A MAN jailed 25 years ago for murder celebrated his freedom last night after his conviction was quashed because of police corruption.

Robert Brown, now 44, was jailed in October 1977 at the age of 19 for killing Annie Walsh, a 51-year-old spinster who was battered to death in her Manchester home.

He had always insisted that police bullied him into signing a false confession. And yesterday, in the first hour of a hearing at the Court of Appeal, set to last two days, he was dramatically freed by the judges who ruled that the guilty verdict against him “cannot be regarded as safe”.

Lord Justice Rose, Mr Justice Gibbs and Mr Justice Davis were told that, unknown to the jury or the trial judge, one of the police officers central to the case, Detective Chief Inspector Jack Butler, was “deeply corrupt”.

The court was told that senior detectives had faked notes of interviews to back up a confession and a key piece of forensic science evidence was never passed to Mr Brown’s lawyers. Butler was later jailed for corruption.

As Mr Brown left court surrounded by cheering campaigners, he said: “It has been like living in an abyss of hell. I would have fought this for the next 25 years if I had to.”

He added: “I feel I have been raped of my entire life and my humanity. The only thing I was left with at times was my self-belief; knowing I did not kill Annie Walsh.”

One of his first acts as a free man was to call his 74-year-old mother, Margaret, who has cancer. He told her: “Ma. That’s it. It’s over. I am free. I will be home as quickly as I can.”

She was said to have wept with relief at her Glasgow home. “My Mum has been a tower of strength and love. She . . . was given a life sentence as well. She went through the life sentence with me,” Mr Brown said.

His mother, who was too ill to attend court, said: “This means an awful lot. I will have him home with me and I will be able to see him getting on with his life at last. I was always certain he was innocent.” She added that sometimes she had wanted him to admit the crime, simply to win his freedom, particularly when his parole came up about ten years ago. But he always told her: “I would rather rot in here than admit to something I didn’t do.”

Her son is now eligible for hundreds of thousands of pounds in compensation, but his lawyers say evidence of his innocence was available 20 years ago. In 1993, the Home Office refused to refer his case to the Court of Appeal.

Mr Brown called for Greater Manchester Police to reopen the murder case and investigate senior detectives named in court for their involvement in fabricating notes of interviews and a confession.

During the hearing, Lord Justice Rose said there was a possibility that the jury would never have convicted Mr Brown if they had heard the evidence put before the appeal judges.

He said that Mr Brown was questioned by Detective Superintendent George Bethell, and Butler, who was then a detective inspector, took notes, but “apparently no one was writing anything at all”. The notes were concocted after Mr Brown had made a confession. Police said it had been dictated by him, but Mr Brown said words had been put into his mouth and that he had been intimidated into signing it.

During the murder investigation police had also questioned another man about the murder after he matched a description of someone who had been seen with Miss Walsh on the afternoon before her death.

The defence was never told that a forensic scientist had matched a fibre found on Miss Walsh’s coast with the sweater worn by the other suspect.

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