00:00As I looked deeper and deeper into it, I was astonished to see that this man had been imprisoned for now nearly 36 years from the time of his arrest
00:10on a case where it looked hugely unsafe for a whole number of reasons.
00:17I came to the conclusion that this was a huge miscarriage of justice and there was no evidence.
00:23I didn't think there was enough evidence to even charge him when I looked at the police investigation.
00:27And eventually I took over from the solicitor and said, you know, I'll represent you.
00:32And I subsequently did all the documentation, presented his fifth application to the Criminal Cases Review Commission,
00:39and I now represent him in that application.
00:42The allegation was that in 1988, Clive Freeman had lured a vagrant or a tramp with alcohol
00:53into a flat in East London where he had murdered him with the intention of him, the body being his body double,
01:02because the allegation was that he'd set fire to the flat, set fire to the body,
01:07and that he then left the country or fled the country to America than Australia
01:13with a view to cashing in on an insurance policy.
01:19And this was all part of a well-planned and orchestrated attempt.
01:23Unfortunately, when I started investigating it and looking at all the evidence,
01:27it was nothing like that at all.
01:29But sadly, he got convicted at the Old Bailey and was given a life imprisonment
01:33with a minimum term of 13 years.
01:36When you say it wasn't that at all, what is your view on what happened?
01:42Well, the prosecution case was built on three pillars.
01:45One was the motive, that the motive was all about cashing in on an insurance policy
01:50that he'd taken out.
01:51That was one of the pillars.
01:52The second pillar was that there was eyewitness identification at the scene
01:57after the alleged incident took place.
02:00And thirdly, there was the pathology evidence from a leading pathologist at the time
02:08that this person had been killed deliberately,
02:12whereas over time there were some eight or nine experts in their field
02:16to say that this wasn't a deliberate death.
02:20At best, it was unascertained,
02:22and it looked at all the hallmarks of natural causes
02:26enhanced by drink and alcohol and drugs, medicinal drugs.
02:31Because the man who died, Alexander Hardy,
02:34who clearly doesn't have a voice in this case,
02:37he was a sick man, wasn't he?
02:38He wasn't a picture of health, to put it mildly.
02:41Mr Hardy clearly had health issues,
02:44and unfortunately, neither the police nor the Criminal Cases Review Commission
02:48were able to identify any medical records relating to Mr Hardy.
02:53And I found that quite extraordinary because this was a man
02:57who'd had a finger amputated in a surgical procedure
03:00following an accident up in Scotland.
03:03He had also been prescribed medicinal drugs legally
03:06by a named doctor in East London,
03:10and according to the statements I've read,
03:12he was in receipt of sickness benefits and unemployment benefits,
03:15and yet the police and the Criminal Cases Review Commission
03:18said there were no medical records.
03:20This man didn't exist on the system,
03:22which was quite bizarre.
03:24And according to my own research,
03:26and I've spent months looking at this case as well,
03:29you could hardly say he was a look-alike,
03:32Mr Hardy, to Clive Freeman, and vice versa.
03:35He was considerably shorter, a different build,
03:38he also had a finger missing.
03:40Clive Freeman had excellent teeth at the time,
03:43whereas Mr Hardy did not,
03:47and had most of his teeth missing.
03:48And there was no way that Mr Hardy's body could be taken as that of Clive Freeman at the time.
03:56Clive Freeman, before all this,
03:58was a man of good character, as far as you're aware.
04:01Yes, as far as I can see,
04:04he was sort of transiting through the UK,
04:06heading on to look for a better life in Australia.
04:09This was planned.
04:10This was not some sudden move to flee the country
04:14as a result of committing the murder,
04:15that, as far as I can see,
04:16it wasn't a murder at all.
04:17Clive Freeman was a successful businessman at one stage.
04:23He ran a farm employing 600 people.
04:26His family were business people,
04:29but the situation in Rhodesia changed with a change of government,
04:33and unfortunately his business didn't prosper,
04:38and so it was time for him to move on to elsewhere.
04:42He's still in prison 35 years later.
04:46The problem is he has consistently insisted he is innocent,
04:50and when his case has come up to be considered for parole,
04:55he will not change his stance.
04:57He said, and continues to say,
05:00I will not leave prison as a convicted murderer.
05:03Tragically, the system that we operate at the moment,
05:06unless you admit your guilt and change your stance,
05:10you're likely to end up like Clive Freeman,
05:13there until you die.
