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	England and Wales Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) Decisions
You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> England and Wales Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) Decisions >> Terry, R v [2018] EWCA Crim 416 (1 March 2018) URL: http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Crim/2018/416.html Cite as: [2018] EWCA Crim 416

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IN THE COURT OF APPEAL
CRIMINAL DIVISION

		Royal Courts of Justice Strand London, WC2A 2LL
		Thursday, 1 March 2018

This transcript is Crown Copyright. It may not be reproduced in whole or in part other than in accordance with relevant licence or with the express consent of the Authority. All rights are reserved.

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1. MR JUSTICE NICOL: This is a renewed application for permission to appeal against conviction after refusal by the single judge and an application for an extension of time of about two and a half years within which to do so.
2. On 25 April 2014, before His Honour Judge Carey and a jury in Maidstone Crown Court, the applicant was convicted of murder.
3. On 9 May 2014, he was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 26 years.
4. The co-accused included Ritchie Zborowski; Matthew Terry, the applicant's son; and Christopher Bones. They were all also convicted of murder.
5. The victim of this murder was Gary Pocock, whose body was found on a beach near a holiday park on the Isle of Sheppey in August 2013. Pocock was naked from the waist down. He had been beaten to death and suffered multiple injuries to, among other places, his head. Two wooden baseball bats, one broken, were found nearby.
6. Further information as to the facts of this case and the evidence relied on by the prosecution and the defence are fully set out in the Criminal Appeal Office summary.
7. Grounds of appeal were submitted after a short delay by the applicant's counsel. Those grounds were rejected by the single judge. The reasons do not matter because the applicant, who has continued by acting in person, has expressly abandoned those.
8. Instead, the applicant wishes to advance his own grounds. They are also helpfully summarised by the Criminal Appeal Office, although we have also read and considered the documents which the applicant himself has submitted. In part, the applicant wishes to rely on new evidence as to the time of the height of full tide on the night that Pocock died. The applicant argues that this would undermine part of the prosecution's case, which included evidence of marks in the sand which must have occurred after the tide had receded.
9. We have also had the advantage of a respondent's notice, amended to take account of the applicant's new grounds. It is sufficient to say that, in our view, the respondent's notice comprehensively and compellingly establishes that the new evidence would not provide the applicant with an arguable ground of appeal and for that reason we are confident the full court would not admit it. Each of the applicant's other grounds are also addressed and answered.
10. In the event, we are sure that nothing in the new grounds shows a reasonably arguable basis for arguing that the applicant's conviction was unlawful.
11. Accordingly, we will refuse an extension of time and we will refuse permission to appeal against conviction.

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