Tracie Andrews, the woman convicted of stabbing her fiancé to death
and claiming he was the victim of a road rage attack, has appealed against
her life sentence.
Tracie Andrews, the woman convicted of stabbing her fiancé to death
and claiming he was the victim of a road rage attack, has appealed against
her life sentence.
She claims the pre-trial publicity made her conviction “unsafe”.
Andrews' lawyer, Ronald Thwaites QC, said that media coverage of the case had depicted her as “female terrorist, a firebrand, a knifewoman”, making it impossible for her to receive an unprejudiced hearing.
Former model and barmaid Andrew's, 29, was found guilty in July 1997 of stabbing her lover, Lee Harvey, 25, more than 30 times in a frenzied attack which she blamed on “a fat man with staring eyes” who had chased Mr Harvey's car.
Her appeal, which is being heard at London's Law Courts before Lord Justice Roch, Mr Justice Laws and Mr Justice Butterfield, is based solely on the proposition that the trial judge had “seriously underestimated” the risks to a fair trial posed by the media's coverage of the murder.
‘Wickedness, cunning and duplicity’
Mr Thwaites said the risks came from “the on-going publicity, especially in the locality from which the jury panel was chosen”, adding that the judge had “failed to take any or any reasonable steps” to assess the risk to a fair trial from the publicity.
He claimed the situation worsened following the charging of Andrews just before Christmas 1996.
“Her name and picture quickly became synonymous with unmitigated wickedness, cunning and duplicity in the collective public mind,” he said.
Andrews, who is serving her sentence at Bullwood Hall Prison, Essex, attended the hearing, but only spoke once to confirm her name.
Relatives of Mr Harvey were also present, including his mother Maureen and father Ray.
New witness
Mr Thwaites told the judges a second ground for appeal, involving a new witness, had been abandoned as the potential witness had turned out to be unreliable.
He had volunteered himself to defence solicitors the day after Andrews' murder conviction “claiming that he had witnessed the incident”.
His evidence was later found to be “a fraud” said Mr Thwaites and the potential witness was now in a mental institution.
Andrews was found beside Mr Harvey's body in Alvechurch, Worcs, on 1 December 1996.
They had been driving towards their flat in The Becks, Alvechurch, after a night out at a pub and had reportedly been arguing.
The prosecution used forensic evidence to prove that Andrews had attacked Mr Harvey with an imitation Swiss Army knife before hiding the knife in her stiletto boot and concocting a story about a road rage attack.
Strands of Andrews' hair were found in Mr Harvey's hands and a knife-shaped bloodstain was discovered in Andrews' boot.
Mr Crigman, prosecuting, accused Andrews' defence team of “courting” the publicity they were now accusing and defended the trial judge who, he said, had acted “great prudence and fairness”.
The appeal continues.