Andrew Evans (born 1955) is an English soldier from Longton, Staffordshire who was wrongfully convicted and served 25 years in jail after confessing to the 1972 murder of Judith Roberts, a 14-year-old schoolgirl from a village close to the northern outskirts of nearby Tamworth.
Evans was stationed at Whittington Barracks near Lichfield – an army base in close proximity to Tamworth – when Judith was dragged from her bicycle and battered to death in June 1972.
Evans was charged with Judith's murder in October 1972 after he presented himself at a local police station, asking to see a photograph of the victim, and making a signed statement following three days of interviews in which he maintained his guilt.
Advised he had no grounds for appeal, Evans spent the next two decades in prison before his case came to the attention of the British media in 1994, and was taken up by the human rights group Justice when he contacted them about it.
Her body was discovered later the same day under a pile of hedge clippings and plastic fertiliser bags in a field adjacent to the road, and a subsequent post-mortem concluded she had been battered to death.
In addition, officers visited over 11,000 addresses as they made house-to-house inquiries, roadblocks were established in the area, and 4,200 separate pieces of evidence were followed up.
[4][5] A semi-literate,[6] nervous and socially inadequate teenager, he had joined the Armed Forces in the hope of a career, and after his discharge was treated for depression, and prescribed valium for that condition.
[4][5][6] As part of the police investigation into the murder, soldiers residing at Whittington on 7 June were required to complete a form giving an account of their whereabouts for that evening, and providing references.
Although his grandmother advised him against such action, he subsequently presented himself to officers at Longton Police Station in a distressed state, where he made his request, telling them he had dreamt of Judith: "I keep seeing a face.
[8] Evans's defence argued that he was suffering from hysterical amnesia, and had cast himself in the role of killer after witnessing the murder and failing to help Judith.
While Evans relayed his story, Elsworth took detailed notes of the case, then passed them on to John McLeod and Allister Craddock, two producers at Carlton Television.
[1] The hearing was told that in 1972 Evans had been taking medication prescribed to him for depression,[4] and the judges were critical of the manner in which the police inquiry was conducted.
"[4] The judges held that psychiatric testimony at the original trial was unreliable, and a doctor told the appeal Evans had suffered "false memory" as a result of the extreme anxiety and hysterical state he was in at the time.
[9] Following the appeal Staffordshire Police said that they had no plans to reopen their investigation into the murder of Judith Roberts, as all lines of inquiry had been exhausted at the time.
"[5] In 2014, Chris Clarke, a cold case expert and former detective with Norfolk Police, suggested the murder of Judith Roberts may be one of five additional killings committed by Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe at locations around the Midlands.