Fair Trial for Ricky Percival

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On December 2006, my son, Ricky Percival, who was then 25 years old, was sentenced to four life sentences with a minimum of tariff of 28 years for a string of crimes he did not commit. It was completely based on evidence that didn%u2019t exist. The false charges include; the murder of Dean Boshell; attempted murder of three members of the Tretton Family; possession of a firearm, robbery, and perverting the course of justice. The conviction is based a statement from Damon Alvin, the original prime suspect in this murder enquiry. Unfortunately for my son, Damon was acting as a police informant in order to clear his own name.

In the criminal world, it is common knowledge that when you are in serious trouble with the police, an easy escape route is to become a police informant and help them clear up outstanding unsolved crimes. Overnight he went from being prime suspect to an informer of various serious crimes that had taken place over the previous seven years. In order to protect himself, Damon had to name an accomplice who played a more significant part in the crimes than himself, on the understanding that he would get a shorter sentence. Damon was described by the judge himself as %u2018an exceptionally clever man%u2019.

Damon Alvin used his year on remand to develop this false story which guaranteed his short term freedom. This story changed several times as per the records of his statements.  The prison guards commented on the state of his prison cell saying it was %u2018like an incident room at a Police Station%u2019.  Photos of this were even shown to the Jury during the trial so it is clear this fairytale is not something that he created overnight.

During this trial, Damon admitted lying under oath in his previous trial where he was in front of a Judge on a drugs charge.  Worried at the time at what sort of sentence he would be given, he sent himself a wreath and using cut out letters from newspapers his wife and mother in law sent threatening letters to him to show that his life was in danger.  This convinced the Judge to give him a lesser sentence %u2013 bringing a potential seven year sentence down to just 15 months.  My question at the time was; how far would this young man be prepared to go to avoid a sentence for murder and why on earth would a Judge and Jury believe anything that this man said?

Damon Alvin gave evidence against my son, and with the knowledge of the crimes that he had himself committed. He implicated that my son was the main perpetrator in all the awful crimes that Damon had carried out, when in fact my son had nothing to do with any of them whatsoever.

During the trial, the Police also stated that my son was under constant surveillance, even on the day of the murder.  However, this surveillance stopped on that night for some reason.  Also there was a testimony from the Police saying that they only had evidence of minor crime against my son and %u2018wanted him for something big%u2019.  This is proof that Ricky was nothing more than a petty criminal not a murderer.

Two officers testified that Ricky had %u2018shown aggression towards them%u2019 in a pub but did not bring a single witness to the trial to verify this. Such a statement would have painted a bad impression of my son to the court.

The final blow to Ricky was evidence from the Tretton family, who notorious criminals in their local area. A member of this family has already served two separate manslaughter sentences.  This family holds many grudges, particularly with my son.  They said in court that someone with a similar build to my son had burst in to their home and fired a gun.  Damon Alvin admitted to being outside but was not brought in by Police at the time.  My son Ricky was, and was swabbed from head to toe for gun residue and the Police found no trace whatsoever.  In his statement, Damon said that Ricky had washed himself down from head to toe with white spirit after this supposed crime that he had committed.  Surely this would have come up on the swabs done by the Forensics?  Ricky was given three charges of attempted murder for this crime and three additional life sentences.

When the Police searched our family home where Ricky lives, no firearms were found, nor were any traces of firearms found. In fact there was nothing untoward found here whatsoever.  When the Police raided Damon Alvin%u2019s home they found three separate guns.

During the trial, the court in Chelmsford was like a fortress.  There were armed Police present and everyone was searched from head to toe every time they entered the court.  Ricky had an armed guard with him at all times.  All of this painted a picture of my son to the court that he was some kind of danger to society, yet he had no such history.  There were also claims that our family had been bribing members of the Jury %u2013 again there is absolutely no evidence to suggest this.  Finally, one thing that we were all very surprised about at the time was the Judge invited one of the members of the Jury alone in to his Private Chambers as this Jury member was supposedly sick.  We thought the Jury were totally independent and none of them would ever get the chance to speak to the Judge one on one, especially during a high profile trial.

Damon Alvin served his reduced sentence of two and a half years for perverting the course of justice, and is now living a new life with a new identity and enjoying his freedom.

My son is six years into his 28 year sentence, and in June 2010 had an appeal turned down by the High Court of Appeal.  It is now in the hands of the Criminal Cases Review Commission which is our only hope.  This can take years to finalise.

Since Ricky has been in prison he has been a model prisoner, he has been re-categorised to a B category prison which means he is not a threat.  He is liked by the guards %u2013 whilst on remand in Chelmsford the guards were so supportive %u2013 yet the prosecutors suggested that Ricky was paying these people.  No evidence was ever presented to support these ridiculous claims.  We are just a normal hard working family %u2013 we live in a three bedroom house near Southend.  How on earth were we supposed to be able to pay all these people all this money?

The prospect of not seeing my son outside of prison again frightens me.  We are all living a life sentence, the whole trial was a farce, and all I have asked for since the trial is for a fair trial %u2013 as no fair juror could see my son as guilty.  None of the evidence against Ricky is credible, there are lots of accounts and not a single bit of solid evidence.  We are the victims of Damon Alvin%u2019s deception.  This criminal has got his freedom back, he has cleared up some unsolved crimes without receiving any punishment whatsoever, in fact he has received the ultimate reward for doing so.  In the meantime, my son is in a prison cell for the most awful crimes imaginable which everyone knows he did not do, and my family has to somehow carry on living day to day with this void and terrible injustice over our heads twenty four hours a day. 

I will not give up until Ricky receives a fair trial as my son is not a murderer.

Yours sincerely

Sandy Percival