10 August 1998
MICHAEL SINGH was sentenced to life imprisonment at Leeds Crown Court on 20 June 1989 for the murder of Dalwinder Singh (no relation) at the Barrack Tavern Pub in Bradford on 25 February 1988.
The police and prosecution claimed that Michael had a motive for the attack on Dalwinder. On 18 October 1987 Dalwinder was part of a group of several men who attacked Michael, who was with his two young sons. As a result of this attack Michael had to have nearly 40 stitches in his head.
On the day of Dalwinder's death the case against Michael's attackers had been sent to the Grown Court. Michael had been told that he would probably receive around £18,000 for his injuries. As Michael said: "As far as 1 was concerned justice had been done."
On the night of the murder two other men were in the pub who had a dispute with Dalwinder. Harjinder Singh and Ghazanfer Ali had a milk round. Dalwinder had been working for them and they were alleging that he had stolen £300 from them. Harjinder also received a life sentence for the murder.
A fracas began in the pool room of the pub. After being stabbed twice (with different knives) Dalwinder ran screaming from the pool room and collided with Michael who was in the main bar.
Only the knife that fatally wounded Dalwinder in the chest was found at the scene. When the police arrived a WPC picked up the knife with her hand and put it in a paper bag. The Justice for Michael Singh Campaign believes that the WPC contaminated this piece of evidence.
Michael asked for the knife to be fingerprinted to prove he had not touched it. The Crown Prosecution Service said at the trial that the handle of the knife was 'not conductive' to forensic testing.
After the trial, despite a verbal agreement not to, the police destroyed the knife. An independent forensic expert has since proved that this type of knife could quite easily be tested for fingerprints. At the trial it was a male PC who gave evidence, under oath, about the retrieval of the knife.
On the night of the murder Michael was wearing a grey/maroon cotton jacket. The prosecution said he was one of the attackers who wore a brown leather jacket. Michael's clothes were never used as evidence at the trial and have probably been destroyed.
The most damaging evidence against Michael was that of Gulcharan Singh. In his original statement he didn't say anything about Michael having a knife. 16 months later at the trial he claimed he saw Michael stabbing Dalwinder. Another prosecution witness also changed his statement and implicated Michael. When asked at the trial why he had not mentioned this in his original statement to the police, he claimed that he had, but that the police must have forgotten to write it down! Both these men were friends of Dalwinder's.
Gulcharan was also a police suspect in the intimidation and assault of a witness to the murder. Attempts were made to force this man to give evidence against Michael. No charges were brought against Gulcharan for this assault. If charges had been brought he could not have been a prosecution witness against Michael. The same police officer was in charge of both cases.
Michael naively went to trial believing that his innocence would be proved. However, due to major errors by the police, the destruction of evidence and an inadequate legal counsel who failed to challenge prosecution evidence, Michael was wrongly convicted.
Another of Michael's co-accused, Rashpal Singh Narwal, has come forward and made a clear statement that Michael Singh did not kill Dalwinder. At the time of the trial he was told not to mention this by his defence counsel.
How the papers reported the trial
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