Stephen Downing freed

Stephen Downing, jailed 27 years ago for a murder he says he did not commit, leaves Littlehey Prison in Cambridgeshire after he was freed on bail by the Court of Appeal. Downing, 44, was released from prison to await the hearing of an appeal against his conviction * ...and life jail sentence for the brutal killing of married typist Wendy Sewell. Her badly-beaten body was found in a cemetery where he worked in his home town of Bakewell, Derbyshire. Bail was not opposed by the Crown, which conceded that the appeal was highly likely to succeed in the light of serious questions raised over the admissibility of Downing's confession statements which formed a main plank of the prosecution case. 03/03/2004 Downing, who spent 27 years in prison before his notorious murder conviction was overturned, has been arrested on suspicion of intimidating and threatening a female witness in a court case, police confirmed Wednesday March 3, 2004. Downing, 47, of Bakewell, Derbyshire, has been interviewed and released on police bail in connection with the allegation (Photo by Andrew Parsons - PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images)