The murder conviction of Jerome Bailey has been referred to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), after investigators found significant discrepancies between evidence given at his original trial and at a later retrial.
The CCRC announced the referral on 18 September 2026, saying there is a real possibility that the jury would have reached a different conclusion had it heard the evidence given at the retrial.
What Jerome Bailey was convicted of
Jerome Bailey was convicted of the murder of his cousin Tefsa Campbell at Croydon Crown Court on 20 January 2020 and was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 18 years. He was 40 years old at the time.
Campbell, who was also 40, died as a result of a stab wound received during an altercation between him and Bailey on 3 July 2019 near the junction of Burns Road and Latchmere Road in London.
The jury at the trial reached a unanimous verdict on the count of murder.
Appeal history and the 2022 retrial
In February 2020 Bailey sought leave to appeal, presenting fresh evidence about a knife that had been shown to the jury at trial. He argued that the jury had been misled and that this damaged his credibility. The Court of Appeal rejected his application for leave in November 2021.
In 2022 Bailey was retried on one count of having a bladed article in public, after the jury at the original trial had failed to reach a verdict on that count.
Bailey applied to the CCRC in April 2024, raising the witness testimony from the retrial. He argued that there was a significant difference between the account of events given by a witness during the first trial and the testimony they gave at the retrial. After reviewing the case, the CCRC determined there are discrepancies between the evidence of one of the key witnesses at the original trial and the retrial.
Why the CCRC referred the Jerome Bailey case
The CCRC said it is satisfied that, considering the significance of the evidence in the prosecution case, if the jury had heard the evidence from the retrial, there is a real possibility that they may reasonably have reached a different conclusion.
It is important to be precise about what the referral means: this is not a quashed conviction. It is now for the Court of Appeal to decide whether the conviction is unsafe. Jerome Bailey’s conviction stands unless and until the appeal court overturns it.
The CCRC is the independent body set up under the Criminal Appeal Act 1995 to review suspected miscarriages of criminal justice in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Since it began work in 1997 it has referred more than 900 cases to the appeal courts, after receiving more than 1,800 applications for review last year alone.
More from London’s courts
London’s Crown Courts continue to hear a string of serious cases. Two teenagers were recently sentenced for the manslaughter of Yeray Sanchez Morales, who was stabbed to death outside a McDonald’s on Old Kent Road, while Met Inspector Michael Richards will be sentenced at Southwark Crown Court on 25 September after being convicted of sexual assault.
Reporting based on the Criminal Cases Review Commission.
