A former polo-playing landowner who has spent 37 years in prison for a brutal murder which may never have happened has been granted an appeal after the Daily Mail exposed key failures in the prosecution case.
Clive Freeman has repeatedly denied he was responsible for the death of vagrant Alexander Hardie in London in 1988, but was convicted during an Old Bailey trial dubbed 'the gentleman and the tramp' the following year.
The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) today ordered the case be referred to the Court of Appeal, after this newspaper cast serious doubt over the largely circumstantial evidence used against the Zimbabwean national, a former elite soldier.
It is understood the decision centres on allegedly flawed pathology evidence.
Mr Freeman's spokesman, Tony Thompson, broke news of the stunning development in a highly emotional meeting at Leyhill Prison near Gloucester this morning.
