AN independent barrister from the Crown Prosecution Service is to review a decision to refuse access to police case files of the killing of a Derbyshire woman 41 years ago.
Stephen Downing was wrongly convicted of the murder of Wendy Sewell in 1973 and was released after being wrongly imprisoned for 27 years.
A national newspaper has today reported that a researcher who asked the CPS if he could see the files was told he would have to wait for 95 years.
The internal inquiry follows complaints against the CPS and the Derbyshire force from Mr Downing and former cold case detective Chris Clark, asking why such severe bans have been imposed on an unsolved murder case.
The newspaper report said Mr Clark, a retired Norfolk intelligence officer, believes Miss Sewell, 32, who died following a brutal attack in Bakewell cemetery, may have been the victim of Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe.
Yesterday a spokesman for the CPS said: "We have assigned an official not involved with the original decision.
"It will be an internal review of the CPS handling of the FOI request on Stephen Downing."
Miss Sewell was beaten around the head with the handle of a pickaxe and died in hospital two days after the attack on September 12, 1973.
Mr Downing was the primary suspect. He was taken to a police station, questioned for nine hours without a solicitor present and signed a confession, even though his reading age was 11.
Along with Mr Downing's family, former newspaper editor Don Hale began a campaign to have the case reopened. It was referred to the Criminal Cases Review Commission in 1997.
Mr Downing was released on appeal in 2001 after 27 years in jail. In 2002, the Court of Appeal overturned his conviction, finding it to be unsafe.
