The Court of Appeal has heard a Welsh murder suspect was deprived of access to a solicitor at crucial stages during his initial period of detention.

Darren Hall was also chained to a radiator at a Cardiff police station as detectives investigated the murder of newsagent Philip Saunders.

Barrister Edward Fitzgerald said Hall was also mentally unstable and his confession to witnessing the murder of Mr Saunders could not be relied on.

Safeguard

Mr Fitzgerald told the court that legal authority was clear that representation was necessary to avoid the pitfalls created in the case.

"This wasn't just some academic exercise," he said.

"That safeguard was there for a very good reason, because people who are 18, emotionally unstable, and facing interrogation of this sort on a serious matter for the first time do need a solicitor.

"If they don't have it the very dangers that these statutory provisions were intended to prevent are likely to occur."

Hall's youth at the time, his mental instability and the lack of access to a lawyer had made for what Mr Fitzgerald called a "deadly concoction from the point of view of producing an unreliable result."

"He needed a solicitor; he didn't have one. That's one of the reasons why this resulting series of confessions and contradictory remarks are thoroughly unlreliable," he added.

Mr Fitzgerald said Hall's psychological "abnormalities" cast a heavy doubt on the reliability of his evidence during the trial.

"That was, and remains, the pillar of this case," he added.

Judge Mr Justice Astill suggested the motive behind Hall's handcuffing may have been to stop him absconding from Canton Police Station.

But Mr Fitzgerald continued: "Even if there were extenuating circumstances for the police, which we don't accept, the question is: Was something done which had an adverse effect on the reliability of the confessions?

"This is all part of a picture of oppressive and unlawful conduct which did have the effect of rendering anything said or done by Hall unreliable."

Mr Fitzgerald was making final submissions in the closing stages of the appeals by Hall, 30, from Newport, Michael O'Brien, 31, and Ellis Sherwood, 30, both from Cardiff.

The trio were sentenced to life imprisonment in July 1988 for the murder of Mr Saunders.

All three were released on bail last December pending the outcome of their appeal.

Mr Saunders died in hospital five days after a brutal robbery in which he was struck over the head with a shovel.

The prosecution case rested heavily on statements by Hall that he had acted as look-out for the other two while they attacked the newsagent.

Sound evidence

But defence lawyers insist Hall's damning evidence was undermined by his fragile mental state and propensity to lie and fantasise.

Winding up the prosecution case Gerard Elias QC urged Lord Justice Roch, Mr Justice Astill and Mr Justice Keene to uphold the convictions, which he said were based on sound evidence.

"We submit that on an analysis of the evidence, and on an analysis of Hall's account implicating himself and the other two, the court should be satisfied that the evidence in this case was safe for the jury to act upon, that the convictions were right, and accordingly you should say that the convictions remain safe".

But Mr Fitzgerald said the prosecution was simply relying on "bits and pieces" thrown up at the end of the case once the "central part of the evidence" had been undermined.

The hearing continues.