Wrongly jailed Scot is found dead

THE sudden death of a Scot who spent ten years in jail for a murder he did not commit is being probed by police.

Steven Johnston, 54, was found in a flat in Weston Favell, Northamptonshire, last month. Police are treating his death as ‘unexplained’.

He had first travelled to Spain then moved to Northamptonshire after being released in 2006 with co-accused Billy Allison in one of the first significant interventions by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission.

In its view – backed up by a High Court appeal – Mr Johnston and Mr Allison had been denied a fair trial in 1996.

They were accused of murdering alcoholic Andrew Forsyth during a drink-fuelled row in his home in Dunfermline.

Appeal judges agreed that vital police evidence had been suppressed, showing Mr Forsyth was still alive a week after the alleged murder, and that witness statements had been altered and another one falsified.

Former Fife Constabulary detective chief superintendent Richard Munro was jailed for five years in 2012 for withholding evidence.

While Mr Allison managed to move on with his life, Mr Johnston struggled to cope and became caught in a spiral of drink and drugs.

He claimed there was not a proper system of support for people who have been wrongly jailed after they are freed. In 2012, he said: ‘You get abandoned. When offenders come out they get all the help they need, whereas we got no support. I thought that by now I would have moved on with my life but I haven’t.’

The Miscarriage of Justice Organisation, which helps counsel innocent people after time spent in prison, tried to help Mr Johnston re-build his life.

Last night, the project’s co-manager Paul Mclaughlin said: ‘We are all shocked but not surprised at Steven’s death. People suffer post-traumatic stress disorder related to their wrongful conviction and go on to require treatment for the rest of their life.

‘What happened to Steven is a common outcome.’