大象传媒

Top criminal barristers Sasha Wass QC and Jeremy Dein QC re-examine the case of an off-duty soldier who was convicted of murdering a family friend on New Year鈥檚 Eve.

Bishop Auckland, County Durham, 1934. Whilst the country was revelling on New Year鈥檚 Eve, a brutal murder was taking place in a suburban terraced house. Solicitor鈥檚 clerk Edward Frederick Herdman was at home when he was ferociously attacked with a fire poker and his throat slit with his own pocketknife. The motive seemed to be robbery.

Police quickly tracked down a man who was known to have been in Herdman鈥檚 company earlier that day, 25-year-old family friend and soldier John Stephenson Bainbridge. Bainbridge had called at the house to ask Herdman to draw up a will amid rumours that his regiment was shortly to be stationed abroad.

Bainbridge had recently been turned down for a loan and was known to be short of money, however on New Year鈥檚 Eve he was seen to be spending lavishly, including paying off the deposit on an engagement ring for his fianc茅e.

Arrested on New Year鈥檚 Day, Bainbridge was charged with Herdman鈥檚 murder and stood trial at the Durham Assizes, desperately pleading his innocence. However, his refusal to name a mysterious married woman who he said had given him the money he鈥檇 been spending on New Year鈥檚 Eve meant that Bainbridge was found guilty, and on 9 May 1935, despite thousands of protesters gathering outside Durham Prison, Bainbridge was hanged.

Now, two generations on, John鈥檚 relative Louise Bainbridge has recently learned about this chapter in her family history and has enlisted the barristers to examine the case in greater detail. The case against John Stephenson Bainbridge relied on circumstantial evidence, and Sasha and Jeremy consider the motive, the crime scene and critical handwriting evidence to try to establish whether Bainbridge鈥檚 conviction might have been unsafe.