I’m Jocelyn Naismith, and I’m the co-founder of The Whole Truth, a not-for-profit organization that campaigns to overturn miscarriages of justice. This is Righting the Wrongs, series 3: The Roadside Rapist Redeemed?
Chapter six: Parole
[THEME SONG – AARON NEVILLE COVER VERSION OF ‘I SHALL BE RELEASED’]
[JOCELYN]
I’m going to start this episode with a confession. The first time Gavin and his lawyers approached The Whole Truth to take on his case, we turned them down. And the second. But then the case hit the headlines again, and everything changed.
Earlier this year, when Gavin was still in Wandsworth prison, there were two horrific assaults on young women in Oxford – assaults that bore an uncanny and terrifying resemblance to the attacks Gavin was accused of. Was it a copycat or were these attacks the work of the real Roadside Rapist?
That’s when Gavin’s lawyer, Jeremy Peters, contacted us again, and it didn’t take us long to realize that this was a case that deserved our attention.
[JEREMY PETERS]
‘Gavin’s conviction was reviewed by the Criminal Cases Review Commission in 2002, but they declined to send it back to the Court of Appeal. And even though he’d been a model prisoner, he’d always refused to admit guilt, and that hampered his ability to get parole, even though he’d have been eligible for it after fifteen years. So by early 2018, we were running out of options.’
[JOCELYN]
The fact that Gavin had never wavered in his insistence on his innocence, even though that was working against him, was probably the single most important factor in our decision to take on his case. And having made that decision, we did what we always do: we went right back to the very start and looked at the whole investigation. The statements, the forensics, the witnesses. How the police carried out their enquiries, the evidence the jury were presented with in court.
And – crucially – the evidence the jury never saw at all. Because there’s an element in this case that makes it unique in our experience: the fact that one of the leading detectives subsequently had a relationship with – indeed actually married – one of the victims. And not only a victim: the victim. The woman whose intervention led the police directly to the one and only piece of forensic evidence that definitively linked Gavin Parrie to the crimes: a strand of her hair, recovered in his lock-up. Hair Gavin Parrie has always believed was planted. Possibly with Adam Fawley’s knowledge; even – perhaps – at his instigation.
[JEREMY]
‘The Fawleys’ subsequent marriage should have been grounds for appeal on its own, but they both gave sworn affidavits to the CCRC that their relationship didn’t start until after the trial was over, and this was supported by other witnesses, including several of his superior officers and partners from her law firm. The CCRC had no choice but to accept that.’
[JOCELYN]
So however uneasy we were about the possibility that the Fawleys might have colluded in planting the evidence against Gavin, we knew it would be impossible to prove it. So we turned our attention elsewhere – to what had happened in the earlier stages of the investigation.
And when we did that, it quickly became clear that Thames Valley’s case against Gavin Parrie was what we call a ‘Frankenstein file’. Sadly, we encounter this all too often in prosecutions that turn out to be miscarriages of justice: cases that have been stitched together from bits and pieces of circumstantial evidence, which appear to add up to something monstrous, but are, fundamentally, ‘made-up’.
The police claimed that Gavin Parrie was angry, volatile and resentful. That he felt let down by life and let down by women, after he was rejected first by his wife and then by Julie, his girlfriend in Cowley. In fact, they went so far as to suggest that it was this second rejection, by Julie, that triggered the first attack on Erin Pope (they even claimed that Erin had a physical resemblance to Julie, and put up pictures in court to prove it).
They also cited the extreme nature of the porn found in Gavin’s lock-up, which he has never denied was his. But using porn – even hardcore porn – doesn’t make you a rapist.
They emphasized Gavin’s lack of a steady job, which would have given him the time and flexibility to stalk his victims, and stake out the locations prior to the attacks.
And they pointed out that he had his own van, and access to his brother Bobby’s. Bobby who was a plasterer and always had calcium sulphate residue inside his vehicle.
As far as they were concerned, it all fitted.
But that doesn’t mean it was true.
We worked closely with Gavin’s lawyers on a detailed analysis of the case, which was submitted to the Parole Board as part of their review. And I’m glad to say that we were successful. Gavin was released from Wandsworth prison on May 23rd 2018. But that’s not the same as being exonerated. His conviction still stands. He has to wear an electronic tag and observe strict licence conditions, which effectively prevent him leading anything like a normal life. And that includes having the sort of ordinary social contact that other people take for granted. He had a girlfriend when he left prison, but the relationship wasn’t strong enough to withstand the difficult process of adjustment post-release, and now, once again, he’s on his own.
But with luck and perseverance this won’t be the end of Gavin’s story. We’re still supporting Gavin and his lawyers, with a view to making a second
