麻豆社

Criminal barristers Jeremy Dein and Sasha Wass look back at the case of John Dickman, who, after being convicted of murder in 1910, was hanged at Newcastle Prison.

On Friday 18 March 1910, 44-year-old John Nisbet boarded a 10:27am train from Newcastle Central Station. By the time the train reached the end of the line, he was dead. He had been shot five times; his bag, containing 拢370 in cash, had been stolen; and his body had been stuffed beneath the carriage seats. Local bookmaker John Dickman was convicted of his murder and sentenced to death, but he always protested his innocence.

Over 100 years later, his great-grandson Rowan set out on a mission to find out the truth. As Rowan delved into his family history and retraced the steps his great-grandfather took on that fateful day, Sasha and Jeremy worked together to try to determine whether Dickman may have been the victim of a miscarriage of justice.

Now, two years on from their initial investigation, Jeremy and Sasha catch up with Rowan and discover that following a meeting with crime writer Diane Janes, Rowan is more convinced than ever that his great-grandfather was innocent. Could Dickman have been the victim of conspiracy to frame him for murder, instigated at the highest levels of government?