The case of Derek Bentley
Roger Corke's investigation of one of Britain's most controversial hangings uncovered a shocking miscarriage of justice
On the night of November 2, 1952, two teenagers climbed up onto the roof of a sweet warehouse in the south London suburb of Croydon, intending to burgle it.
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Just 88 days later, one of them was hanged for murder in what became one of Britain's most notorious miscarriages of justice. He was just 19 at the time. That teenager was Derek Bentley.
As Bentley and his accomplice shinned up a drainpipe, they were spotted and they were soon corned on the roof by the police. Bentley was grabbed and put under arrest but his accomplice across the other side of the roof killed PC Sidney Miles dead with one shot.
That accomplice was 16-year-old Christopher Craig. At 16, he was too young to hang but Bentley was old enough for the gallows and was hanged, even though he didn't fire the shot and was in police custody on the other side of the roof at the time. That's because officers claimed they heard him encourage Craig to shoot with the words 'Let him have it, Chris.'
Bentley and Craig always denied this but someone had to "swing" for the death of a policeman. Almost 40 years later, Craig gave his only ever interview to Roger Corke and his colleague at Thames TV, Carole Peters. He once again denied Bentley had encouraged him to murder the policeman and backed up his account by passing a polygraph test.
The new evidence gathered by Roger and Carole, including forensic analysis of Bentley's statement, indicated that police had lied in the dock to convict Bentley. It helped lead to Bentley's conviction being quashed by the Court of Appeal.