CAPEL ST MARY: Simon Hall today pledged to keep fighting to overturn his murder conviction despite having his appeal thrown out by three High Court judges.

Speaking at Kingston prison in Portsmouth, the 33-year-old maintained he did not stab to death 79-year-old Joan Albert at her home in Boydlands, Capel St Mary, on December 16, 2001.

Hall also told how he felt aggrieved that new fibre evidence from an expert analyst was dismissed by the Court of Appeal earlier this month.

Although no garment was ever found, Hall’s conviction was based on evidence that fibres found at the murder scene and his home in Snowcroft, Capel St Mary, were identical. However, expert forensic analyst Tiernan Coyle argued against that at the appeal.

Hall said: “I’m extremely disappointed. I feel let down by the justice system again. I have just got to keep on fighting.

“I didn’t do this and that means the person – or persons – are out there who did. I am hoping that one day the truth will come out, sooner rather than later.

“In the meantime, I will keep my head down and do what I can to get out as soon as possible. It is hard for me to understand how the judges could have come to their decisions.

“The test, as far as I was aware, was – could the evidence have changed a jury’s mind or whether they would have come to a different conclusion.

“If I had sat and listened to the evidence with one expert saying the fibres were this, and another saying fibres were that, I would not have been able to convict. I feel it is ludicrous.

“The legal team representing me have asked the question of the judges as to how they came to their decision and they are to appeal to the Supreme Court next to ask whether the judges were right to come to that conclusion.”

Hall was convicted of murder at Norwich Crown Court in February 2003. However, he also spent many months in custody before his trial. He is currently serving a mandatory life sentence.

Hall said: “It is getting on for nearly nine years and I’m used to disappointment. I am just getting on with it and making the best of a bad situation.”

Earlier this week, Hall’s supporters offered a �10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person they believe to the real killer.

Hall said: “I would like to think somebody out there knows what went on and the reward is an incentive especially within the criminal fraternity.”

n Do you believe Hall is innocent? E-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk or write to Star Letters, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN