AN IRISH grandfather in the United States has been declared innocent of the oldest cold case in American history, just six years after his charge and conviction.
Maria Ridulph. (Picture: CBS)Jack McCullough, originally from Belfast, moved to the United States with his mother after the second World War.
He was indicted in 2011 on charges of the kidnap and rape of Maria Ridulph.
Seven year old Maria was kidnapped from Sycamore, Illnois on December 3, 1957 when a man named 'Johnny' approached her and her friend Kathy Chapman and offer Maria a piggyback ride.
Maria's friend had gone to collect her mittens from her home and when she returned, Maria and Johnny were gone.
Five months later, Maria Ridulph's body was found in a wooded area 100 miles from her home.
At the time, the then 18-year-old Jack McCullough was questioned by police over Maria's disappearance but was eventually cleared by the FBI after phone records proved his alibi that he was in a town 40 miles away attending physical examinations to enlist in the US Air Force.
While this alibi was originally confirmed by the FBI and co-oberated by McCullough's family, in 1994 his mother Eileen told her daughter Janet on her deathbed that her son had kidnapped and murdered Maria Ridulph and told her to tell the authorities.
Following the confession, police re-opened the case in 2008 and asked Kathy Chapman - and only witness to her disappearance - to look at 50-year-old photographs and identify Maria's kidnapper.
After McCullough was identified, he was arrested and indicted in Seattle in 2011 and his trial began in September 2012, where he was convicted of the kidnap and murder of the seven year old.
At the age of 73, he was given a life sentence with the possibility of parole after 20 years.
Jack McCullough's mother Eileen. (Picture: CBS)In 2015, McCullough appealed his conviction and the charges of kidnap and murder were overturned as a judge ruled that Eileen's deathbed confession should never have been admissible evidence.
In April 2016, Judge William Brady vacated the kidnap and murder charges against McCullough and he was released from prison.
At a hearing in Illinois on Wednesday, Jack McCullough was declared formally innocent of the 1957 murder and kidnap.
"The ultimate question that must be answered herein is: Is it more likely that the defendant would be found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt or is it more likely that he would be found not guilty and not responsible for Maria Ridulph's disappearance and murder," Judge Brady said.
"Based on the changes in the law and the consideration of the additional evidence now available to this Court that may not have been available to the trier of fact, the latter of these questions is true and, thus, Mr. McCullough's petition is granted and counsel for Mr. McCullough shall prepare the appropriate orders requested," Judge Brady said, declaring McCullough's innocence.
Speaking to CNN following the declaration of his innocence, McCullough said: "I'm innocent and I didn't want there to be any doubt.
"What was done to me was criminal. They knew I was innocent and they put me in prison anyway.
His status as a former police officer convicted of killing a child made him a target behind bars, he added.
"You don't have a life," he explained. "Your life is in danger every second that you're in prison. I'm lucky to have survived prison."
"I am innocent, proven innocent, and I want my name back," he testified last week.
"My name has been in all the papers coast to coast. I have been put forward as a monster, and people still believe I am a monster."
