Bakewell murder case reporter investigated over feud

A feud has arisen from the reinvestigation of the flawed Stephen Downing murder conviction, with two men filing formal complaints to police, it was revealed yesterday.

As an independent advisory group ratified Derbyshire police's assertion two weeks ago that Mr Downing remained the only suspect in the case, detectives said Don Hale, the journalist who campaigned for his release, and David Sewell, the murder victim's widower, had filed separate complaints against each other.

Mr Sewell alleges Mr Hale, 50, who was awarded OBE for his campaign to overturn Mr Downing's conviction, may have perverted the course of justice or attempted to pervert the course of justice.

Mr Hale, meanwhile, asserts that he has experienced threatening behaviour from Mr Sewell. The former editor of the Matlock Mercury newspaper also believes there may be a civil case for malicious falsehood or defamation.

Derbyshire police said it had launched inquiries into the complaints, which arise from their reinvestigation of the 1973 murder of Wendy Sewell in Bakewell cemetery, Derbyshire. Mr Sewell and Mr Hale would only be interviewed if officers established that any criminal offences had been committed, the force said.

Mr Hale's defamation complaint relates to allegations in the report – picked up by Mr Sewell – that interviewees said to have contributed to Mr Hale's book about the case claimed later they had not spoken to the journalist at all.

"I know my submissions were fair. They helped overturn the conviction and I dispute all allegations that I have distorted evidence," Mr Hale said. When the report came out last month, Mr Sewell immediately called on Derbyshire police to consider prosecuting Mr Hale for perverting the course of justice. Privately, detectives have indicated that such a course of action is unlikely as an offence would be difficult to prove.

Two weeks ago, a "bitter and angry" Mr Downing said that he, too, would lodge a complaint – against Derbyshire police – after officers said that he was the only suspect for the killing of Mrs Sewell. Mr Downing, who is from Bakewell, served 27 years in prison for the crime before he was released on appeal and his conviction ruled unsafe at the Court of Appeal last year.

But police confirmed that no new correspondence about the reinvestigation has been received from Mr Downing.

Meanwhile, an independent advisory group – which included Mr Downing's media solicitor, Richard Cramer – ratified the findings of the Derbyshire police reinvestigation report.

The report listed Mr Downing's recent confession to his father among reasons why he remains their only suspect in the case. According to the report, Mr Downing, 46, was at his flat in Chesterfield last summer when he told his father, Ray, to sit down as he had "something to tell him" and admitted to the murder of legal secretary Wendy Sewell, who was bludgeoned to death with a pickaxe handle. Mr Downing's father reported their conversation to Detective Chief Superintendent David Gee, who has led a 10-month reinvestigation.

In a statement, the advisory group said yesterday: "We are satisfied with the integrity of the police procedures and the rigour of the reinvestigation."

Mr Cramer, who represents Mr Downing, said: "Mr Downing is being advised by other solicitors about making any complaint against police."