Was torso case man framed?

Convicted murderers Reg Dudley and Bob Maynard have finally been cleared after serving a total of 45 years in prison for the murders of bank robber Micky Cornwall and underworld figure Billy Moseley.

The Court of Appeal quashed the convictions last week.

But the verdict came too late for Brighton pub landlord Oliver Kenny, who died of liver failure in October 1977, four months after Dudley and Maynard were jailed.

Mr Kenny's name was dragged into the case by an anecdote told by key prosecution witness Anthony Wild.

He was never able to contradict the evidence because he was soon arrested over an armed robbery which his supporters say he did not commit.

They say the arrest was designed to keep him from the witness box as his evidence would have discredited Wild.

Wild, an armed robber from Hove, claimed Dudley had taken Moseley's head in a bag to Mr Kenny's pub, the Horse and Groom, in Brighton.

According to Wild, the landlord almost fainted when the head was placed on the bar. The tale prompted rumours the head was thrown into the sea at Brighton.

A fisherman gave evidence to describe having seen something which may have been a head bobbing out to sea.

Wild, a known informer, was described as "a reformed criminal" by the prosecution and "unbalanced" by the defence.

But his evidence was taken seriously and Maynard and Dudley were jailed for life.

Mr Kenny was prevented from giving evidence by bail conditions imposed after he was arrested in November 1976 over a jewellery robbery in London.

John Bray, of Rumbolds Lane, Haywards Heath, who campaigned for ten years for Maynard and Dudley to be cleared, says Mr Kenny is "the third victim".

Bray befriended Dudley and researched every detail of the case over the years.

He believes he was framed for the jewellery case to keep him out of court to challenge Wild's story and Mr Kenny died before he could stand trial on the jewellery charge.

It was only six weeks after the convictions that Wild's claims about the head were demolished.

Moseley's head was found on a lavatory seat in north London.

The skull was covered by a plastic bag and wrapped in a copy of The Evening News dated June 16, 1977 - a day the jury had spent considering their verdict.

It had been kept in a freezer for three years.

But the discovery did not lead to the case being reopened and a traumatised Mr Kenny drank himself to death.

Wild then admitted in 1980 he invented the Brighton pub story.

Mr Bray said: "If Mr Kenny had been given the chance to give evidence Wild would have been discredited immediately.

"Oliver Kenny, who never had a criminal conviction of any kind, was the third victim of this outrageous affair.

"He died at 6am. By 8am there were detectives at his house going through his things while his bed was still warm.

"They must have been worried he'd left a note revealing how he'd been used to frame Dudley."

Police investigations began when Moseley's torso was washed up in Essex on October 5, 1974.

He had been missing after being released from Bedford prison.

Moseley had been friends with Bob Maynard since childhood. Maynard and Dudley became friends while Moseley was in prison.

Micky Cornwall, another of of Moseley's friends, was released from jail on October 18.

Cornwall's body was found in woodland in Hertfordshire on September 7, 1975. He had been shot in the head.

At the trial, the prosecution suggested Dudley murdered Moseley due to a feud dating back to the Sixties and Cornwall was killed after investigating his friend's death.

Wild claimed Maynard and Dudley confessed to the murders at Brixton prison.

But Lord Justice Mantell, Mr Justice Holman and Mr Justice Gibbs quashed the convictions as "unsafe" last week.

Jonathan Goldberg QC, who represented Dudley in the original trial, said: "It is the greatest miscarriage of justice I have been associated with as a defence barrister."

Dudley, now 77, was released from jail in 1998 while Maynard, 63, was freed eight months ago.