A MAN who spent 27 years in prison before his murder conviction was overturned has been found guilty of wearing police clothing in public.
Stephen Downing, aged 52, was wearing an ex-police issue jacket, dark trousers and black boots when he tried to buy cans of shandy in a Buxton supermarket, magistrates in the town were told.
Downing, of Jefferson House, Milford, Bakewell, Derbysh
ire, served 27 years for the murder of 32-year-old Wendy Sewell in a Bakewell cemetery in September 1973 before being released on bail in 2001. His conviction was quashed in 2002.
Downing, who had been mistaken for a police officer before while wearing the jacket, was fined £437 and ordered to pay £625 costs.
The fleece jacket, bought on the internet, has a distinctive checked, reflective strip and a badge saying Derby-shire Constabulary ARV, which stands for Armed Response Vehicle.
Downing told the court the jacket was hard-wearing and durable and magistrates accepted he did not intend to trick people into thinking he was a police officer.
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