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Derek Bentley's sister dies

Thursday 23 January 1997 00:02 GMT
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Iris Bentley, who campaigned tirelessly to clear the name of her brother Derek, hanged for the murder of a policeman in 1953, has died.

Aged in her 60s, she had suffered from cancer for some time and recently had an operation for the illness, her solicitors said.

From her home in Wimbledon, south-west London, she spearheaded the 44- year effort to secure a full pardon for her brother who was the accomplice, not the gunman, in the shooting. The case was dramatised in the film, Let Him Have It, named after the alleged cry made by Bentley, then aged 19, moments before the murder.

The case will be one of the first to be presented to the Criminal Cases Review Commission for referral to the Court of Appeal when it commences its work in April.

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