Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Michael Stone’s solicitor seeks tests on murder site lace
Police reject need for further analysis Exclusive Chris Pragnell
Hammer murderer Michael Stone’s lawyer is calling on police to release a 66cm shoelace found at the crime scene and feared lost.
Saturday marks the 20th anniversary of the notorious double killing of Lin Russell and her sixyear-old daughter, Megan.
The pair were bludgeoned to death with a blunt instrument on a remote country lane in Chillenden near Canterbury.
Lin’s elder daughter, Josie, aged nine at the time, miraculously survived the frenzied attack, in which the family dog was also slaughtered.
Detectives at the scene found a length of lace thought to have been tied around Megan’s neck.
While forensic specialists carried out “exhaustive tests” on the lace more than a decade ago, Stone’s solicitor, Paul Bacon, believes it may yield clues that could cast doubt on his client’s conviction.
He told the Gazette: “The shoelace was used in the murders. It was tied around one of the victims and left at the scene.
“On it were items of DNA, some of which were identified at the time. Others we think might now come to the surface using modern techniques.”
Stone, a drug addict from Gillingham with convictions for violence, was arrested a year after the attack and charged with the murders.
‘If they have the lace, then why not allow modern testing?’
He was convicted by a jury and remains behind bars but has always claimed he was not responsible.
Mr Bacon says confusion surrounds whether or not police have lost the lace, and he has written to the chief constable of Kent Police requesting access to it.
A police spokesman said: “The shoelace seized as part of the original investigation has not been lost.
“It has been subject to exhaustive examinations.
“All evidence from those examinations has been recorded and disclosed.”
He added that police were “not looking for anyone else in connection with the case in which Stone was convicted”.
Stone had his original conviction quashed in 2001 but was found guilty for a second time at retrial.
Mr Bacon believes evidence contained on the shoelace could support his client’s claims of innocence.
“‘Exhaustive’ testing in 1998 is a very different proposition to exhaustive testing in 2016,” he said.
“If they have the lace, then why not allow modern testing?”
A letter of May 25 requesting access to the lace has not received a response from the chief constable, he added.
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