Age: 32 (62 after sentence)
Sex: male
Crime: murder
Date Of Sentence: 14 Nov 2019 (for 30 years)
End Of Full Sentence: 14 Nov 2049
Place: East Finchley
Source: news.bbc.co.uk
Michael Weir was convicted of the murder of Leonard Harris 79 in July 1999 but his conviction was quashed shortly after. However, in 2019 he was convicted of the murders of Leonard Harris 78 and Rose Seferian 83 after new DNA evidence was found.
Michael Weir broke into Leonard Harris's flat on 28 January 1998 to burlgle it, during which he beat Leonard Harris, causing him fatal injuries.
He stole an 18-carat gold watch that Leonard Harris had taken from a German soldier during World War Two, and his gold ring.
During the police investigation into Leonard Harris's death, the police found Michael Weir's palm print in the falt, but didn't immediatly match it to Michael Weir until a case review in 2017.
Michael Weir later broke into Rose Seferian's falt on 5 March 1998 and attacked her in her bedroom and then stold her jewellery. Items taken included her gold wedding ring, a diamond solitaire gold ring, and a silver diamond ring. THe gold wedding ring had her husband's initials and the date of their marriage engraved on it. Michael Weir also stole cash.
Michael Weir is the first person known to have been convicted of the same murder twice. The law on double jeopardy, which was 800 years old and meant that a person could not be tried for an offence if they had already been tried and acuitted, was scrapped in 2005. Although a number of other murder's had been convicted folling the scrapping of the law, they had all been aquitted at their first trials. Michael Weir's case is the first in which an person was convicted of a murder, later acquiited and then convicted of the same murder again.
