Michelle Diskin Bates does mention Jeffrey Archer in her book but no mention of her brothers alleged attempted suicide?
There’s also no mention of Don Hale?
“Don Hale, who shot to fame when he helped clear Stephen Downing of the 1973 "Bakewell murder" of Wendy Sewell, says he now has evidence suggesting Barry George, the man convicted of Jill Dando's murder, did not shoot the BBC presenter.
Hale, who was asked by George's family to investigate the case, was visiting the area to speak to journalism students at Salford University last Friday. He explained how he was the only journalist to have visited George in prison, and did not believe he was guilty.
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/local-news/don-digs-deep-to-help-case-1157985
“I was called in after he lost his appeal and pretty much had to start from scratch," he said. "I was the only journalist that was allowed to see Barry and I spent three hours with him.
https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/freedom-bid-man-who-shot-2933917
“Don Hale is undoubtedly best known for his involvement in the cases of wrongly convicted murderers Stephen Downing and Barry George who were both released after the tireless work of Don and others in over-turning a gross miscarriage of justice
http://www.donhale.co.uk/
Stephen Downing - Another murder conviction overturned on a technicality and claimed to be a miscarriage of justice
“In a report on a new inquiry into the killing, made public this morning, Derbyshire Police Deputy Chief Constable Bob Wood said: "Wendy Sewell was a young woman in the prime of her life who was robbed of her future as a result of a vicious attack.
"We have carried out an extremely thorough reinvestigation and have been able to eliminate 22 individuals from the inquiry.
"Despite the lengthy investigation, we have not been able to eliminate Stephen Downing from the inquiry."
Mrs Sewell, who was 32, was bludgeoned to death in the grounds of Bakewell Cemetery in September 1973 as she took a lunchtime stroll.
Police said today that they had asked to interview Mr Downing under caution as part of the six-month reinvestigation, but that he had refused.
Officers wanted to question him about three confessions he is alleged to have made since his release, including one recorded on audio tape.
"Throughout the re-investigation, Stephen Downing has maintained a good working relationship with the investigating officers," said the report.
"He provided his fingerprints for elimination purposes but refused to be interviewed following consultation with his legal representatives.
"Under English law, Mr Downing can only be compelled to be interviewed under caution if he was under arrest.
"Following the quashing of his conviction by the Court of Appeal, Mr Downing cannot be re-arrested, or indeed tried, for the murder of Wendy Sewell."
Police said they wanted to ask Mr Downing about admissions in a taped telephone conversation between himself and former girlfriend Christine Smith in June 2001 and about two subsequent admissions to his father.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-167704/Downing-murder-suspect.htmlhttps://www.scotsman.com/news/uk-news/man-admitted-bakewell-tart-murder-1-569524“Police are examining a tape recording in which Stephen Downing, whose conviction in the 1973 Bakewell graveyard murder was quashed by the Court of Appeal this year, allegedly confesses to the crime.
Detectives, who reopened their investigation into the murder last month following intense media speculation that the "real" murderer was still at large, were handed the tape last Thursday. Officers examining the recording said last night that it "appeared to be genuine".
The recording is apparently of conversations between Mr Downing, 45, and Christine Smith, his girlfriend, and was made following his release last year.
A police spokesman said: "We have received a tape in relation to the reinvestigation of the 1973 murder of Wendy Sewell and are examining it."
Although Mr Downing cannot be tried for the murder again, the appearance of fresh evidence may have an impact on his attempt to claim up to £1 million in compensation for his time spent in prison
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1395343/Bakewell-murder-officers-study-taped-confession.html“THE man cleared of the so-called Bakewell Tart murder after serving 27 years in jail has apparently said that he did commit the crime.
Stephen Downing made the admission of guilt to his father, Ray, six weeks ago as they drove to a restaurant.
However, since the incident, Downing has retracted his statement, claiming he made it up after being "manipulated" by his girlfriend, Christine Smith, a self-styled mystic.
It is the second time in several weeks that Downing is reported to have admitted to the killing.
Last week, it was revealed that Smith secretly recorded a conversation in which Downing appears to admit to killing Wendy Sewell, whose body he found in a graveyard in 1973.
Describing the latest admission in a Sunday newspaper, his father claimed: "Christine suddenly said to him, ‘Go on, tell your dad, go on ...’
"Steve just looked out of the window with a strange look in his eyes and said, ‘I did it’.
"I looked at him and just said ‘What?’. He said, ‘I killed Wendy, dad’."
“He is the victim of Britain's longest miscarriage of justice and she was his lifeline, maintaining her love for him and her belief in his innocence through his years in jail.
But when the Court of Appeal quashed Stephen Downing's life sentence last year, a very different woman was waiting for him back in their Derbyshire home town: one who was not afraid to manipulate, deceive and, eventually, make secret recordings she said could send the man she claimed to love straight back to prison.
Christine Smith, a 43-year-old, twice divorced grandmother, has spent the past eight years working her way into Downing's life, playing on the knowledge that Downing, imprisoned in 1973 for the murder of Wendy Sewell, had never had a girlfriend and was desperate to settle down.
Although the relationship is now over, Smith has insisted her declarations of love were genuine. Downing himself, however, with his family and friends, is adamant the entire relationship was false and calculated.
'Some people worried that she was more interested in a share of the millions of pounds Stephen is likely to receive in compensation payments,' said Don Hale, former editor of the Matlock Mercury who spent eight years campaigning for Downing's release.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/jun/02/ameliahill.theobserver“The Government have talked about readjusting the balance of the criminal justice system to tip the scales in favour of the victims of crime - so where is the justice for Wendy and her family in all this?'
Former Detective Chief Superintendent David Gee, who has now retired, said he was convinced Mr Downing still had a case to answer.
He claimed the Crown Prosecution Service had agreed there was a reasonable chance of securing a conviction against Mr Downing after his review of the case, but had now gone back on that view, without explanation.
Mr Gee said: 'The question that must be asked is why the CPS changed its mind?'
Last night, legal sources said that as Mr Downing had served 27 years in jail already, it was not in the public interest to bring fresh charges against him.
Mrs Sewell, a 32-year-old typist, was bludgeoned to death in the cemetery where Mr Downing worked in his home town of Bakewell, Derbyshire.
He confessed to attacking and sexually assaulting her, but later retracted his statement. He was jailed for life in 1974.
The Court of Appeal released Mr Downing in February 2001 and formally quashed the conviction as 'unsafe' the following year.
Yesterday, Mr Downing's mother Juanita confirmed her son had received the settlement within the last few weeks.
'He has bought a new Mitsubishi Shogun and now he is looking for a new place to buy,' she said.
A Home Office source confirmed the total settlement, which includes the interim payment, was close to £750,000.
The payment will be an embarrassment for the Government which has been working on a series of measures designed to prevent compensation payments to unworthy cases
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/500000-payout-for-bakewell-tart-murder-suspect-7175183.html“His cause was taken up decades later by Don Hale, a local journalist, who claims that the "real" murderers are a cabal of influential figures in the Bakewell area who had been having secret relationships with Mrs Sewell. Mr Hale, who has written a book about his theories, alleged that she had been promiscuous and dubbed her "The Bakewell Tart".
The police are reinvestigating the case, although detectives say that there are no new suspects for the killing.
Miss Smith claims that she made the tape for her own protection. She said: "I told Stephen once, because he started getting nasty with me, that I had got a tape. When he got quite panicky about it I just told him it was a fabrication on my part and that I had just said it for my own protection."
In fact, the tape did exist and Miss Smith's concerns over him eventually compelled her to take it to the police on May 23.
She said: "I have always thought he was a risk. I have not come out of this yet."
Miss Smith, who was not paid for her interview with this newspaper, said: "People will think I have done all this for the money but I haven't. I have been dragged through the dirt over this.
"People have thought that Stephen and me were together in a relationship and it is in Stephen's mind that we are still together. I have had to go through all of this, but the way I look at it, it is like this - do I betray one person, or do I betray the world?
"I know I have left myself wide open and I might be painted in a bad light by some people but I have had to do what I have had to do."
Miss Smith, a divorcee with two daughters, came into contact with Mr Downing after meeting Mr Hale. She wrote to Mr Downing in prison and they struck up a friendship which burgeoned into a relationship. On his release, he regularly visited her home and repeatedly asked her to marry him. Recently, however, they had argued frequently and the relationship had broken down.
Miss Smith claims that when Mr Hale heard about the tape he became nervous. "I had Don Hale on the telephone and he's been getting panicky because of what is on the tape. I suppose he has got a lot to lose by it. But he put me in his book and I didn't even know I was going into it. He portrayed me as a tart in the book, which I am not happy about."
Although Mr Downing cannot be tried for the murder again, the appearance of the fresh evidence may jeopardise his claim for up to £1 million in compensation. He has already received an interim payment of £260,000, much of which has been swallowed up by his legal fees.
When judges heard his appeal case they were careful not to proclaim him innocent and drew attention to the fact that he had admitted sexually molesting Mrs Sewell as she lay dying, although he later retracted this.
Mr Downing says he feels betrayed by Miss Smith, saying that she "tricked" him into admitting the murder. "She was on and on at me and I just blurted it out to see how she would react. I was stupid but I just wanted to test her love for me."
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1396089/I-feared-for-my-safety-says-Bakewell-tape-woman.html“THE FATHER of Stephen Downing has been jailed for eight months after admitting a sex attack on a teenage girl.
Ray Downing, 69, of Bakewell, Derbyshire, claimed he had been asked to give sex lessons to a girl suffering from learning difficulties.
Stephen Downing's murder conviction for killing Bakewell typist Wendy Sewell in 1973 was overturned by Court of Appeal judges last year.
Derby Crown Court heard that Ray Downing, who campaigned to secure his son's release after 27 years in prison, befriended the victim's mother after her marriage ended and from May 2002 began visiting the family home to do odd jobs. Sentencing, Judge Peter Stretton said: "You imposed yourself on an inadequate family and you used your dominance to behave in the way that has described to me.
"That anyone could have believed that your behaviour was sexual education is beyond belief."
Downing, who collapsed in the dock as he was sentenced, must serve an extended licence period of three years and four months and will be subject to the terms of the Sexual Offenders Act for 10 years.
He had claimed that the girl's mother, who also has learning difficulties, had asked him to offer sex education to the victim because she did not feel confident teaching her daughter.
Prosecuting, Mark Van Der Zwart, said: "She had a limited understanding of sexual activity and the defendant had said, 'Do you want me to give her some instruction?'
Eleanor Laws, in mitigation, said Downing and his family had suffered from stress as a result of the campaign to free his son from custody.
"They have over a period of 27 years undergone very serious stress battling for justice for their son Stephen," she said.
The court hearing was told 14 other allegations of indecent assault against Ray Downing will be left to lie on file.
https://www.thestar.co.uk/whats-on/downing-father-s-sex-attack-on-teenage-girl-1-318485Downing's father jailed for indecent assaulthttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/derbyshire/3253186.stm“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.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/bakewell-murder-case-reporter-investigated-over-feud-122369.html
