‘Ordinary woman Annette destroyed by judicial system’

AN “ordinary woman” who was wrongly convicted of an arson that killed a young mother and her two children was destroyed by the British judicial system, according to a leading writer on miscarriages of justice.

Annette Hewins died in February this year, 20 years after she was jailed for her supposed role in the deaths of Diane Jones and her daughters Shauna, two, and Sarah Jane Hibberd, 13 months, at their home on the Gurnos estate in Merthyr Tydfil in October 1995.

In 1999, Hewins’ conviction for arson with intent to endanger life was quashed by the Court of Appeal, together with a similar conviction against her niece Donna Clarke.

Now writer Satish Sekar has written a searing indictment of the case in his new book, Trials and Tribulations.

Sekar writes: “On October 11, 1995, 21-year-old Diane Jones and her infant children Shauna, two, and Sarah-Jane Hibberd, 13 months, were killed as a fire ripped through their home.

“Progress on the Gurnos Fire inquiry was slow. Months after the fire, Donna Clarke... was arrested.

“Her aunt, Annette Hewins, was also arrested later – she had campaigned for her niece. The evidence against Hewins was wafer-thin. She should never have been arrested, let alone charged, but she was.

“Clarke and Hewins were acquitted of both murder and manslaughter, but found guilty of arson with intent to endanger life. They were sentenced to 20 and 13 years respectively.

“In February 1999 Clarke and Hewins appealed. It emerged that Hewins had been cross-examined on the basis of inadmissible hearsay evidence, the statements of a third party witness. The Court of Appeal held that there was a danger of the jury thinking that the claims in the statements was evidence against the accused. Admissible and inadmissible evidence had become enmeshed during the crossexamination, and the jury could not be expected to only consider the admissible evidence in those circumstances.”

More than 20 years after the fire, Johnny Jones, Diane’s father is dead. His wife Myra has died of cancer and Annette Hewins died earlier this year, just into her 50s.

Sekar concludes: “This case has split the community... Only one thing could have helped to heal the deep wounds of this case. Ironically, it’s what both sides of the divide want – justice, the conviction of whoever is responsible.”