The committee was established to follow on from the investigations into the wrongful accusation of Adolf Beck by the Court of Appeal of England and Wales in 1907.
The Devlin report submitted to the committee was made after a number of cases where identity parades led to the mis-identification of a suspect.
These included Adolf Beck, Oscar Slater, Luke Dougherty and Laszlo Virag, cases ranging from 1908 to 1972.
[1]The Devlin committee and its actions were highlighted in the media more recently, in 2005, following the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes and the rapid growth of an eye-witness reports that were later found to be exaggerated or false.
[2] A previous Devlin Committee was appointed by the Ministry of Labour in October 1964 to look into disputes, decasualisation and dissension in the port transport industry.