The daughter of a woman wrongly accused of causing the deaths of a mother and her two young children in an arson attack says the miscarriage of justice saw her mother descend into drug addiction and a decline in his mental health which caused his death.
In a new BBC Sounds podcast, Wrongly Accused: The Story of Annette Hewinsmother of one, Nicole Jacob opens up about the family tragedy that forever changed the course of her and her siblings’ lives – after they were forcibly placed while their mother was wrongly behind bars.
In October 1995, Diane Jones, 21, and her two daughters, Shauna, two, and Sarah Jane, one, died in an arson attack on Jones’ home in the Gurnos crime subdivision in Merthyr Tydfil in Mid Glamorgan, Wales.
A new BBC Sounds podcast chronicles the miscarriage of justice that destroyed Annette Hewins’ life after she was wrongly convicted of causing death by arson in 1997 – before her conviction was overturned two years later.
Jacob’s mother, Annette Hewins, was arrested with two other women at the time and, two years later, was convicted of arson with intent to endanger life at Cardiff Crown Court in June 1997 and sentenced to 13 years in prison.
The original trial revealed that Hewins, 31 at the time of the murders, provided the gasoline that started the deadly fire leading to the triple murder.
Annette’s niece, Donna Clarke, was also sentenced to 20 years in prison. She had been romantically involved with Diane Jones’ boyfriend Shaun Hibbard, who was the father of her two daughters, which detectives believed was a motive for the deadly attack.
A third woman, Denise O’Sullivan, was found not guilty of the murders, but found guilty of perverting the course of justice – and served almost four years in prison.
Annette, who was pregnant with her fifth child at the time, served 18 months of her sentence – and spent a total of two and a half years in prison.
She was released by the Court of Appeal in 1999 after concluding there was no evidence against her.
The four-star leaded gasoline she purchased was not the same gasoline used to start the fire, medical examiners concluded.
Annette Hewins’ daughter Nicole Jacob presents a new podcast that examines what happened to her mother – including her happiest years and how being wrongly imprisoned had devastating consequences on her life
Diane Jones was just 21 when she and her two daughters Shauna, two, and Sarah Jane, 13 months, were killed in the devastating deliberate fire at her home on the Gurnos Estate in Merthyr Tydfil, Mid Glamorgan, Wales.
Shauna Jones was just two years old when she died in a house fire in October 1995.
Empty bottles, believed to have been filled with gasoline, were found outside Diane Jones’ home after the 1995 triple murder.
In the new podcast, Nicole claims her mother’s innocent trip to the garage the night before the murders led police straight to their door – and misled the jury all the way to the first guilty verdict.
Audio footage shows her speaking to the press, surrounded by friends and family, upon her release at the Royal Courts of Justice and during her time in prison.
Annette urged police to “find the real killers” and was heard on tapes saying: “They took my baby away.” They wouldn’t do to a dog what they did to me.
His niece Clarke’s sentence was also later overturned, after judges deemed the original verdict “dangerous”.
Annette’s niece, Donna Clarke, was also found guilty – judges gave her a 20-year prison sentence. His conviction was later overturned after being deemed “dangerous”.
The podcast also details hours before Annette’s tragic death in February 2017, at the age of 51, after a long battle with heroin addiction and mental health issues, which left her experiencing hallucinations and paranoia.
She was hospitalized at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital in Llantrisant and in her final moments she was heard still trying to prove her innocence and claiming her baby had been taken from her.
An inquest later concluded that she died of heart failure and that there were “areas of concern” about her care, including a failed ECG test.
Annette’s daughter says this conviction haunted her mother until the end of her life, and even beyond her death.
She remembers a hospital nurse telling her after her mother’s death: “Your mother just couldn’t live with herself, could she?”
Hewins (centre) pictured after leaving the Court of Appeal in London in 1999 with friends and family; she gave birth to her youngest son while in prison
Annette had never used hard drugs before her incarceration, but the mother of five fell into heroin addiction after her wrongful conviction.
Detailing her troubled childhood, Nicole says she was just four when her mother was arrested, saying Annette felt judged by the wider Merthyr Tydfil community and feared revenge attacks on her family .
Annette’s descent into heroin began in prison, she says, explaining that her mother had never used “hard drugs” before her incarceration.
The first episode of the podcast also sees Nicole visit her father, who now lives in an assisted living facility after an accident 20 years ago.
He looks back on happier times for the family, including their marriage and the early years of marriage before their divorce, claiming that Annette would spoil her children “rotten”.
Nicole describes the impact on her childhood and that of her siblings – all of whom ended up in the care system – because of the miscarriage of justice, saying “the whole world fell apart for all of us after his arrest.”
Annette’s daughter says she lived for a “happy ending”, saying: “When she died, it was the death blow, it really hit me, this dream I had since childhood. childhood wasn’t going to happen now.”
“It’s bittersweet to think about those years and what we went through because it never really came back.”
Wrongly accused: Annette Hewins’ story is now available on BBC Sounds