The 13-day hearing at Liverpool Assize Court was the longest criminal trial in English history.Kelly, 28, was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in February 1950 He was hanged after an appeal was dismissed Now, the case is due back in court. Lawyers for the Kelly family are confident the Court of Appeal will clear him and rule his conviction unsafe.Next month's hearing is the culmination of more than half a century of campaigning by the Kellys. The lawyers will claim the conviction, referred to the Appeal Court in London by the Criminal Cases Review Commission, which examines possible miscarriages of justice, is flawed because it relied entirely on unreliable witnesses who were rewarded with reduced prison sentences. Crucial evidence, including the inducements to the witnesses, was not disclosed to the defence, the court will be told.Put simply, the case was considered a "fit-up" by police who were under tremendous pressure to obtain a conviction by whatever means.

Apart from the witness statements there was no corroborating evidence and no scientific evidence to link Kelly to the shootings.The double murder was committed on a Saturday evening in March 1949 during a robbery at the Cameo Cinema in the Liverpool suburb of Wavertree while the audience watched the black-and-white thriller Bond Street.As the manager, Leonard Thomas, 44, counted the night's takings in his office on the first floor, a man in a brown coat, trilby hat and mask burst in and shot the manager in the chest at point-blank range. His assistant, John Catterall, 30, appears to have walked in on the crime and was shot in the hand. A second bullet hit him in the chest and as he sank to the floor a third was fired into his back. The masked man fled empty-handed, leaving cash scattered around the office.In the massive inquiry, as well as 65,000 people being questioned, 9,000 homes were visited and 1,800 people fingerprinted.

An anonymous letter claiming to know the killers would lead to Kelly. The authors, Jackeline Dickson, a prostitute, and James "Stutty" Northam, her pimp, agreed to help police if they were given immunity from prosecution. The police, via a notice published in the Liverpool Echo, agreed. The couple claimed Kelly and Connolly, then 26 and known as a hard man, had met them on the evening of the murders in the Beehive pub and Kelly had shown them a loaded gun. They said he borrowed an apron to use as a mask and a brown coat.Kelly is also said to have confessed the killings to Northam.

The letter-writers provided additional details to police, saying they had forgotten them when making their original statements. Kelly, a labourer and petty crook known to police since he was 10, was arrested with Connolly. Both denied the charges and gave alibis.The other "witness" the prosecution would later rely on was a man called Robert Graham, a proven liar with a psychiatric history. Graham claimed that while on remand at Walton prison, Kelly admitted the shooting and said Connolly acted as a look-out. As a reward, Graham was given an early release from prison from a sentence for dishonesty. Kelly and Connolly were tried at Liverpool Assizes but the jury was unable to reach a verdict. A fresh trial was ordered and the judge agreed the defendants should be tried separately.In the second trial, Kelly was convicted of murder.