A HOME FROM HOME AND A BENT JURY ( JOHN GOODWIN , 1983 )

THE TIMES.

5^th MARCH , 1983.

 

RECORD COURT APPEARANCES

John Charles Goodwin's record run of Central Criminal Court appearances - he has stood in the dock on eight occasions in the past two years - came to an end for the time being yesterday when he was convicted of masterminding a plot to bribe jurors and jailed for seven years.

Goodwin, aged 41, whose cases have all been marked by drama and mystery, went to the cells with a wry smile. A general dealer, of Pennethorne Close, Hackney, east London, he had pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to pervert the course of justice by bribing jurors at his trial last year, when he faced £1.25m burglary charges. Brian Reader, aged 43, of Bowater Place, Blackheath, who was accused with him in the burglary trial, has since jumped bail and disappeared. Eight other people, including a juror, were sentenced for their parts in what Mr. Kenneth Richardson, for the prosecution, described as a "determined attempt to poison the fountain of British justice".

Mr. Richardson said the four jurors, and possibly four more, had been offered bribes of £1,000 each to bring in not guilty verdicts against Goodwin and Reader. It was believed that others not identified had accepted the bribes. But the plot failed because one member of the jury panel, Mrs. Grace Ellicott, aged 36, a waitress from south east London, reported to the court that an approach had been made to her.

 Mr. Richardson said that all the defendants were engaged in “a wholesale conspiracy to pervert the course of justice", - playing different roles. Many of the jurors in the burglary trial came from south east London and were known to use the Jolly Marshman, a local public house, where some bribery approaches were made.

Goodwin's remarkable history of Central Criminal Court trials began in June, 1981, when he denied being a member of a "highly professional" gang who carried out an abortive raid, using thermic lances, on Barclays Bank, Whitechapel. A jury could not agree on a verdict after Goodwin pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to rob the bank.

At a retrial in November, 1981, he collapsed with a suspected heart attack and went to hospital. That hearing was abandoned.

The third trial began in February last year and during evidence from detectives a tape recording, said to have been made at a house in Hertfordshire where a microphone was hidden in a Christmas tree, was produced by Goodwin's defence lawyers. The tape was played and allegations of bribery and corruption were made against a detective constable and a detective inspector. They now face charges.

The prosecution then offered no evidence against Goodwin and he was discharged.

Last April Goodwin and Reader, a dealer, faced trial on burglary charges relating to the theft of silver, gold, jewelery and watches, in burglaries at firms in Birmingham, Hatton Garden in London and Middlesex. Five weeks later the trial collapsed when a juror reported a bribery attempt.

Scotland Yard detectives questioned all 12 members of the jury. The main prosecution witness against Goodwin and Reader was Michael Gervaise, aged 39, a jeweller from Finchley, north London, serving a six-year sentence for crimes involving £6m. But he withdrew his evidence and accused senior detectives of being directly involved in corruption and large-scale burglaries.

When the case collapsed in May a trial was in progress in an ajoining court, where several men, - later to be given long sentences at a retrial - faced charges of conspiracy to rob and possessing firearms. When that jury had been retired for three hours considering verdicts, it was discovered that Michael Wiggins, a juror had been interfering with the Goodwin jurors. The judge brought the conspiracy jury back to court and discharged them.

Last September the burglary retrial, started,  this time 12 jurors having 24-hour police protection. On October 1, after two days in retirement, the guarded jury found Goodwin not guilty of the burglaries amid cheering from the public gallery.

Discharging Goodwin, Judge Slot said he left the court "without a stain on your character" and praised him for his "restraint, self-control, propriety and dignity" during the hearing. Goodwin was back in the dock on October 5, when no action was taken over an allegation that he had been in contempt of court during the first burglary trial when he produced some tapes and put them on the dock ledge as Gervaise was about to give evidence.

On November 11, before the Recorder Mr. James Miskin, QC, the prosecution offered no evidence and not guilty verdicts were entered against Goodwin on charges alleging a conspiracy with Gervaise to burgle, and a Hatton Garden burglary by Goodwin alone.