'Body in carpet' killing convictions 'unsafe', court hears

Karen Price was 15 when she went missing

Two men jailed for killing a Cardiff teenager later found wrapped in a carpet have launched an appeal against their convictions.

Alan Charlton, 56, of Somerset, was jailed for life in 1991 for murdering 15-year-old Karen Price.

Co-defendant Idris Ali, 51, had his murder conviction quashed in 1994 and subsequently admitted her manslaughter.

Their lawyers told London's Court of Appeal their convictions were "unsafe".

Karen disappeared from a children's home in 1981 and her body was found wrapped in a carpet in a property in Fitzhamon Embankment eight years later.

Karen Price was found at the back of a property in Fitzhamon Embankment, Cardiff

Charlton and Ali were convicted of her murder at Cardiff Crown Court in 1991.

In 1994, the appeal court dismissed Charlton's appeal but quashed Ali's conviction and ordered a retrial, where he admitted manslaughter and was released from prison.

Charlton remains behind bars.

'Pressure'

But their case was referred to the appeal court by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which investigates potential miscarriages of justice.

Charlton's lawyers claimed on Monday police officers involved in the investigation "put pressure" on key trial witnesses.

Charlton was convicted in 1991 at Cardiff Crown Court

Some had also worked on the 1988 murder of Cardiff prostitute, Lynette White - which later triggered an investigation into alleged police corruption.

For Charlton, Louise Blackwell QC said, had jurors known about some of the police conduct in the Lynette White case at the time of their trial, they might have reached a different verdict.

The court heard that when Karen's body was found, it was so badly decomposed it was impossible to establish the cause of her death.

Excluded

The only evidence as to how she died - which pointed the finger at Charlton and Ali - was from a woman referred to in court as D.

Ms Blackwell QC said the crux of the appeal was that some of the same officers had been prepared to use unorthodox methods during the Lynette White investigation.

She said, had that been known at the time, the evidence of D may have been excluded altogether from the trial as not being credible, or could have been viewed differently by the jury.

Idris Ali's murder conviction was quashed in 1994

Three men jailed in 1990 for Lynette White's murder were released two years later, after it emerged witnesses had fabricated evidence.

Her real killer, Jeffrey Gafoor, was caught in 2003 after evidence was reviewed following DNA advances.

Several police officers were prosecuted in relation to the Lynette White investigation in 2011 but were cleared after the trial collapsed.

Ms Blackwell added: "The real evidence is knowing what these same officers had done in the Lynette White murder investigation, and that brings us squarely to what we say is the central issue in this appeal."

Ali's lawyers are yet to outline the full nature of his appeal.

The hearing continues and is expected to last all week.