Lee Calvert loses his appeal for his murder conviction

Lee Calvert of Holm Wood was jailed for his role at the age of 23 in October 2013 in the murder of 50-year-old Barry Selby, who threw acid at him at his East Bowling home. He passed away three days later in the hospital.

Along with three other men, Calvert was convicted of murder in June 2014 and was sentenced to life for a minimum of 36 years after owning a firearm that he owned.

In July 2016, Calvert, Joseph Roether, Robert Woodhead and Andrew Feather received a bid to appeal their convictions that were rejected in the Court of Appeal by three senior judges.

In October 2023, Calvert mentioned his conviction to the Court of Appeal from the Criminal Case Review Board (CCRC).

Barry Selby (Image: News Quest)

Cowan's evidence

The ruling received this morning revealed that the basis for the appeal was that “critical prosecutor's witness” Raymond Cowan admitted that his evidence was false, saying that Selby's family and police had asked him to lie.

Cowan was visited in prison on June 8, 2021 by Guy Lambert, a private investigator led by the Calvert family.

He made a statement to a private investigator, where he confessed that he was lying on oath at Calvert's trial.

Cowan, who has been sentenced to prison for the robbery, said he lied, “I'm worried about his own safety and his sister's safety, but she's now dead so he can admit what he did.”

Investigators returned on June 22nd and signed a statement that Cowan was typed.

However, in August 2024, Cowan told his lawyer “he never said these things” when the statement was being read out.

At the appeal hearings on February 11th and 12th, Cowan denied saying he lied to the police when he was interviewed.

Calvert's family is the case's “a rather distorted and subjective outlook.”

The Court of Appeals concludes that “GL (Guy Lambert) was undoubtedly committed to acting professionally on the issues of the investigation he conducted, but he is ignorant of the “rather distorted and subjective outlook” of the Calvert family.

“As he showed, he did not question the Calvert family about the source of information about the RC's whereabouts, or the signs of the most auspicious time of speaking to him.

“It appears that GL is being the subject of instruction rather than conducting independent investigations.”

The appeals court said it “believes Cowan's evidence that he signed the statement without reading it.”

They added that Cowan “when read by him, he explicitly denied the contents of the statement.

“As a result, any withdrawal recorded in the statement will not be weighted on withdrawals that have been withdrawn as a withdrawal of evidence.”

Court of Appeals on Lee Calvert

The Court of Appeal stated:

“The safety of a conviction is intact.

“The inevitable consequence of this decision is that the appeal against the conviction will be dismissed.”

Click here to read the full judgment.

“We are, of course, very disappointed in the judgment.”

“We are, of course, very disappointed with this decision, said Charter Solicitor Simon Hustler.

“We can follow the line of inference that the court has adopted, but we have submitted that there is a stronger and more obvious line of inference that we would have found that the conviction had been overturned.

“The evidence that Calvert was convicted came from a cell confession that was allegedly made by Raymond Cowan.

“Cowan later admitted that he gave the private investigator false evidence in the original trial.

“After this approval, on further opportunity, Mr. Cowan signed a statement confirming that he had given perjured evidence.

“The private investigator turned out to be honest witnesses by the court.

“How can we misunderstand the question we asked the court that an honest witness is telling someone that he turns his face in very simple words that he lied when he gave evidence at the first trial?”