Michael Stone (murderer)

Early life

One of five children, Stone was born as Michael John Goodban in Tunbridge Wells in 1960. He had a turbulent childhood, with his parents separating and his mother marrying a total of four times. He was placed into a care home where he was physically and sexually abused. Stone's police record dates back to the age of 12 and he became involved in shoplifting and burglary which continued into adulthood. Once leaving the care system Stone began using heroin.

Stone served three prison sentences in the 1980s for robbery, burglary, grievous bodily harm and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Murder

On 9 July 1996, in a country lane in Chillenden, Kent, England, Lin Russell, aged 45, her two daughters, six-year-old Megan and nine-year-old Josie and their dog Lucy, were tied up and savagely beaten with a hammer in a robbery attempt. Lin, Megan and their dog Lucy were killed but, despite appalling head injuries, Josie survived and went on to make an excellent recovery. Josie's recovery and the way she and her father, Shaun Russell, coped with the aftermath of the tragedy were the subject of a BBC documentary. Father and daughter had by then moved to the Nantlle Valley in Gwynedd, Wales.

Trial and consequences

The crime received a great deal of publicity and in July 1997 police arrested and charged 37 year-old Michael Stone with the crimes. Stone pleaded not guilty at his original trial in 1998 but was convicted on the strength of testimony from a witness who claimed that Stone had confessed to him while in prison. Stone was sentenced to life imprisonment.

It was later determined that Stone had previous convictions and had been diagnosed as a psychopath, and in the light of his conviction the Labour government suggested a plan to reform the Mental Health Act 1983. Their proposal sought to reform the 1983 MHA's "treatability test," which stated that only patients whose mental disorders were considered treatable could be detained. Because certain types of personality disorder are not considered treatable, patients with these conditions, including Michael Stone, could not be detained.

In response to the Michael Stone case and other widely publicised reports of mentally ill people committing atrocious crimes, the government wanted to allow those diagnosed with schizophrenia or personality disorders with a tendency towards violence to be detained against their will in mental health hospitals without having actually committed a crime. The reforms, ultimately enacted as the Mental Health Act 2007, changed the "treatability test" into an "appropriate medical treatment test."

Under this new test, patients can be detained against their wishes as long as there is a medical treatment available to them that can alleviate or prevent the worsening of the disorder or one or more of its symptoms. There is no longer a requirement that treatments actually work, nor is there a requirement that patients participate in the treatment (ex: with talking therapies and other therapies that require active participation by the patient), merely that the treatment is considered appropriate, and is readily available to the patient.

Appeals and later developments

The Court of Appeal later ordered a retrial after a key prosecution witness went back on his evidence, but Stone was convicted a second time in 2001. Lawyers for Stone once again argued that his trial was not fair, this time because of the way the trial judge had summed up the case. Stone lost, and his life imprisonment term stands. On 21 December 2006, a High Court judge decided that Stone should spend at least 25 years in prison before being considered for parole, meaning he is likely to remain in prison until at least 2023 and the age of 63.

Stone continues to argue that his conviction is a miscarriage of justice on the grounds that the evidence against him came from another prisoner, who "would lie when it suited him". In 2010 the Criminal Cases Review Commission announced that it would not refer the case back to the Court of Appeal because it had found no new evidence to justify making a referral. Stone had asked the CCRC to re-examine a 1 metre (3 ft 3 in) long boot lace which had been dropped at the scene of the crime by the murderer. It had DNA from a number of males which could not be linked to Stone. The prosecution at trial had argued that the DNA must have belonged to one of Stone's friends. The lace however proved to be missing and so the CCRC were not able to re-examine it using modern DNA techniques. They did re-examine the ends of a swimming towel which had belonged to the victims and which had been torn into six strips by the perpetrator. Male DNA readings were detected at both ends of the strips, but the DNA once again did not belong to Stone, who has argued that Levi Bellfield should be investigated for the killings.

In May and June 2017 the case was scrutinised in The Chillenden Murders, a two-part BBC Two programme in which a team of independent experts re-examined the evidence. Daily Telegraph summarize the television program in writing, stating "According to the BBC, new details, uncovered during the making of the documentary, raise the possibility that the wrong man may have been convicted." Two of the legal experts who took part in the programme – prominent defence barrister Stephen Kamlisch and legal expert Sheryl Nwosu – believe there are significant doubts regarding the conviction and are now working on Stone's behalf to have the case re-examined with the aim of launching a third appeal against the conviction.

Report

A report into the murders for which Stone was convicted has made a number of criticisms of the handling of his case, including a failure to share information between agencies.

Recent events