Justice For Ryan Campaign – Killers that get away with Murder!

The belief that the Scales of Justice are balanced when delivering the rule of Law, for us as a family was never in doubt, or something to question!

That was until we experienced first-hand, the devastating and unbelievable acquittal verdict delivered at our trial.

We put our trust in the Police, the CPS and our criminal justice system that Justice would prevail...the Law 'rights' the 'wrongs' in Society and punishes the 'wrongdoers!'

Sadly, the stark reality for us was the unthinkable, the worst of all possibilities at the end of our Trial... Acquittal! 

The Acquittal verdict given at our trial for us is a 'double trauma' "It's as though Ryan has been murdered twice!"

The guilt of a person charged is ultimately decided by a Jury of 12 people good and true, who must consider their decision...'beyond reasonable doubt!'  However, some Jury verdicts defy belief, especially an Acquittal that is a 'perverse verdict' such as ours, where a person is acquitted, against all the evidence presented, pointing to their guilt?

As a bereaved family, we became increasingly aware that we have no rights in Law against this process.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) act for the 'Crown...in the interest of the public at large' and the Police who are there to ‘Serve & Protect’ the public, suddenly they become an invisible member of that same 'Public at large?'

For us we are continuing to live a nightmare, it really is a case of double injustice and double trauma that continues to cause deep distress and torture to Ryan’s family and friends.

As we have explained previously, Acquittals can be 'perverse verdicts' which go against all the evidence presented. At present Juries do not have to give reasons for how their 'Verdicts' were reached!

Our campaign in memory of Ryan is to bring about much needed change to redress the balance for victims and their families.  After all the Scales of Justice are supposed to represent balance and equity for us all.

And there have been previous examples where campaigns have achieved lasting change for a better and fairer justice system.

The most high profile being that of Ann Ming who created legal history after spending years doggedly working to overturn the 800-year-old double jeopardy law, which prevented people being tried twice for the same offence.

Mrs Ming and her husband, Charlie campaigned to get the law changed and in 2006, Billy Dunlop was finally jailed for life for the murder of her daughter Julie Hogg.

This was against a backdrop of resistance and outrage from the bar council and leading human rights lawyers who argued it would lead to further miscarriages of justice and prosecutors getting a 2nd bite of the cherry.

The reality however is very different. There have been just a handful of prosecutions following an acquittal verdict, the most well-known publicly being that of Stephen Lawrence.  After 18 years, some Justice finally delivered for Stephen Lawrence's family.  Stephen Lawrence was 18 when he was stabbed to death near a bus stop in Eltham, South London, in April 1993.  Following the original Acquittals of Gary Dobson and David Norris being quashed and re-trials commenced, both men were successfully convicted of Stephen's Murder on the 3rd January 2012.

The reality is without people like Anne’s determined campaign to change our outdated laws these killers, after previously being acquitted by a jury, would now be walking free amongst our public, capable of inflicting further pain and terror on victims and their families.

The questions we ask is this?

Why did all these killers originally get away with murder in our courts, when in fact they HAD committed the most heinous and serious of crimes?

If an acquittal decision is considered ‘perverse’ and goes against the evidence presented, is it now time for juries to provide reasons for their decision?

We will continue our fight to change our laws so that victims and their families have a right to appeal against perverse jury acquittal verdicts.

It is in ours, other victim’s families and the public’s interest that we fight to get this miscarriage of justice corrected. We will fight on.... We must do... to ensure the values of equality, fairness and accountability are maintained for us all within our criminal justice system.

Please keep supporting us. Sign our petition on change.org. Please ask your family and friends to sign and share our campaign as far and wide as possible.

Thank you from us all at Justice For Ryan.

More details on our campaign can be found on our official website: justiceforryan.org