Article: Television broadcast journalist (born 1968)
Television journalist
Raphael Rowe (born 11 March 1968) is a British broadcast journalist and presenter, who was wrongfully convicted in 1990 for a 1988 murder and series of aggravated robberies as part of the M25 Three. After nearly twelve years incarcerated, his convictions, along with those of his two co-defendants Michael J. George Davis and Randolph Egbert Johnson, were ruled unsafe in July 2000 and they were released.
Early life
Raphael George Rowe was born in South-East London and named after his father, who had emigrated from Jamaica at the age of 26. His British mother, Rosemary Prior, was 17 when she married Raphael Sr. They had three daughters before Raphael Jr was born in 1968.
Convictions
In the early hours of 16 December 1988, three masked men, one carrying a knife, another a gun, beat and tied up Peter Hurburgh and Alan Eley, who were having sex in a car parked in a field. During the attack, Hurburgh died of a heart attack. Later that morning the three men committed two home robberies and stabbed one of the occupants, 40-year-old Timothy Napier. Rowe and Davis were arrested on the morning of 19 December and Johnson on 6 January 1989. They were dubbed the M25 Three by the media, due to the locations of the crimes. They were interrogated for three days. The victims stated there were two white perpetrators and one black; however, all three defendants were black. Victims also described an attacker with blue eyes and fair hair, which matched none of the three accused. Rowe's girlfriend at the time of the attack, Kate Williamson, testified against him at trial. She later sent a letter to him in prison admitting to and apologising for lying. In March 1990 the three were sentenced to life imprisonment without parole at the Old Bailey for murder and aggravated robbery.
Appeal and release
In 1994, Davis and Rowe made an application to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). Along with errors and other evidence withheld before the trial, it had not been disclosed to Rowe's lawyers that the key prosecution witness, Norman Duncan, was a known criminal with previous convictions, and prior to the trial had become a police informant. On 16 February 2000, the ECtHR returned their judgment and found that there had been a violation of Article 6 (1) of the ECtHR, the right to a fair trial. In 1999 the Criminal Cases Review Commission referred the M25 Three case back to the Court of Appeal and on 17 July 2000 Rowe and his co-defendants were acquitted and released. Rowe has always maintained his innocence and has said he believes the police conspired with witnesses.
Career
During his incarceration, Rowe studied journalism through a correspondence course and after his release, joined the BBC in early 2001 as a reporter for BBC Radio 4.
In 2003, Rowe began presenting various BBC programmes and in 2006 joined BBC One Panorama. His Panorama documentary on the conviction of Barry George for the murder of Jill Dando was considered a significant factor in his (George's) eventual acquittal.
He became freelance in 2016 and in 2017 he was one of the celebrities who walked the Camino de Santiago in Spain for the BBC Two series Pilgrimage: The Road to Santiago.
Rowe is currently a reporter on the BBC One series The One Show and Sunday Morning Live. Since 2018, he has hosted Inside the World's Toughest Prisons, commissioned by Netflix. In August 2020 he released his podcast Second Chance.
His memoir and autobiography, Notorious, was released in December 2020. He has attributed his success as a journalist to his conviction and incarceration for a crime he did not commit.
Personal life
Rowe had been dating a woman prior to being incarcerated. He has said that they got back in contact two months after his release. They had their first child in the summer of 2004.
He stated in 2000 he has a son from a previous relationship. Rowe has said his son was reluctant to see him due to the accusations against him.
See also
Andrew Malkinson - British man wrongly convicted of rape who served 20 years in prison before his conviction was overturned.
References |
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This article is more than
23 years old
Raphael Rowe was freed as one of the M25 Three. But his fight for justice goes on
This article is more than 23 years old
Special report: race issues in the UK
Nick Hopkins , crime correspondent
Sat 22 Jul 2000 12.08 EDT
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Raphael Rowe thought the long fight to clear his name would end the day his convictions were quashed and he walked free from court.
But when the moment finally came at lunchtime on Monday - 10 years into a life sentence for a murder and robberies he insists he did not commit - the euphoria quickly turned to anger.
In his eyes, there had been another injustice. Instead of sympathising with Rowe and his co-defendants Michael Davis and Randolph Johnson, the court of appeal could not have been more grudging.
The men, known as the M25 Three, were being released only on technicalities. Lord Justice Mantell finished his judgment by saying: "This is not a finding of innocence, far from it."
That night, Rowe and Davis met at a relative's house to share a glass of champagne, but it was not much of a celebration. When Rowe, 32, woke up, he was still fighting. "I know the judges were involved in a damage limitation exercise. But what they said was diabolical.
"They didn't say I was guilty, but that's how everyone interpreted it. I have battled every day of the last 12 years to prove I was set up by the police, to prove I am not a murderer. It has been my passion. I am free now, but it's as if I'm still inside. I'm still trying to get my voice heard."
Friday, December 16, 1988 is the date which changed his life. In the early hours, three masked men, one carrying a knife, another a gun, surprised a gay couple, Peter Hurburgh and Alan Eley, who were making love in a car parked in a field near Fickleshaw, Surrey.
They were beaten and robbed. The gang poured petrol around them and someone lit a cigarette. Mr Eley passed out and when he woke his lover was dead. He had suffered a heart attack.
Next, the three men drove to a house in Oxted, 10 miles away. They stole rings and jewellery, and stabbed a man, Timothy Napier. At 5am, they robbed a couple living in a house in Fetcham, 20 miles from Oxted. The victims were certain that one, possibly two, of the robbers were white. The police were equally certain that Rowe, Davis and Johnson - three black men - were responsible.
All had criminal records; Davis, a childhood friend of Rowe's, pleaded guilty to a robbery committed days before the M25 offences. Johnson, a friend of Davis, had raped a woman on the same job. Rowe had previous convictions, one for malicious wounding.
"I've done things I regret. I was 18 in 1988, and when you are that age you are selfish and you don't realise the impact of what you are doing. You don't see the consequences. But murder is not something I could ever do."
Rowe detests Johnson. "I didn't know Randolph before all this and I don't want to know him now. We don't speak. I abhor the fact he raped a woman. We were in the same dock, but that's it as far as I am concerned."
He is increasingly estranged from Davis. Last Saturday they shared a cell at Pentonville prison for the first time in 12 years. Rowe, who was on the top bunk, woke in the middle of the night to hear Davis screaming in his sleep.
"Michael and I have developed in different ways. Prison affects everyone. I've seen some terrible things - fights where men have had boiling water thrown on them in a row over a bit of tobacco and their skin has peeled off. Some people crumble and collapse in the system. Knowing I was innocent kept me going. Perhaps Michael and Randolph didn't have that. They already had long sentences to serve for the other crimes."
Rowe was convicted chiefly on the evidence of a lover, Kate Williamson, and a man, Norman Duncan, who was living in a hostel in Sydenham, south London, with Rowe.
Williamson had spent the evening of December 15 with Rowe, Davis, and a group of friends. There were witnesses to say they were in the house from late afternoon, went out to collect videos, and returned at 12.30am.
The prosecution relied on these times being wrong. Williamson claimed Rowe left the house and returned hours later with jewellery.
Rowe says she "told a pack of lies", probably because she was jealous of his girlfriend, Nancy Stanley.
"We watched videos in bed, made love, had a smoke (of marijuana), and then fell asleep. I did get up in the night, but only to go down to Michael's room to get some more dope. Kate was out for the count."
Williamson wrote to Rowe admitting she lied, but later claimed she was coerced into doing it. "You can't believe both of us. Our stories hit head on.
"I don't know what she is doing now, whether she got married, had kids. She disappeared into the shadows after the trial. Perhaps one day she will tell me the truth. Up until our release I hated her for what she did to me."
Now Rowe's anger is focused on Duncan. During the trial, he claimed Rowe asked him to steal a Spitfire car used in the first robbery, and overheard him plotting the raids.
Rowe and his lawyers did not know Duncan was a criminal with numerous convictions who had turned police informer.
And they did not know Duncan spent two days in the rape suite at Reigate police station being informally interviewed about the M25 crimes, and that he had not initially mentioned Johnson as a suspect.
Duncan was keen to talk about rewards. He was paid £10,300 from the Daily Mail which had launched an appeal for information.
Surrey police did not disclose this at the trial - the law did not require them to, and in 1988 there were no procedures for informing the judge.
When Duncan gave evidence, he lied about his collusion with officers. The court of appeal described this as "profoundly disturbing". "It amounts to no less than a conspiracy to give perjured evidence ... it must dent the credibility both of Duncan and the police."
Duncan, who is white, stole the Spitfire. Rowe believes he was involved in the M25 robberies and concocted a story to get himself off the hook. "The police did not fit me up, as much as fit me in.
"When we found out about Duncan, everything started to make sense. The police conspired with Duncan and I now suspect they conspired with Kate Williamson. The only people who had nothing to gain from all this were the victims, who went through an horrific ordeal. They said two of the robbers were white. Why weren't they heard?"
Rowe says he will keep protesting his innocence and will seek compensation for the lost years. He does not have a career to fall back on. He has a son, aged 12, he has never seen.
"He doesn't want to know me because he thinks I am a murderer. That breaks my heart. I have been keeping a diary for the last 12 years. I was writing for him. I hope he will read the diary and realise I'm not the man he thinks I am.
"I'm still working off my anger about what's happened, but it's the final chapter. When this is over, I don't know what I am going to do with my life."
Surrey police say they are bemused by the criticism in the judgment, and will be seeking clarification. "The investigating officers were forced to keep the existence and the identity of the informant secret to protect his life. The law and procedure in place at the time was inadequate to deal with this situation."
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