In January 2003, the British media splashed the news that anti-terror police had disrupted an Al-Qaeda cell, poised to unleash the deadly poison ricin on the capital. Police had reportedly found traces of ricin, as well as a panoply of bomb and poison-making equipment in the cell’s ‘factory of death’ – a shabby flat in north London. ‘This danger is present and real, and with us now’ announced prime minister Tony Blair.

But, when the ‘ricin plot’ came to trial at the Old Bailey, a very different story emerged: there was no ricin and no sophisticated plot. Rarely has a legal case been so shamelessly distorted by government, media and security forces to push their own ‘tough on terror’ agendas. In this meticulously researched and compellingly written book, Lawrence Archer, the jury foreman at the trial, and journalist Fiona Bawdon, give the definitive story of the ricin plot, the trial and its aftermath.

Lawrence Archer is the telecoms engineer who was foreman of the jury at the 2005 Ricin trial. He has followed the lives of the acquitted defendants ever since, including attending their High Court and immigration appeal hearings.

Fiona Bawdon is a freelance journalist. She writes on criminal and civil justice issues for the national and specialist legal press.

Michael Mansfield QC is an English barrister specialising in criminal defence work. He has often worked to overturn miscarriages of justice, including the wrongful imprisonment of both the Guildford Four and the Birmingham Six. He represented one of the acquitted defendants in the Ricin trial.