Family's legal challenge over Ryan Passey evidence

The family of a man who was stabbed to death in 2017 has launched a legal challenge against the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) after being told new evidence is not enough to bring fresh charges. A man was charged with murder after Ryan Passey was killed at Chicago's nightclub in Stourbridge, but was acquitted after a trial in 2019. West Midlands later re-examined the case and discovered what Passey's family said was "strong evidence" that was "previously unavailable at the original trial", but the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) ruled it did not justify new proceedings. The family said they felt let down by the criminal justice system and would seek a judicial review of the decision. "At the end of the day all we want is the truth," his mother Gill Taylor said. The CPS said the DPP, Stephen Parkinson, had met with the family to explain the decision and that the bar for permitting retrials in very serious cases - also known as double jeopardy law - was "exceptionally high". "We never hesitate to pursue cases under double jeopardy legislation when the legal tests are met, and will engage fully with any further proceedings in this case," a spokesman said. Passey was 24 when he