A FAMILY’S hopes of clearing the name of their executed father were dashed last night.
The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) yesterday announced it would not refer Alfred Moore’s conviction to the Court of Appeal.
The Kirkheaton man was hanged in 1952 for shooting dead two police officers the year before.
Former detective Steven Lawson persuaded the CCRC to reopen the case last year – the first step to clearing Moore’s name.
But last night a commission spokesman said: “Having carried out a thorough and independent review of the case, we have been unable to identify new evidence that is capable of raising a real possibility that the Court of Appeal would quash the conviction.”
Mr Lawson told the Examiner last night: “There’s none as blind as them that will not see.”
The Kirkheaton man informed Moore’s three surviving daughters of the bad news.
“They are a bit flabbergasted,” he said.
The CCRC has sent a letter to Mr Lawson giving the reasons for its decision.
The shock move came just before the BBC ran a 10-minute film about the case on its Inside Out programme last night.
Police suspected Moore was a prolific burglar of mills. On the night of July 14, 1951, 10 officers surrounded his farmhouse at Cockley Hill, hoping to catch him returning home with his haul.
Two officers were shot while trying to arrest a man as he approached the house.
Det Insp Duncan Fraser, 45, died at the scene and Pc Gordon Jagger, 42, was rushed to Huddersfield Royal Infirmary.
Moore was arrested at his farmhouse a few hours after the shooting – but the gun was never found. One theory is that the killer fled, leaving Moore to take the blame.
As he lay dying in his hospital bed, Pc Jagger picked out Moore from a nine-man identity parade. This evidence was crucial in securing the conviction of Moore, who was hanged at Armley Prison in Leeds in 1952.
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