A Scot convicted 45 years ago of murdering a Northern Ireland judge's daughter has lost the first round of his appeal against the conviction. Mr Iain Hay Gordon (66) was convicted of murdering Ms Patricia Curran (19), daughter of the late Lord Justice Lancelot Curran.
The Court of Appeal in Belfast ruled yesterday that the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) has no power to look into his case because the verdict of "guilty but insane" was technically an acquittal with no right of appeal.
Mr Gordon (66) was not in court to hear the judgment but speaking from his home in Glasgow he said: "It is disappointing but I intend to fight on until I clear my name." He said he would be consulting his legal advisers to decide the next step.
Mr Gordon was a 20-year-old National Serviceman in the RAF stationed near the Curran home at Whiteabbey, Co Antrim, when he was found guilty but insane of murdering Ms Curran. The university student had been stabbed 37 times and her body was found in the driveway of her home.
Earlier this month the case was referred to the Court of Appeal for an opinion after the CCRC decided it had no legal power to investigate.
In yesterday's reserved judgment the Lord Chief Justice, Sir Robert Carswell, said: "It hardly needs to be said that we have not been concerned with the merits of the claim by Mr Gordon that he has suffered a miscarriage of justice. We have been concerned solely with the questions of law involved in the commission's reference, the major one being whether the commission is entitled to refer to the court verdicts of guilty but insane."
The Lord Chief Justice, who heard the case with Lord Justices Nicholson and McCollum, said in their opinion the commission's decision that it had not the power was correct in law.
Mr Gordon was convicted in 1953. A change in the law in 1961 altered the verdict to "not guilty by reason of insanity" which carries a right of appeal. Campaigners are now expected to press MPs to amend legislation currently going through parliament so the law can be amended retrospectively to enable Mr Gordon's case to be investigated.