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A murder victim’s brother has accused the justice system of failing at every level as an “innocent man” spends his twelfth Christmas and New Year languishing in prison.
Tim Darby said his brother Robert’s death 19 years ago “left a hole in our family that will never heal” after he was stabbed in the heart in a daylight altercation with two men outside a pub in London’s East End.
Eight years later, Jason Moore was found guilty of murdering Robert, 42, in the 2005 attack following a trial at the Old Bailey after an eyewitness picked him out of an identity parade. He was jailed for life with a minimum of 18 years.
However, Tim is convinced Jason, a former professional gambler, is innocent and has spent more than a decade fighting for his conviction to be overturned.
In a moving open letter to the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Justice and the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) and “all those responsible for upholding justice”, he insisted: “Jason Moore’s wrongful imprisonment dishonours Robert’s memory and mocks the justice system.”
He added: “This is not a simple mistake—it is a disgrace. Justice has failed at every level.”
Tim said losing Robert in the knife attack in Gants Hill left his family reeling, but their pain was compounded by the injustice that followed.
“For over a decade, I have fought tirelessly to expose the truth,” he said. “I have gathered evidence, enlisted experts, and knocked on every door I could find. Yet, at every turn, the system has refused to listen.
“For nearly two decades, my family and I have carried the unbearable weight of Robert’s loss, knowing the real killer still walks free while Jason Moore has now served a decade of a sentence he does not deserve.
“This is a burden no family should ever have to bear.”
He said he was speaking out because “conscience compels me”, adding that his late brother would never have wanted an innocent man to suffer in his name.
He is backing Jason’s latest bid for his conviction to be overturned, after the key witness in the case admitted he was drunk when he saw the stabbing.
“It was the blink of the eye,” the witness told investigative journalist Charles Thomson last year. “I was passing by. How could you remember things like that? And I was drunk!”
The revelation has formed the basis of an application lodged with the CCRC, which must decide if it can refer the case to the Court of Appeal.
However, Tim and Jason’s family are still waiting for the CCRC’s decision more than a year after they submitted the fresh evidence, as the review body faces a growing backlog of cases.
Tim added: “This conviction is an insult to reason and fairness, and every day the Criminal Cases Review Commission delays action deepens this failure.
“Jason Moore continues to suffer in prison for Robert’s death—a crime someone else committed.”
Tim described the evidence in the case as “undeniable” after he commissioned a two-year independent investigation into the murder by former Metropolitan Police detectives, which concluded Jason’s conviction was unsafe.
Initially, a passerby told police the knifeman was between 5ft 10 and 6ft with a shaved number two haircut, unlike Jason – who was 6ft 5 with tousled dark hair.
He was initially discounted in an identity parade a few weeks after the attack, but was picked out in a highly unusual repeat parade seven years later.
In a prison interview as he prepared to spend his twelfth Christmas behind bars this week, Jason, now 53, described the anguish of his incarceration.
“When I first got 18 years and the reality of what had happened set in… the feelings of depression and the waves of despair that sweep over you are like nothing I’ve ever felt,” he told the Romford Recorder.
“It’s a long time for something you haven’t done. It’s mentally draining. You become full of anger and rage.
“After a while I realised all these negative thoughts get me nowhere. As time goes by, you learn to adapt mentally… I have to believe that I will be free one day and be positive all the time, knowing everything that can be done is being done to save me.”
The CCRC is unable to comment on an application while a review is underway.
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