TRACEY ANDREWS lost her appeal yesterday against a conviction for
murdering her fiancé, who, she claimed, had been killed in a
“road rage” attack.
TRACEY ANDREWS lost her appeal yesterday against a conviction for
murdering her fiancé, who, she claimed, had been killed in a
“road rage” attack.
She was convicted in July 1997 of stabbing Lee Harvey to death, but claimed that there had been a miscarriage of justice because of adverse pre-trial publicity.
Andrews, 29, a former model and barmaid, was found beside Mr Harvey's body on December 1, 1996, on a road in Worcestershire, after they stopped during an argument as they drove home from a pub. Her appeal maintained that “her name and picture quickly became synonymous with unmitigated wickedness, cunning and duplicity in the collective public mind”, and she had been portrayed as a “female terrorist” and $ldquo;a firebrand”. The Crown said this was an exaggeration and that the defence had, in fact, “courted” the very publicity it was now complaining about.
The Court of Appeal did not accept that her trial was prejudiced by publicity, nor that the judge failed to ensure that the jury was impartial. Lord Justice Roch said: “We do not consider that this jury was prevented from reaching a proper verdict by the reporting in the media of this case.”
Andrews was in the court building but waived her right to sit in the dock as the judgment was read out. Her mother, Irene, seated at the back of the court, burst into tears and her father, John, remained stony-faced as Lord Justice Roch, sitting with Mr Justice Laws and Mr Justice Butterfield, delivered their decision. Outside the court, Mr Harvey's father, Ray, spoke of the family's relief that the appeal, which cost the taxpayer about £50,000 in legal aid fees, was over.
He said: “We are obviously very pleased with the result. The past two years have been horrendous for us and we can now start to rebuild our lives.”
Andrews's family refused to comment.