Alibi
One chilly night in 2001, a young man went out on a night out with friends.
Little did he know that he would be caught up in an extraordinary chain of events occurring a few miles away, leading him to be incarcerated for a murder he didn't commit.
Various witness statements have pieced together an almost continuous timeline of Simon Hall's movements on the 15th and 16th December 2001.
On the 15th of December Simon Hall headed to the Old Rep public house, arriving at about 8pm where he met his friend Gareth Hampson.
After a couple of drinks, the pair decided to head to the Woolpack public house on Tuddenham Road, Ipswich, where a karaoke event was being held, Simon was a personal friend of the landlord at the time, Scott Doughty.
Simon drove with Gareth Old Rep to the Woolpack in his car. A couple more drinks were had, during which Simon had a go at the karaoke.
As a disincentive to driving whilst over the limit, Simon left his car keys with Scott Doughty, to be kept behind the bar, and the car was left in the car park.
At about 10.30pm , the pair decided to head back to town on foot, in order to catch last orders at the Old Rep. Simon and Gareth arrived at the Old Rep at about 10.55pm, after being delayed by meeting a group of females en route from the Woolpack.
When they arrived at the Woolpack, a party had been in full swing. Jamie Barker, the then assistant manager of the Old Rep, had stripped off on the bar in honour of his 21st Birthday, so the mood was upbeat. A large contingent of Old Rep staff then headed to Liquid Nightclub, where a reciprocal agreement meant the Old Rep staff could get into the club free of charge.
At about 3am , on Saturday 16th December, Simon Hall and Jamie Barker started to head back to the Old Rep for a lock in with Keith Zukowski, the Old Rep DJ, and the landlord of the Old Rep at the time, Glenn Jarrett. On the way, they stopped for a kebab, by now Gareth Hampson had gone home.
At about 4.30am , Simon and Jamie went for a wander around town in order to sober up. After a while, Simon decided to retrieve his car, feeling he'd sufficiently sobered up. Jamie Barker accepted the lift from Simon, and so the pair walked up to the Woolpack public house. They threw pebbles at the bedroom window of Scott Doughty, until the irate landlord appeared at the door and gave Simon "a right mouthful for waking him and his mother up at that hour". Scott was to tell the court it was somewhere between 5 and 6 am .
Angela Barker, the mother of Jamie Barker, recalled she was "woken at 5.30am by a throaty exhaust". Jamie was being dropped off. At the time, Simon's car was developing problems, the noisy exhaust being one of them. When questioned by the police for the first time, Jamie gave a statement affirming that he thought the time he was dropped off was between 5.45am and 6am . This apparent gap between the times given by Jamie and his mother is an important factor to bear in mind.
Simon then proceeded to drive himself home to his parents' house in Capel St Mary. His mother Lynne Hall was already up having been unwell for most of the night, and recalled that the time was about 6.15am . After some admonishment about the time, a cup of tea and a chat, Simon then went to bed for a short while as he was due to be at a family gathering for the rest of the day.
Lynne Hall later told the court that "there was nothing unusual about his demeanour, he was a bit tired, but then he'd been out most of the night".
Later, Simon was to tell police when interviewed in the subsequent wake of the murder that he came home at 6.28am. Challenged that it was unusually precise, he said he glanced at the microwave clock on his way in, and that he is "good at remembering useless bits of information like that". However, the microwave clock has been known to malfunction, and Simon could have given a time that was slightly incorrect. This short gap in the time frame of Simon's actions is an important detail, because it formed one of the pillars of the prosecution case, and possibly played a large role in his conviction for murder.
He then proceeded to spend the rest of the day at a family gathering, where again, his demeanour was unremarkable. Upon their return to Capel St Mary, Lynne Hall was to have her day shattered by the disclosure that her friend Joan Albert had been found murdered that morning.