The older readers of this blog will remember the relentless campaign by supporters of George Davis to have his conviction for armed robbery overturned. Their most famous protest was digging up the wicket at the Headingley Cricket Ground, stopping a test match between England and Australia. I remember turning on the TV to watch the match and seeing the damage done. Who was George Davis? He was a man convicted for a robbery at the London Electricity Board in Ilford, London in April 1974. He was convicted on unreliable police identification evidence. There was no forensics linking him to the robbery.
Davis was some time later released from prison but he was never officially cleared of the crime, until 2011 when an appeal court quashed his conviction. However, Davis did not stay away from villainy. In September 1977, a robbery was foiled at the Bank of Cyprus, in Seven Sisters Road in London, by the Flying Squad. An American tourist who happened to on the scene when the ambush went down, took some dramatic photos which appeared in the newspapers. Davis was arrested, and jailed, and this time there was no mistake, he was caught in the act.
Davis was released in 1984, but still he could not stop any criminality. He was arrested again in 1987, caught in possession of valuable items. He received three years. His first wife, who was at the forefront of his campaign, divorced him and he remarried.
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