A NEW campaign to prove the innocence of hanged man Alfred Moore is under way.
A Facebook group has been set up by campaigners to try and clear the name of the man convicted of killing two Huddersfield police officers.
And they plan to raise £5,000 to fund a new bid for a review to the Criminal Cases Review Commission.
They have backing from two of Moore’s nephews, who live in Australia.
One of them Stephen Pogson, who lives in New South Wales, said: “I have watched patiently from afar the frustrated efforts to have Alfred’s case reopened, in an effort to give his surviving children some relief from the intolerable burden they have carried for over 60 years.”
Another nephew, Tony Moore, is to fly to the UK in June to discuss ways of stepping up the campaign.
It was in July 1951 that two police officers, Det Insp Duncan Alexander Fraser, 46, and Pc Arthur Gordon Jagger, 42, were shot and killed whilst keeping observation on a smallholding known as Whinney Close Farm, in Kirkheaton.
The farm was owned by 36-year-old Moore and he was subsequently arrested, charged, convicted and later executed for the murders.
Former detective Steve Lawson, of Kirkheaton, has spent six years examining facts and files on the case and produced a book which insisted Moore was innocent.
Now supporters all over the world have got together to launch a Facebook campaign to prove Moore’s innocence.
A Bradford woman, Linda Holmes, set up the group.
Mr Lawson said: “She has formed the group with the intention of getting justice for Alfred Moore and his family.
“Within a very short space of time we have a membership of over 50 people, all believing that a great injustice has been done and each member has the desire to see that this injustice is put right.
“Huddersfield MP Barry Sheerman has been consulted and in turn he put the group in touch with a solicitor who deals in old cases such as that of Alfred Moore.
“The solicitor advised that the whole medical, pathology and forensic evidence be re-examined by modern day forensic experts with a view to making a fresh application to the Criminal Cases Review Commission.
To do this, we as a group are now challenged with raising £5,000. This will be achieved by donations and funding events over the coming months.
“All of this is being organised by people who have never met, as a group or individually, but who are driven by the belief that an innocent man was sent to the gallows”.
He added: “The fight to clear the name of Alfred Moore, far from being over, is just beginning .
“We believe that in the end common sense and justice will prevail and that finally Alfred can be taken from his unmarked grave in New Wortley Cemetery to a new resting place.”
The Facebook group is called Justice for Alfred Moore.
