Double Jeopardy is a ground-breaking BBC documentary which transmits on 30th July at 10.35pm, where evidence is discovered which should lead to a retrial under the new Double Jeopardy rule of the defendant in a horrific rape attack on an elderly woman.
The Mentorn investigation for BBC ONE is presented by Richard Bilton and identified evidence that meets the Double Jeopardy criteria for a retrial in this case. It is evidence that brings a new understanding to the rules governing “new” evidence.
In an historic ruling, the BBC has won the right in the House of Lords to name Wendell Baker, the man accused of the rape of Hazel Backwell, and demand that he be re-tried under the Double Jeopardy rule.
In January 1997, 66-year old Hazel Backwell lived in her home of 30 years in Stratford, East London. At 4am, as she slept, an intruder broke into her bedroom. He beat her around the head; he tied her hands behind her back, and he then anally raped her. The intruder wanted her bank card and PIN number. Hazel didn’t have one. He searched her property for valuables. Before leaving, he dragged her into the hallway and pushed Hazel into the understairs cupboard. He piled boxes in front of the door to prevent her escape. Her attacker then left her for dead.
It was 15 hours before a friend raised the alarm about her disappearance and she was rescued.
The only evidence in the case was semen taken from Hazel’s body. A year later the DNA database provided a match. His name was Wendell Baker. There was a 1 in 17 million chance that the DNA belonged to anyone else.
Six months later at the Old Bailey, Baker was acquitted of rape and burglary of Hazel Backwell. The judge had ruled the DNA evidence as inadmissible. The judge had accepted the defence argument that police had broken the rules when they matched Baker’s DNA profile to the semen found on the victim. This was because Baker had supplied a DNA sample when he was charged and tried for a burglary. But because he was acquitted of the burglary, his DNA profile should have been removed from the database and not available to the police. It was the unlawful retention of the DNA profile on the database that led the judge to rule the DNA evidence as inadmissible.
As the sole piece of evidence, the case collapsed and Baker walked free. Hazel Backwell died a recluse five years later.
Although the House of Lords subsequently ruled that this judgment “flew in the face of common sense”, the Double Jeopardy law that applied at the time - which prevented a defendant being tried twice for the same crime - made a re-trial impossible.
But that was all to change in 2005, when the 800-year-old Double Jeopardy rule was swept away. This happened in the aftermath of the Stephen Lawrence case in which three of the accused of his murder had walked free from court, prompting calls for a change in the Double Jeopardy rule which proved irresistible.
Since then only two cases have been re-tried. Richard Bilton makes the compelling case for Wendell Baker to be added to that list – and for him, finally, to be brought to justice
PRODUCED AND DIRECTED BY JOANNA BURGE
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER SAM COLLYNS