MPs at Westminster yesterday cleared the way for the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) to refer a former RAF serviceman convicted of the murder of Patricia Curran in Belfast in 1953 to the Court of Appeal upon re-examination of his case.
The Criminal Case Review (Insanity) Bill is now set to become law after clearing the Commons and the Lords, enabling the CCRC to refer Iain Hay Gordon's case to appeal judges.
He was found guilty of Ms Curran's murder by virtue of a guilty-but-insane verdict. Previously, due to a drafting omission, the CCRC was unable to refer cases involving verdicts of guilty but insane to appeal.
The verdict had been replaced by "not guilty by reason of insanity" but it required a change in the law to allow Gordon's case to be handed over to the Appeal Court by the CCRC if it decides there was a miscarriage of justice.
Since the murder of Ms Curran, who was found stabbed in the grounds of her family home in north Belfast, there have been numerous doubts raised about Gordon's conviction.
He served seven years in a psychiatric hospital in Belfast and was released in 1960. Now aged 67 and living in Glasgow, he maintains detectives investigating the murder forced him into a confession.
During an unopposed third reading debate in the Commons, the Labour MP and chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, Mr Chris Mullin, said there were good grounds for believing that Gordon was neither guilty nor insane.
"If Mr Hay Gordon is innocent, he has had hanging over him now for more than 40 years a very considerable burden and he wants to see it put right," he added.