Michael Stone

Michael Stone (born Michael John Goodban in 1960 in Tunbridge Wells) is a British man who was convicted of the 1996 murders of Lin and Megan Russell and attempted murder of Josie Russell. Stone was sentenced to three life sentences with a tariff of 25 years.

Stone maintains his innocence and continues to contest his conviction. Stone's legal team assert that serial killer Levi Bellfield is the true perpetrator of the attack.

Early life

Stone was born as Michael John Goodban in Tunbridge Wells in 1960, as one of five children. He had a turbulent childhood, suffering domestic violence in his family home before he was placed into a care home, where he was abused. Stone's police record dates back to the age of 12 and continued into adulthood. Once leaving the care system, Stone began using heroin and he served three prison sentences in the 1980s and 1990s for robbery, burglary, grievous bodily harm and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Prior to the murders, Stone had received support for his drug addiction and mental health problems and was under the supervision of the National Probation Service.

Murders

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. Lin, Megan and their dog Lucy were killed but 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.

Trial, conviction and appeal

In July 1997, police arrested and charged 37 year-old Michael Stone with the crimes after a tip-off resulting from a reconstruction on the Crimewatch television programme. Stone pleaded not guilty at his original trial in 1998, but was convicted based on the testimony from a witness, Damian Daley, who claimed that Stone had confessed to him while in prison. The conviction hinged on witness testimony because there was no forensic evidence linking Stone to the crime.

The Court of Appeal ordered a retrial in February 2001 after a key prosecution witness went back on his evidence and another witness's credibility was called into question, 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. 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.

Mental health inquiry

Following Stone's conviction, an inquiry was held into the care he received for his drug addiction and mental health problems. Stone had reportedly threatened to kill his family and criminal justice staff in a conversation with a psychiatric nurse five days before the murders of Lin and Megan Russell. The inquiry found failings in his care, but said that Stone's case was "emphatically not a case of a man with a dangerous personality disorder being generally ignored by agencies or left at large". Shaun Russell disagreed with the report's conclusion that the murders could not have been prevented.

In response to Stone's conviction, Alan Milburn (then Health Secretary) proposed a reform of the Mental Health Act 1983. The White Paper proposal sought to reform the 1983 MHA's "treatability test", which stated that only patients whose mental disorders were considered treatable could be detained. Individuals diagnosed as psychopathic or with anti-social personality disorder, such as Stone, could not be detained because these conditions were not considered treatable. The proposed changes were intended to allow the government to detain individuals who had not committed a crime. The proposed measures were described as "draconian" and a number of changes were made before the bill was finally passed as the Mental Health Act 2007.

Claim of innocence

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 was described as a "career criminal" whom the Crown acknowledged "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, but Stone's legal team asked the Court to reconsider based on the testimony of a new witness, who had come forward to say that the prisoner Stone allegedly confessed to was lying. The Court of Appeal found that the Criminal Cases Review Commission was entitled not to find the new witness's evidence credible based on the length of time it had taken the witness to come forward.

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; however, the lace 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. The Telegraph summarised the television programme by 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.

On 29 November 2017, BBC Wales reported that Levi Bellfield allegedly confessed to the murders to a fellow prisoner, giving details that "would only be known by the killer". Bellfield denied that he committed the murders and denied making the confession.