The court of appeal upheld convictions of the Freshwater Five last week. In the final part of our miniseries, we hear how the judges reached their decision and what it means
The case of the Freshwater Five, convicted a decade ago of attempting to smuggle £53m of cocaine into the UK, made it to the court of appeal in February where new evidence was heard that the men hoped would clear their names. Anushka Asthana followed the week-long hearing, sitting alongside the men’s families as the barristers argued the case.
The court of appeal can consider new evidence not already heard by the original jury, and so the bar to overturning the convictions was set high. Nevertheless, the appeal had several grounds: one aspect focused on new radar data that the men hoped would show they were not close enough to the cargo ship that was alleged to be the other vessel involved in the transfer of drugs. There was also evidence that purported to show a new suspect vessel in Freshwater Bay as well as a surveillance plane that should have been able to spot the drugs floating in the water if indeed they were there at the time the prosecution suggested.
