![]() Media sympathy īefore Chappell's 1976 trial and conviction there was media criticism of the decision by the courts to refuse bail to the Headingley defendants (for example The Daily Telegraph editorial "WHEN TO GIVE BAIL", 28 August 1975) and eventually bail was granted to all of them. The back cover of the Tom Robinson Band's LP Power in the Darkness (1978) contains a cropped photo of the band seated on a street in front of a wall the 2004 CD issue of that album shows the uncropped photo, showing the wall contained the graffito "GEORGE DAVIS IS GUILTY". Davis received a namecheck in the Duran Duran song "Friends of Mine" on the album Duran Duran (1981): the chorus begins "Georgie Davis is coming out". ![]() Patrik Fitzgerald also showed support with "George" on the 1979 EP The Paranoid Ward. "George Davis Is Innocent" was a song on Sham 69's 1978 debut album Tell Us the Truth, and the song "The Cockney Kids Are Innocent" ends with a namecheck. Roger Daltrey of The Who went on stage in 1975 wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with "George Davis Is Innocent". The campaign was also characterised by the graffiti “GEORGE DAVIS IS INNOCENT OK” or some variant thereof, in plain white paint, appearing on dozens of walls and bridges in London and on motorways. One, Geraldine Hughes, refused to accept bail until it had also been granted to all of her co-accused. ![]() The Davis campaigners who were remanded to prison to await trial for the Headingley sabotage continued their campaigning in support of one another within the prison system. Three men and one woman were tried for this incident, and one, Peter Chappell, was eventually jailed for 18 months. This direct action protest by relatives and friends of George Davis was accompanied by Davis Campaign graffiti proclaiming "FREE GEORGE DAVIS. On 19 August 1975, while Davis was serving a 20-year prison sentence for the Ilford LEB robbery, his supporters dug holes in the pitch and poured oil over one end of the wicket at the Headingley Cricket Ground, preventing further play in the Test match between England and Australia. At as late as November 1974 on a third bail application, this time before a judge in chambers, and after committals had been completed (28 October) the police were saying that they still awaited the blood results from forensic." Campaign for release Public activism at Walthamstow on were passed on to the Yard's Senior Scientific Officer, Peter Martin, on 21 May and he reported his negative findings to the police officer in charge of the case on 20 June. Although it subsequently became clear that evidence had by then become available to police, it was suppressed and this abuse of due process became one of the core allegations relied upon by those campaigning for the release of Davis. Ī further complication turned on the fact that Davis might never have been committed for trial from the lower courts had blood test results been disclosed at the committal stage. At a number of specific locations, Davis was identified but the blood obtained from the location did not match his neither did the blood match any of his co-accused. ![]() Of four accused, only Davis was convicted. A number of blood samples (matching different blood groups) were recovered and formed part of the prosecution case.
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