boots anymore.

He said he did not want them as they were damaged, he told me that I could get rid of them, I did so some time during the end of February/March time of 2002

I placed them in the council bin for collection with the other rubbish. I have no knowledge as to where the boots came from.

Mark did not mention where he got the boots from or if he had bought them

Excerpts from police witness statement of mother who’s youngest son eventually ended up with Simon Hall’s brown boots dated 9th September 2002

Gaslighting

It is not known whether it was killer Simon Hall or one of the Hall family members (or both) who also gaslighted Phoebe Grant about the “local tearaway” from Capel St Mary and the “Portuguese man”.

Following Simon Hall’s imprisonment and conviction for his murder of Joan Albert, Phoebe Grant apparently campaigned alongside the Hall family, as was reported here by the East Anglian Daily Times in April 2003.

It is not known why or when Phoebe Grant dropped out of Simon Hall’s public campaign and Phoebe did not feature alongside Simon Hall’s ex girlfriend Stephanie Bon and Phil and Lynne Hall in the 2007 BBC Rough Justice documentary.

However after Simon Hall married and after his murder conviction was referred by the criminal cases review commission (CCRC) to the court of appeal, Phoebe Grant wrote to Simon Hall in August 2009 stating;

I let you down and I know that.

It’s me who has to deal with the guilt and I have ever since the first day you went in that awful place.

I’ve always felt guilt

I don’t know what lies ahead for anyone but you and me were basically torn apart from each other through no fault of our own.

We never had closure and if someone asked me whether I wanted that this second I think I’d say no because at the end of it all I do still love you and always will 

Maybe we’ll never be together again but I don’t think how we feel about one another will ever change. So I don’t know.

Do we go through life with our partners and just let things go? I don’t think either of us can answer that.

We’ve been through too much together and I don’t think anyone will understand that, as hard as they may try. I love Andy too. It’s not easy being in love with 2 people 

Your family have behaved shockingly.

I’m so sorry to hear they’ve been so neglectful

You’re (sic) mother has always thought she was the victim in all of this. Always always.

But I can’t believe she’s actually playing that card to you. Wrong and unforgivable

Listen I’m sorry if I caused you pain. I really didn’t want any harm to you.

But I can’t not talk to you. You’re too bigger part of my life and I need you in it

I never doubted you ever.

I should have been there always. Forgive me. I am really sorry

Excerpts from Phoebe Grant’s communication to Simon Hall dated August 2009

Private Investigator

Phoebe Grant’s parents Roger and Sarah Grant hired a private investigator at some point.

It is not known how much the Grant family spent on this futile exercise or what the private investigator reported back to them.

However following the CCRC referral in 2009 Phoebe Grant and her mother Sarah Grant attended a preliminary appeal hearing at the appeal court in London on the 10th of March 2010, alongside Stephanie Bon, Lynne, Phil and Shaun Hall.

Killer Simon Hall wrote to Phoebe Grant in 2013, following the exposure of his actual, factual guilt to his murder of Joan Albert and the innocence fraud.

He stated in another letter;

I spoke to Pauline and Karen on the phone.

I asked them if people still believed I was innocent.

I told them that I was innocent and that I confessed because I’d given up. I blamed it on drugs

I wrote to Ray, Ian (B) and Phoebe because I thought those people would feed into my lies and want to support me.

I would have written to Stef B too, but I lost the letter, or threw it away.

I asked all 3 of them if they would like to visit me and bring someone with them. I was in ‘desperate’ mode and was reaching out to anyone I thought might believe me, so I could pretend to be innocent again.

More lies, more disrespect and shame to add to my increasing list of wrong doings

Excerpts from Simon Hall’s letter dated 18th October 2013

Link to Part 13 here