04/09/01 - Stay in jail
Daily Post Liverpool
CHILD killer Howard Hughes has failed in his battle
to overturn his rape and murder convictions.
The monster who raped and murdered seven-year-old Sophie
Hook has had his case thrown out by the Criminal Cases
Review Commission.
They have turned down his plea to take the case to
the Court of Appeal.
Sophie, of Great Budworth, Cheshire, was abducted and
murdered by Hughes in 1995. The seven-year-old had been
asleep when she was snatched from a tent in the garden
of her uncle's home in Llandudno.
Hughes, then aged 35, was convicted at Chester Crown
Court of rape and murder. He was given three life sentences
with a recommendation from the judge that he should
never be released.
In March 1998, his appeal against conviction was rejected.
But the Criminal Cases Review Commission was called
in to reconsider his case.
Legal experts have spent more than 12 months going
over Hughes's application.
Last night spokesman David Brittain said: "The
application was subjected to a full review. At the end
of the work, we decided there were no grounds to suggest
that the Court of Appeal would have found the convictions
to be unsafe.
"We have decided to turn down his application."
Hughes has been told of the decision.
Last night, Coun Linda Groom, vice chairman of Conwy
Council's Children's Services policy panel, welcomed
the decision.
She said: "Justice has been served. I am pleased
to hear that the family will not have to go through
any more anguish.
"Perhaps this little girl can rest in peace and
the family pick up the pieces of the rest of their lives
and just remember her for what she was.
"I hope this is the end of the chapter."
But the repercussions of the abduction, rape and murder
are still being felt.
Coun Groom said: "I don't think it will ever go
away. I think it will always be with us, thinking about
this little girl. It's something that horrified the
whole of the town. I think of her so often as you travel
around the area to various parts that are connected.
"If there was anything we could do to being that
girl back we would do it. If there was anything we could
have done in the town to prevent it happening, then
we would have done it had we known someone like this
was at large."
Yesterday, Hughes' lawyer, Campbell Malone, at Stephensons
Solicitors in Bolton, was unavailable for comment. |
