'Police say next week will be dangerous'

Next week, when the case of Stephen Downing finally reaches the Appeal Court after 28 years, a former Derbyshire newspaper editor will be rather more twitchy than usual. It's not that Don Hale, whose seven-year investigation led to Downing's release, doubts that the murder conviction will at last be quashed, 11 months after he was freed on bail. What worries him is that he knows who really murdered Wendy Sewell, known locally as "the Bakewell Tart". He fears that the powerful local interests who kept Downing in jail since 1974 will not like what he says next.

"Police say next week will be the most dangerous time for me," says Hale, the mild-mannered journal-ist who survived three attempts on his life to prove that they had the wrong man. "If they reopen the case, the real killer might think, well, if I'm going down for one, I might as well go down for two."

Hale, a 49-year-old grandfather in a grey pullover, is an unlikely media hero. Self-effacing and quietly spoken, he has come in a few months from editing the 10,000-circulation Matlock Mercury to fending off chat-show invitations and Hollywood studios. Last year his campaign won him 14 major awards, from the What the Papers Say Journalist of the Year to The Observer Man of the Year. Then came the film companies: if the plans move forward, Don Hale could be played by Liam Neeson, Wendy Sewell by Julia Roberts, and Don's wife Kath by Julie Walters. "Aw," says Kath in the kitchen of their neat Wirksworth home in Derbyshire, "all I want is a quiet life."

Today, Don's mobile is anything but quiet. The requests pour in from BBC News, Yorkshire TV, France Soir, Het Belang Van Lim-burg in Belgium. Now that he has parted from the Mercury (he left in August "by mutual agreement" after a dispute over subbing changes) he can spend next Tuesday and Wednesday in court and helping the media. When he was still employed - by bosses who made it clear his campaign was unwelcome - he had to take holiday time to attend court. "The sub-bing changes were brought in as a red herring to make me quit," he says. "It had been made clear that if the police decided to sue, I'd be on my own."

Hale does not miss editing. He has been busy writing a BBC drama on the case, and a book, The Scapegoat (Random House), out in March. He has also been investigating a number of other alleged miscarriages of justice. He helped get Terry Thornton, convicted for the "Sheffield nail-bombing", out of jail in 1999; later this month, Michael Philpott, jailed over what's become known as "the Wrong Body Murder", is expected to be freed after Hale's work; and then there is Iain Gordon, sent to a mental institution for allegedly murdering a judge's daughter 50 years ago and since given £500,000 compensation. "I can't claim much credit for the Gordon case," Hale says. "It was really just advice."

His high profile since Downing was released on bail last February has brought him around 500 letters from others claiming to be victims of injustice. He has been asked to help with the case of Barry George, jailed for murdering Jill Dando. "I've been given names about who did the Dando murder, and it's not the man they have," he says. "I reckon I could get him off quite easily. You see, barristers are not investigative journalists. They'll go through the proper channels - but the people who give you the golden information are not the Rotary Club members, they're in the underworld, and these people feel an injustice has been done. Michael Mansfield (the human rights QC) won't find out who did it by cycling up and down on his bike in London."

Other letters in his correspondence files are from prisoners or their relatives claiming unfair convictions for murder and rape; prison officers who have been victimised after expressing concern over suicides; police whistleblowers; and claims of "bogus bankruptcy by the masonic judicial mafia". There are letters relating to planning disputes, neighbours from hell, a missing Second World War airman and one man concerned about the surface of the Peak District roads. "I'm on the list now with the Queen, Princess Anne and their MP," Hale reflects without a hint of cynicism. "But where do they go? What paper would touch half of those? There's no Brownie points in it."

Hale started his investigations into the Stephen Downing case in late 1994. Once the first stories appeared, more witnesses approached him, and he spent his spare time (and £4,000 of his money) following up leads. "Most people who contacted me said they'd gone to the police at the time but they weren't interested. It wasn't deemed in the public interest to expose the private life of Wendy Sewell and her associates - she'd just had a child out of wedlock with one lover, and was seeing eight prominent people. Yet it was said in court she had no children, and was an ordinary housewife."

The still local "well-to-do individual" he believes to be the murderer has, he says, threatened him with a shotgun. "Police know a lot more than they're letting on," says Hale. "We've identified five people who were in and around the murder scene. Three have deliberately lied; two have never been interviewed to this day. Now, with the benefit of DNA and the other witness state-ments, the first step is to pull these five in for questioning."

He questions why it took the rest of the media so long to become involved in Downing's case. "Suddenly everyone and his dog wants a say. The nationals are like vultures, picking meat off at the end. I've become a bit disillusioned." He is disappointed that investigative journalists he contacted at the time, from Paul Foot to David Jessel, did little to take the case further.

"These campaigns need dedication, determination and time. They seem to want it on a plate nowadays - all packaged in half an hour with all the paperwork photocopied in triplicate. This story wasn't about exposing a personality, going through dustbins and finding they've got a girl-friend in Timbuktoo. That's grubby journalism, and I don't approve of it."

The battle is still not over for Hale, even though the Crown Prosecution Service has urged him to end his involvement as "you've got your man out". But for Don Hale, who is still careful which pubs he drinks in, it remains a lonely fight. "Downing has done very little himself, and potentially will become a national hero next week, and maybe make a couple of million quid. I don't begrudge him. I just wanted to tell people the truth."