In 1991, Stephen Owen was acquitted - despite the evidence against him - of attempted murder of Kevin Taylor who had killed his son, by running over him in a lorry.  Some describe the acquittal as a classic example of “jury equity”.  Hundreds cheered wildly at the verdict outside the court. 

 

Some of the jury were moved to tears as Stephen Owen, 36, told how not only had he to come to terms with Darren's death but also how Taylor had served just 12 months of an 18-month sentence.  At his trial he swore and gesticulated at the Owen family.  Taylor had taunted the family, vandalised Darren's grave four times and forced the family to move their son's remains to a secret resting place.  Wreaths had been strewn around the graveyard and Ghostbuster cartoons featuring a lorry placed in the flowers.

 

Owen from the Isle of Sheppy was cleared by a jury of nine women and three men after a four-day trial at Maidstone Crown Court of six charges of assault and wounding, possessing a shotgun to endanger life, and attempting to murder Taylor.

 

Taylor, aged 33, was driving a 30-tonne tipper truck recklessly when he killed 12-year-old Darren; he failed to stop at the accident in October 1989 just a few yards from their furniture shop in Sittingbourne, Kent.  Taylor drove over Darren's head and body then accelerated down Sittingbourne High Street, taking a bollard on the wrong side of the road and hitting another car driven by a woman with two young children. Taylor had never held a driving licence, had a long criminal record for violence and driving offences.  His record included two prison sentences, five suspended sentences and 21 court appearances since he was 14.  His convictions included grievous bodily harm, burglary, theft, criminal damage, assaulting police and a string of driving offences. He maintained he was 'not a violent man'.  He lost an eye after being shot with a shotgun in a family feud by a man later acquitted of attempted murder. 

 

Three months after Taylor’s release Owen went hunting for him for revenge.  Owen shot and wounded Taylor twice at close range with a sawn-off 12-bore, double-barrelled shotgun.  After three days on the run Owen gave himself up.

 

At Owen’s trial, the judge Mr Justice Anthony Hidden said,

“The case you are considering is by any assessment a very sad one … any father or mother or member of a family - and we are all members of a family - must feel a sympathy and an understandable compassion for a father or mother who has lost a child.

“A child who loses his life from natural causes is, heaven knows, tragic enough, but if it is from a hideous death in an appalling road accident the loss must be even worse.

“Any person who does not feel for these parents in their agony and anguish must be made of stone.”

 

In his summing up the judge added:

“If it should be that the prosecution has proved his guilt do not let the understandable emotions and sympathies distract you from performing the duty you swore in your oath of returning a true verdict according to the facts.”

 

After his acquittal Owen said,

''I would not advocate anyone harming others or defending yourself in such a violent way. When I pulled that trigger I had no intent because my mind was such a mess of turmoil and strain. I didn't really know what I was doing but I have certainly regretted what happened since the incident. At the time I felt enormous relief. But I have since realised the harm it has caused me and my family.

“I felt I was being insulted as a man. I felt powerless. Now I feel my strength coming back”

 

Owen was born in the East End and raised in a solid working-class family; he had rigid ideas of the male role as protector. He became a man obsessed with bitterness; the final straw was a 'cold and insensitive psychiatric report' on his mental state when he sued the truck firm for compensation.

 

After the trial his wife Marilyn explained to a local newspaper that deep down in her heart she cannot say her husband was right.

 

The events saw the couple driven to the brink of suicide, the near breakdown of their marriage and the ruination of their furniture business.  They had been married for 20 years.

 

Taylor denied he had been responsible for desecrating Darren's grave, and shrugged off accusations that he had sworn and gestured obscenely at the parents.

 

The case created no law and was not reported.  Newspapers followed the case with interest at the time.