Family welcomes review chance to clear name of hanged farmer

THE case of a Yorkshire poultry farmer hanged in 1952 for murdering two police officers is to be reviewed by the public body which investigates possible miscarriages of justice.

Alfred Moore went to the gallows at Armley jail in Leeds still protesting his innocence to the charge of shooting dead two police officers during a police stake-out at his farm in Kirkheaton, Huddersfield.

He was 36 and left behind a wife and four young daughters.

Now the case is to be given a full review by the Criminal Cases Review Commission.

It follows an unofficial re-investigation of the case by two former West Yorkshire Police detectives, Steve Lawson and the late Colin Van Bellen.

As previously reported in the Yorkshire Post, the former detectives concluded that Moore, a self-confessed burglar, did not get a fair trial and was probably not the man who shot the officers.

Mr Lawson says there was no evidence that Moore had carried or fired a gun that night and the prosecution failed to disclose vital evidence to Moore’s lawyer.

He has uncovered discrepancies between original police statements and what the jury was told.

In July, Mr Lawson handed a huge dossier of information, much of it never publicly aired or seen by the jury, to the CCRC in Birmingham.

Last night Mr Lawson welcomed the CCRC’s decision to review the case.

He expects it could take another 12 months for a decision on whether the case should be passed to the Court of Appeal.

“I’m very pleased for Alfred Moore’s daughters and indeed the whole Moore family.

“I have spoken to each of the daughters and their reaction, as one would expect, is of immense joy and gratitude that at last a public body will give them the

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