Reopening a cold case
Following the emergence of new evidence, a fresh investigation was launched in 2022, providing the evidential basis needed to proceed with a prosecution.
Historic evidence, including postmortem records, witness statements, train timings, and call logs to the emergency services, had been preserved and were used alongside new evidence to build the strongest possible case about what happened to Mr Littler on the night he was killed.
The case was featured in an episode of Crimewatch on BBC in 1984, which showed the location as it appeared at the time. Stills from the programme were shown to the jury so they could see the scene as it looked then.
The fatal attack
Evidence from May 1 1984 showed that Mr Littler’s train arrived at the station on time at 12.18am. The station foreman witnessed him leaving and said goodnight to him as he walked out to make his way home.
Minutes later, a call was made to the emergency services from a nearby public phone box. The caller said a man was seriously injured near the station but gave no personal details, no precise location, and quickly hung up. No injured person was found in the immediate vicinity, and the call was stood down at 12.40am.
Mr Littler’s body was discovered shortly afterwards in a nearby alleyway by a couple. One remained with him while another ran to call the emergency services from a public phone box. That call was made at 12.58am and a police officer arrived at the scene soon after.
The prosecution argued that the timing of the first 999 call meant that whoever made it must have been present in the alleyway when Mr Littler was attacked and was keen to leave the area as quickly as possible. The evidence suggested that it was Michael who made this call – a fact he later appeared to confirm himself, telling an associate: “I called the old bill.”
Admissions spanning decades
Both brothers made a number of admissions to associates over the years.
Very shortly after the attack, Michael told one person that they had killed a man in an alleyway during a robbery gone wrong. Years later, Anthony made a similar confession to the same individual and was said to have broken down in tears as he admitted that he and Michael had been involved in killing Mr Littler.
This information, along with other admissions, were later passed on to police, and in 2022, a new investigation was launched, making use of a number of covert techniques to capture further admissions.
Bad character evidence
Evidence of a defendant’s previous misconduct is known as bad character evidence and is not automatically admissible in court.
Police were also told by associates that around the time of the killing, Michael and Anthony would target men because of their sexuality, referring to this in their own words as “queer bashing”.
The Crown Prosecution Service took the view that there was a significant amount of evidence which showed that other attacks had been carried out on lone men in the area around the same time, demonstrating that Mr Littler was not the victim of an isolated incident, but one of a series of targeted attacks.
In this case the similarities between the attack on Mr Littler and the similar but non-fatal offences committed in the same area, and the accounts from others which said Michael and Anthony were responsible, were too great to ignore.
The accounts of these other attacks to the police at the time were read out to the court.
It was the prosecution’s case that hostility towards the victim’s perceived sexuality was likely to have been a motivating factor in the attack.
Proving murder and joint enterprise
To prove murder, the prosecution must call evidence so that the jury can be sure the defendant either intended to kill or to cause really serious injury to the victim. Where death results from an act intended to cause really serious injury, this constitutes murder in law.
Where the case involves joint enterprise, prosecutors must prove beyond reasonable doubt that each defendant played a part in the offence. While it may have been that only one brother struck the fatal blow, the prosecution’s case was that Michael and Anthony acted together with the shared intent to cause serious harm.
Witness evidence
Due to the time that has passed since the murder of Mr Littler, many witnesses in the case had since passed away. This meant the prosecution had to rely on written accounts taken from witnesses at the time of the murder.
Under current legislation, witness statements must be verified by a ‘statement of truth’ signed by the witness. This is the starting point for the evidence to be admitted without the witness being called to court.
Because witnesses were not available to give evidence in court, and therefore could not be challenged on that evidence, their statements had to be treated as hearsay evidence instead, and the CPS successfully argued for their inclusion as part of the prosecution evidence.