Murder: determining the impact of fresh evidence: R v Ishtiaq Ahmed [2002] EWCA Crim 2781

On 17 October 1989 the victim, David Pickering, was strangled to death. He had been renting a bedsit in Reading from the appellant for several months. D was convicted of the murder and sentenced to life imprisonment in January 1991 and had an appeal against his conviction dis-missed in February 1995. The case was referred back to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission on one ground, namely that an important prosecution witness, Mrs Pun, had told D's sister following the first appeal that she had given false evidence at trial.