Former carer Gareth Jones cleared of sex attack 10 years after conviction

• Video report by ITV Wales National Correspondent Rob Osborne

A "vulnerable" former carer has been cleared of a sex attack on an elderly dementia patient after more than 10 years spent protesting his innocence.

Gareth William Jones served three-and-a-half-years in prison after being found guilty in July 2008 of sexual activity by a care worker with a person with a mental disability.

But his conviction was overturned at the Court of Appeal on Friday, with three senior judges ruling it "cannot be regarded as safe".

Lord Justice Simon said Mr Jones did not receive a fair trial because not enough account was taken of his learning disabilities - the extent of which was not known at the time.

Mr Jones was 22 when he was found guilty of committing the offence against a woman in her 70s while working at The Mountains Nursing Home near Brecon in February 2007.

There was no DNA or CCTV evidence and Lord Justice Simon said Mr Jones' evidence to jurors was "crucial".

His case was taken to the Court of Appeal by the Cardiff University Innocence Project, which presented new evidence about the nature of his learning disabilities.

Since his conviction he has been diagnosed with Von Recklinghausen's disease and a psychologist assessed him as being "a vulnerable, suggestible adult, with severe impairments in his ability to understand, process, retain or reason with complex information".

His lawyers argued that the extent of his learning disabilities was not appreciated at the time of his trial and it was therefore unfair.

Lord Justice Simon said Mr Jones "faltered" under cross-examination and that his difficulty in dealing with leading questions may have left jurors with a "false impression".

The judge, sitting with Mrs Justice Carr and Judge Martin Picton, also said Mr Jones' learning disabilities made him "vulnerable" and tended to "conceal or mask" that vulnerability from others.

He said if the case were tried today, Mr Jones would have been given support throughout police interviews and the trial process, and that the trial judge would have directed jurors to take account of his learning difficulties.

He concluded that some of the questions asked by the prosecuting lawyer were "unfair".

"The questions that we have identified ... would have been objectionable if asked of a witness without learning disabilities," he said.

"They were comments which should have been reserved to a closing speech to the jury.

"However, when asked of someone suffering from a disability such as the appellant, they can be seen to be unfair.

"The charged and rhetorical nature of the questions and some of the appellant's responses would have been very likely to leave the jury with the impression that he had no answer to the charge."

The judge also said part of Mr Jones' evidence suggested he did not fully understand the nature of the charge against him.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has not asked for a retrial and Mr Jones' name will be removed from the sex offenders register.

The case was worked on over six years as part of the Cardiff University Innocence Project, and was heard at the Royal Courts of Justice on 22 November, with the judgment being handed down today.

On Twitter, the Cardiff University Innocence Project said: "We hope the local community will now accept that he is completely innocent and support him to re-build his life".

As well as dozens of students, the project had the pro bono support of two Cardiff University alumni who are practising barristers, a criminal appeals solicitor in Cardiff and five medical and psychology experts.

Around 17 Cardiff law students, past and present, were present to see the result of their investigative work presented by barristers to a panel of appeal court judges, chaired by Lord Justice Simon.

Following the decision, Dr Dennis Eady, who supervised the project, said: “We first became aware of Gareth’s case in 2012 through his long-term supporter Paula Morgan. It has taken six years of tireless work by students, Paula, and our supporters to review this case. Based on their findings, the Court of Appeal has decided that this conviction is unsafe. We welcome their decision.”

This is the second conviction that the Cardiff Innocence Project has helped to overturn and they remain the only UK university innocence project to have done so.

Cardiff University’s Innocence Project was launched in 2006. The project allows students who are passionate about investigating alleged miscarriages of justice to work on cases of long-term prisoners who maintain their innocence of serious crimes for which they have been convicted.

Professor Julie Price, Head of Pro Bono at the School, said: “This case demonstrates that universities are about more than research. Our work is making a real impact from innovative teaching and learning. This decision will hopefully allow Gareth to start re-building his life.

“We would not be in this position now without pro bono (free) assistance from a number of people. We are very grateful to those individuals, and to our students past and present for their efforts. The appeals system is problematic and needs to change.

“University projects are a sticking plaster only and cannot replace a properly-funded legal aid system.”