August 19, 1985: A 20 year old student nurse is allegedly sexually assaulted after alighting from a bus in Bromley, Kent. On July 21, 1986, Roy Burnett is convicted of rape, buggery and assault occasioning actual bodily harm. He is given a life sentence. He does not appeal his conviction, but on January 22, 1987, the Court Of Appeal dismisses his appeal against sentence in strong terms. At that time he was 43 years old, and his antecedents included two indecent assaults. He was deemed “a psychopathic dullard and patently a danger to the community, particularly to young, unsuspecting females.”
In 1998, the same woman made a false rape allegation in a different part of the country. This led to the Metropolitan Police re-opening this case, and for once both they and the lawyers acted with commendable integrity. In April 2000 at the age of 56, Roy Burnett was freed when the Crown told the Court Of Appeal that it was unable to argue that his conviction was safe.
This legal document concerns the medical evidence presented at the 2000 appeal.
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