A Bradford man who has served 13 years in jail for the murder of a newspaper seller almost 30 years ago, was today battling to prove his innocence at the Criminal Appeal Court.

Donald Pendleton, 54, was convicted and jailed for life for the 1971 murder of Nobby Clarke - a casual seller of the Telegraph & Argus - at Leeds Crown Court on July 3, 1986, but has always pleaded his innocence.

Pendleton's nickname in Bradford was Mad Don because of his bizarre behaviour - he apparently once streaked through a bus station and rode a motorcycle backwards through the city centre.

The tragic death of Mr Clarke had languished on police files for 15 years - with no apparent chance of a result - until Pendleton's co-accused John Thorpe boasted about getting away with the murder to a fellow inmate in Preston prison.

Yesterday, Pendleton's counsel, top QC Michael Mansfield, told the Appeal Court that detailed records of a 1971 police interview - in which Pendleton provided an alibi he was unable to remember 14 years later - had only very recently come to light.

At the time of his 1986 trial, unbeknown to Pendleton and his lawyers, the records were languishing in Bradford City Hall, he said. Mr Mansfield told Lord Justice Pill, sitting with Mr Justice Sachs and Mrs Justice Steel, that: "Pendleton couldn't remember what he had said to the police. In fact, he couldn't even remember being interviewed by the police in 1971."

Mr Clarke, an unmarried father-of-two, had become a familiar figure in Bradford who had supplemented his social security benefits by selling copies of the T & A.

The 39-year-old was found lying face up in Bradford Beck in a culvert beneath Ingleby Road by a 12-year-old boy in June 1971 - he had been murdered, simply because he had been spotted urinating in the street. His murder sparked a massive police investigation in which 1,500 people were interviewed and eliminated from inquiries, including Pendleton.

Pendleton was convicted after co-defendant John Thorpe, who was also sentenced to life imprisonment, boasted of the killing to fellow inmate Gordon Sharp.

Mr Mansfield said there was no scientific evidence linking his client to the murder - no finger prints, blood stains, or property allegedly stolen from the victim were found on him.

When the police reopened the investigation 14 years later, they were faced with a defendant who was unable to remember what he had been doing on the night of the murder.

Following investigations by Pendleton's lawyers, detailed statements of his 1971 police interview have now come to light.

It was "most unfortunate" that the police did not tell Pendleton in his 1985 interview that he had already given them an alibi 14 years earlier, said Mr Mansfield. Pendleton said he had spent most of the evening at an ice rink with a friend, before returning home with his wife.

Mr Mansfield told the hearing the police either did not have the initial statements or did not make sufficient efforts to find them.

He said: "Had his counsel had the material which is now available, this trial would have taken, we submit, a very different course."

The appeal continues.

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