Tony Thompson

In the wake of a series of Daily Mail revelations, the beleaguered body which investigates alleged miscarriages of justice has commissioned new scientific analysis of the death of vagrant Alexander Hardie. The move, seen as significant, could pave the way for the case to be referred to the Court of Appeal. In 1989, Clive Freeman, an ex-polo-playing landowner, was convicted of murdering Mr Hardie, 49, with a suffocation technique dubbed 'burking', which was used by 19th-century 'body-snatchers' Burke and Hare, who sold corpses to doctors for dissection. But, as revealed by this newspaper, eight leading pathologists and forensic experts reject the theory.

Supporters of Clive Freeman, 80, (pictured) who has spent 35 years in prison for a murder which may not even have happened, say the failure to provide his legal team with material documents put him at a significant disadvantage. The undisclosed papers included original post-mortem notes and drawings, two mysterious notes written by a senior detective to the Crown's pathologist and details of the criminal record of a vital prosecution witness. There was also a failure to disclose evidence of the police investigation into Freeman's alibi that he was at a hotel several miles away on the night of the alleged murder and a failure to disclose photographs of the post-mortem examinations before his Old Bailey trial. Freeman, an ex-polo-playing landowner, was convicted in 1989 of murdering Alexander Hardie with a suffocation technique dubbed 'burking', which was used by 19th-century 'body-snatchers' Burke and Hare, who sold corpses to doctors for dissection.

His prison governor characterized a man held accountable for a murder that may never have happened as a model prisoner who posed no danger to the public. According to a recently released prison report into 'burking' killer Clive Freeman, who has now completed 35 years in prison, may not have occurred,' the father of three children's apparent decreased in the public's risk of the public has been reduced' by his compliance andexemplary jail conduct and behavior.' However, the cancer-stricken prisoner, 80, is still prisoner in prison two decades after refusing to confess to the murder of Scottish-born plumber Alexander Hardie. The freeman was first sentenced to 13 years in prison, but he may have been released more than 20 years ago if he had confessed.