'Last witch' likely to get posthumous pardon

A British woman who was jailed as a witch in 1944 could win a posthumous pardon.

Helen Duncan held seances and claimed to hear messages from the dead. During the Second World War she held seances for people desperate to know if their loved ones were safe.

She revealed ships HMS Hood and HMS Barnham had been sunk before the information had been released to the public.

She was considered a threat to national security and campaigners feel her nine-month jail sentence for "pretending to raise the spirits of the dead" was really a government attempt to silence and discredit her.

They felt officials feared what else she might reveal, and to whom. The Witchcraft Act of 1735, which had not been used for 100 years before Duncan's case, has now been repealed.

Now a landmark ruling in an unrelated case could secure a pardon.

The Appeal Court ruled that, in considering the validity of former verdicts, it had to apply standards of fairness relevant to the modern day. Previously, the standards of fairness of the time had been applied.

The lawyer leading the case for Duncan's pardon is sure this will make it inevitable.

Barrister Derek Wilmott said: "I am absolutely certain this judgement can be used to get justice at last for Helen Duncan."