Barlow loses final murder appeal

Convicted double murderer John Barlow has lost his final bid to have his convictions overturned, after the Privy Council in London ruled against his appeal yesterday.

The five law lords who heard Barlow's appeal announced that while he had an arguable case, on the evidence he was properly convicted by the jury.

"The board accordingly concludes ... that, while the introduction of the misleading evidence ... was indeed a miscarriage, no substantial miscarriage of justice actually occurred," the judgment said.

Barlow's lawyer, Greg King, appealed to the council in February to have the murder convictions quashed.

Mr King rubbished FBI forensic evidence that led a jury to send his client to prison.

After twice going through trials that ended in hung juries, Barlow was jailed for the murder of Wellington father and son Eugene and Gene Thomas in 1994.

Mr King's first victory was for the law lords to hear the petition for special leave to appeal, and to consider evidence the New Zealand Court of Appeal would not hear when it denied Barlow an appeal in March last year.

Mr King told the law lords that crucial evidence relating to the weapon and bullets that killed the Thomases had been falsely linked to Barlow, a former antiques dealer, who is serving a minimum term of 14 years' jail in Rimutaka Prison, Upper Hutt.

Mr King said evidence given by FBI agent Charles Peters had been flawed and that had unduly influenced the jury at Barlow's third trial, after the juries at the two previous trials had failed to reach a verdict.

The tests have since been discredited worldwide for providing a high number of false matches.

The Crown case in all three trials hinged on proving that Barlow's CZ27 pistol, and related bullets and a silencer, was the murder weapon.

Mr King would not comment on the Privy Council's verdict. He said he would comment after reading the full ruling.

- NZPA