On 3 April 1759 Eugene Aram (pictured), a schoolmaster from Knaresborough in Yorkshire, was convicted of the murder of local shoemaker Daniel Clark, which had taken place 14 years previously. Three days after that conviction he was hanged and his remains suspended in chains near the scene of the crime as a warning to other would-be criminals.

Aram was prosecuted by local landowner and peer, Fletcher Norton KC, who went on to become attorney general and lord chancellor. The unfortunate accused, however, represented himself.

Present-day local solicitor Rodney Noon, principal at Harrogate firm Rodney W Noon & Co, has long believed Aram to be innocent and that it was the lack of representation that led to his conviction. Last week, over 250 years after the original trial, Noon got the chance to test his theory when the sadly absent Aram was retried in the former Ripon Courthouse, now a museum. Noon represented the defendant, who was prosecuted by Nicola Harding, partner at Ripon firm Tunnard & Co.

To the defending counsel’s immense satisfaction (if not to his client’s) the jury acquitted Aram. Not exactly ‘simple speedy summary justice’, alas, but definitely a case of better late than never.

It is unclear whether Aram’s descendants will now seek compensation for a gross miscarriage of justice.

Noon quipped: ‘I have never had a client hanged before and I would have hated for [Aram] to be the first.’

More seriously, he added: ‘We proved that representation changes outcomes.’ A message that the present lord chancellor might wish to consider, methinks.