Stefan Kiszko was vindicated over a decade after his death by the conviction of the real killer of Lesley Molseed, Ronald Castree, but there are others who will never be vindicated. For them exoneration is as good as it gets, but they have to live with petty whispering campaigns questioning their innocence.

Hensley Wiltshire died in controversial circumstances in January 1989. Wrongly held in custody and denied the medical attention he needed Wiltshire deteriorated to the point of collapse. He had visited hospital twice in the night of January 5th-6th. The record of his injuries makes interesting reading. Significant injuries were discovered at the post-mortem examination that were not detected on either previous visit to hospital.

The discrepancy was never adequately explained. It was plain that either Tony Poole and/or Gary Mills had inflicted those injuries or Wiltshire had suffered a beating in the cells of Gloucester Police Station. The medical evidence was never properly resolved and nor was the issue of consent to be treated, but there were other causes concern that contributed to a terrible miscarriage of justice.

Inappropriate

Mills and Poole always instead that Mills had defended himself from three attacks by Wiltshire and that Poole was not involved. Neville Juke had been present throughout the incident in Poole’s Conduit Street flat. He was, as the jury recognised, an important witness, but the jury never heard from him.

Juke had been warned off attending the committal hearing. He had been threatened with arrest if he came. Juke recorded part of that conversation – one that then Detective Inspector Trevor Gladding lied about at their trial in 1990. Amazingly, Mills and Poole’s defence had that tape and therefore knew that Gladding had lied to the jury, but a well-respected QC didn’t play it to the jury.

Ian Macdonald QC believed that he would have had to call Juke to verify the tape. In fact he didnʼt. The now discredited Police Complaints Authority (PCA) proved that Gladding was the officer on the tape easily by comparing that recording to known examples of Gladdingʼs voice from interviews that he had conducted.

Had the jury heard that tape it would surely have destroyed Gladding’s credibility and shown the prosecution in a very poor light. And this error came from a very experienced and competent QC.

Permitting Perjury

But Gladdingʼs conduct was far from the only example of inappropriate conduct by police in that investigation that went unchallenged at trial. In time disclosure obligations changed and a pattern of misconduct emerged. A crucial witness claimed to have seen into the flat while Wiltshire was allegedly been attacked and heard Wiltshire say ʼNo, Tony, no!ʼ above the sound of a sound-system at full volume.

Unknown to defence lawyers police officers knew that the witness, Paul White, had lied. In fact, they knowingly allowed him to claim that he had gone there on his own in his statement when he had told them previously that he had gone there with another man who did not verify what White claimed to have seen and heard.

Integrity

It also emerged that Gladding and a colleague who later rose to the rank of Superintendent, John Jeynes, had misrepresented the content of Jukeʼs second statement to police. This had the effect of deceiving Mills and his defence lawyers into thinking that Juke did not support his claim of self-defence.

Having been bluffed in this manner not to call Juke, it took 14 years to acknowledge that the investigation lacked the integrity required to be the basis of safe convictions. It should never have taken so long. Neither Mills nor Poole received the extent of help and support that they needed to rebuild their lives, despite the existence of a government-supported scheme to assist victims of miscarriages of justice like them. Gary Mills sadly passed away on December 10^th 2012.

Coded

For the last quarter of a century the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) was supposed to have provided independent scrutiny on decisions over whether or not to prosecute. It had powers to discontinue prosecutions, which it has used, and it had guidelines that ought to have ensured that the Cardiff Five at least never stood trial.

Hywel Hughes was the Crown Prosecutor in this case. He took the decision to prosecute and did so in spite of the Code for Crown Prosecutors that provided guidance on whether the evidence was of sufficient quality to prosecute with a realistic prospect of conviction. Outrageously the CPS has tried to defend its decision to prosecute by pointing out that it secured convictions.

Culpable

Hughes was also responsible for deciding to prosecute the Newsagent’s Three (Michael O’Brien, Ellis Sherwood and Darren Hall) – another high profile Welsh miscarriage of justice¹ – despite over 100 breaches of PACE and other serious failings. Examination of that Code in the Lynette White Inquiry leaves no room for doubt that it was a prosecution that should never have been tolerated.

Securing convictions in a case now acknowledged, and actually obvious even at that time, to be a notorious miscarriage of justice must never be seen as a justification for a prosecution that plainly did not have credible evidence to justify proceedings. The CPS had a responsibility to halt this prosecution in its tracks and an ongoing discretion to stop the prosecution at any stage before wrongful convictions were secured amid a trail of devastated lives.

Pathetic

Instead, it failed to do so in a case where there is no credible doubt about innocence and acquiesced meekly when those charged with causing that miscarriage of justice stood trial and were allowed to claim that the Cardiff Five were in fact guilty when the evidence proved that they were not. The CPS failed to present the clearest possible evidence of their innocence adequately, despite having had this proof from a very credible source – a respected forensic scientist. That is shameful. The irony of this should not be lost.

Allowing the Cardiff Five to stand trial on evidence that would have been rejected as implausible had it been offered as a script to any policing drama is a failing that taints its claims of independence even now almost a quarter of a century later. It had the opportunity to consign the discredited Penderyn methods to history and failed to do so miserably.

Shameful

Its refusal to do its job adequately resulted in other miscarriages of justice that could have been prevented. The CPS must bear the ultimate responsibility for that. Had it refused to prosecute the Cardiff Five the police would have had a clear message – the Penderyn methods (see The Blame Game at http://fittedin.org/fittedin/?p=918) will no longer result in prosecution, let alone convictions.

That in turn would have meant that police would have been faced with a stark choice. They could cling to the outdated methods and hope for the best (worst really), or they could secretly fabricate evidence, telling nobody and hope to get away with it.

Alternatively, they could change their methods, relying on modern investigative techniques and advances in forensic science, resulting in more reliable evidence and a better chance of securing convictions that deservedly stick. Hughes’ failings and those of the CPS robbed society of an efficient and just criminal justice system almost 25 years ago. For that it must receive a large slice of the blame, but there are others deserving of condemnation too.

Absurd

The Cardiff Five is far from the only miscarriage of justice case from the 1980s and 90s that involves lying witnesses and proven malpractice by police, but it is the only one to result in convictions for perjury. It is not even the only one in South Wales. The case against the Newsagentʼs Three (Michael OʼBrien, Ellis Sherwood and Darren Hall) was never compelling, but they lost more than a decade of their lives.

OʼBrien has waged what was on occasions a one-man battle for justice. He has overwhelming evidence that the investigation that convicted him involved far more than the ʻmonkey businessʼ that prosecutor Gerard Elias QC described. There were over a hundred breaches of the Police And Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) and strong evidence of a pattern of malpractice involving Lewis.

Ten years ago the Newsagentʼs Three were bailed, pending the quashing of their convictions for the murder of Phillip Saunders. Despite admitting perjuring themselves in a BBC Wales documentary on the case Helen Morris and Christopher Chick were never charged. The police officer at the heart of that investigation Stuart Lewis had a history of dubious conduct as well. To date the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) failed to get to the truth. OʼBrienʼs ground-breaking civil action was settled by South Wales Police without admitting liability or issuing an apology¹.

Egregious

Gary Mills and Tony Poole were freed after 14 years wrongful imprisonment in June 2003. Last April the IPCC announced that after an ʻinvestigationʼ lasting over four years, no police officers would be charged or disciplined over their case despite a libel trial, the then Lord Chief Justice, appeal judges and Law Lords reaching different conclusions.

Even the 1996 appeal judges, whose conclusions that the verdicts were safe was quite simply wrong, strongly criticised Detective Inspector Trevor Gladdingʼs conduct, euphemistically branding it ʻexceedingly unwiseʼ. And there was more police conduct that they criticised without interfering with the verdicts then.

Those judges also described the policeʼs conduct towards a crucial witness Paul White, who claimed to have seen a fist make a downward movement and heard a man shout “No Tony, no”! above the sound of a blaring sound system. Nobody else inside the flat heard that and if White had seen what he claims then he had to be at least ten feet tall, as the flat is on an incline to street level.

Burning Injustice

Detective Constables Brian Paine and Mark Cheminais also allowed White to lie in his witness statement by saying he had gone there on his own when he had previously said that he had gone there with the late Andrew Neal. White was facing arson charges at the time, which were not prosecuted subsequently.

He was described at trial as an important witness, but Lord Justice Otton as he then was dismissed his evidence as ʻincapable of beliefʼ. Despite overwhelming evidence that White lied, he has never been investigated for perjury and perverting the course of justice, let alone charged. Why not?

Less than a month after the convictions of Mills and Poole were quashed, Jeffrey Gafoor pleaded guilty to the murder of Lynette White, vindicating the Cardiff Five and the process that would result in perjurers being convicted over a miscarriage of justice began.

Do Mills and Poole have to wait for similar resolution of their case before Whiteʼs lies are even investigated? There is strong evidence of police malpractice in this case that has yet to be adequately investigated too². Do the Newsagentʼs Three have to be vindicated too? There ought to be a better and fairer way.

Inadequate

Miscarriage of justice victim Yusef Abdullahi was shamefully denied the after-care that he was entitled to. Despite years to research the issue, the Home Office failed to ensure that the needs of miscarriage of justice victims were considered when devising a service for them. The Home Office Working Group charged to establish the service and the consultant they used failed to talk to those who would need the service.

Instead they decided what was needed and got it wrong – hopelessly wrong. They also allowed an outrageous mistake to be made that excluded the vast majority of miscarriage of justice victims from receiving even the limited assistance that the scheme provided. Nevertheless, this did not stop the government from making claims about the service that simply was not true.

Erroneous Response

Ministry of Justice Minister Baron (Tom) McNally, responded to a written question about after-care from Baron (John) Laird. As follows: “The Ministry of Justice funds the Miscarriage of Justice Support Service (MJSS) to help those who have had their convictions quashed by the Court of Appeal. The MJSS provides help with issues such as healthcare, accommodation, finance and relationships. The MJSSʼ funding has recently been extended for a further year to March 2012 and the Ministry of Justice is working with it to improve the support they provide”.

Unfortunately, this is not true. At best it provides those services to a very small minority of those whose convictions have been quashed. It does not provide those services to all victims of miscarriages of justice as McNally later acknowledged. Eight years after that error deprived Abdullahi and others of that help nothing has changed. That was shameful.

Six months have passed since South Wales Police and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) failed to complete the prosecution of 12 police officers and 2 witnesses for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and perjury. A unique legal action has had to be launched against South Wales Police to force them to return a journalist’s work product that they have unlawfully retained against the wishes of the rightful owner of that property – me.

Over 20 years of work, consisting of taped interviews, papers and letters, were given to officers investigating how one of Britain’s most shameful miscarriages of justice was allowed to happen. Despite the end of those proceedings police not only retain the originals and copies, but insist that they have the right to decide if or even when they will be returned and whether they will be provided to the DPP (Director of Public Prosecutions) and the IPCC (Independent Police Complaints Commission).

Investigations into the collapse of the trials last December by IPCC and Her Majesty’s Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate (HMCPSI) continue with no deadline or end in sight and the bill continuing to rise without even the possibility of establishing how that miscarriage of justice occurred, or what will be done to prevent recurrence. The terms of reference of both investigations refer only to the collapse of the trial.

I had been due to be a witness in that case as I had gathered important evidence during my research into one of Britain’s first vindication case in a miscarriage of justice in the DNA age. The Cardiff Five (Yusef Abdullahi, John Actie, Ronnie Actie, Stephen Miller and Tony Paris) should never have been arrested, let alone stood trial. The CPS’s Code for Crown Prosecutors makes that very clear, but these men lost a total of 16 years to prison for a crime they did not commit. Abdullahi and Ronnie Actie did not live to see their fiftieth birthdays.

For at least 15 years the CPS has refused to explain why it failed to follow its own Code for Crown Prosecutors, despite its own Sufficiency of Evidence Criteria showing that this was obviously a case that should have been discontinued and quickly. The CPS not only refuses to talk about this wretched failure, but demands I wait an unspecified period after reneging yet again on a previous commitment to explain its conduct. And then they demand patience and cooperation with a process that disgraces any normal notion of justice.

I made it clear that I would not cooperate with the CPS’s investigations, as it is clear that the CPS has no interest in learning the lessons of its numerous failings in this case. They have never investigated their role in this case, let alone cooperated with an independent examination. Unlike South Wales Police the CPS has never apologised to the Cardiff Five, their families, Lynette White’s family and indeed society which pays again and again for the unbelievable incompetence or worse displayed by the CPS over more than 20 years in this one case. If it can happen here imagine how many others this unaccountable organisation has acted with similar disregard for evidence. I cannot cooperate with its investigations and the same applies to the IPCC for different reasons.

South Wales Police responded to my choice to end my cooperation by ignoring that decision and acting unlawfully. I was the only journalist listed as a witness in the ‘Lynette White Inquiry Police Corruption Trial.’ The CPS and Crown Counsel Nicholas Dean QC ensured that I alone could not attend the trial. Investigators into what had gone wrong were given access to my unique work product, papers, letters and tapes. They were loaned to police voluntarily for the duration of that investigation alone.

That process ended 6 months ago. At a meeting with assistant chief constable Matt Jukes and chief superintendent Tim Jones last December I demanded the return of my property. It was after all mine and I had a right to it. It had not been confiscated. It was not the proceeds of crime – they had no right whatever to keep it. Repeated requests were fobbed off. A ludicrous compromise was suggested. I could have copies while they kept the originals and would decide what should happen to them, including giving them to the CPS and IPCC against my wishes.

I have been denied access to my own work for over 6 months since the trial ended, preventing me from using my own work for my soon to be released book. Last week Darren White of Deighton/Pierce/Glynn wrote to South Wales Police was instructed. “As you will be aware, criminal proceedings in relation to this matter have now concluded and Mr Sekar has requested the return of his property held by South Wales Police,” wrote Mr White. “This property has not been returned to him, despite Mr Sekar making it absolutely clear that South Wales Police no longer has his consent to retain his property.

“If South Wales Police will not return our client’s property, please set out the legal basis on which the property is retained.

“If we do not hear from you by 15th June, we will commence legal proceedings on Mr Sekar’s behalf without further reference to you.”

If police can unlawfully retain the property (work product) of journalists and do so without their consent after receiving their voluntary cooperation previously and demand the right to do as they please with it, will any journalist cooperate with them ever again?

Timings

In the early hours of April 22^nd 1972 a police surgeon pronounced mixed-race transvestite Maxwell Confait dead. A fire had just been extinguished at the Doggett Road residence in Catford, South-East London. This would prove to be one of Britain’s most shameful miscarriages of justice. The victim was unsympathetic as far as investigators and even the public were concerned and there were obvious angles to look into.

Establishing the time of death was important and the fire helped to do that, as long as it was linked to the murder. It was investigated as if that was a fact, but it wasn’t. The forensic pathology – horribly botched as it was – should have made that clear from the beginning. Somehow, the significance of it was missed by everyone.

The time of death – admittedly a range – was given as earlier that night by the distinguished forensic pathologist James Cameron, who would later be severely criticised for his role in one of Australiaʼs most notorious miscarriages of justice Lindy and Michael Chamberlain – the Dingo Baby case.

At the trial in November 1972 Cameron moved it even further, saying it could have been as late as just half an hour before the fire was extinguished. This was necessary to explain the inexplicable. Why had brutal killers stayed around for hours and then started a fire there? And then knowing that they had done this why had they started some more in that area, knowing it would draw attention to themselves. This was the breakthrough information that led to the arrests and interrogative strategy.

But it was completely wrong. The fire had nothing to do with the murder. Professor Cameron’s original opinion was wrong. His change of opinion at the trial turned out to be even further wide of the mark than he had previously been. While timing death is not an exact science, especially over 40 years ago, Cameron did not check the organ for discolouration. If he had done so he would have realised that the fire had occurred over two days after Maxwell Confait was murdered – this was badly botched by Cameron to put it mildly.

Expert Errors

Cameron would prove to have eminent company in getting the time of this death badly wrong. Professor Donald Teare was one Britainʼs most eminent forensic pathologists at the time and so was Professor Keith Simpson. Both were very experienced and had distinguished themselves in their chosen field, but they too were involved in an investigation of a miscarriage of justice – one of the most notorious miscarriages of justice in any jurisdiction – Timothy Evans – another vindication case¹. Evans was wrongfully convicted and hanged in 1950².

Teare was the main pathologist in that case, which became a cause célèbre three years later when a resident at the same address, John Christie was exposed as a depraved serial killer rather than the respectable witness he had been portrayed as at Evansʼ trial.His colleagues Francis Camps and Keith Simpson were also involved, but Teareʼs role was the most controversial and despite his attempts to put right the Confait case, his error – also made by Simpson and Cameron – was crass for experts of such standing.

Justice Warrior

Miscarriage of justice survivor and committed campaigner for justice Gerry Conlon has died at his home in Belfast aged 60 after a long illness. Even if they live to be a 100 few people will make the impact that Gerry Conlon did. Conlon endured 15 long years of wrongful imprisonment along with Patrick Armstrong, Paul Hill and Carole Richardson (the Guildford Four).

October 19^th 1989 was a day that shook the foundations of British justice to its core. The smug complacency that it was the best in the world was laid bare. A procession of innocent people blinking in the daylight of freedom, fists clenched in the air, followed the Guildford Four to freedom as conviction after conviction was quashed, but for many the euphoria soon faded as the outrages of life took their toll.

Committed

There was no after-care provided by the State that had so egregiously wronged so many people when Conlon emerged to face the worldʼs media. Over a decade would pass before a new government, which despite its many wrongs, at least had the decency to apologise to the Guildford Four for what they went through, established a very limited scheme to provide after-care.

Despite his failing health Conlon remained committed to social justice, using his Facebook page to highlight causes he held dear. Conlon was a warrior for justice warrior before armchair campaigning became fashionable. He was an inspiration to many along with Paddy Hill and Michael OʼBrien and the late Yusef Abdullahi in particular.

A True Hero

Conlon campaigned for others. The Birmingham Six were the first, but not last. I met him in 1991. He listened attentively as I told him of a shameful miscarriage – naïvely. There was little or nothing I could tell him that he didnʼt know for himself – that he had not experienced. He spoke to their families and encouraged their campaign. He went to Cardiff and helped put the Cardiff Threeʼs Campaign on the map.

The rest of what happened in that case is history, but it owes Gerry Conlon a huge debt and so do I. We have lost a champion of justice and the world is a worse place without him. What would have happened if Gerry and his supporters had not been so tenacious? Would that glorious day in 1989 have happened? Would justice have prevailed for the many that followed him? Who knows, but thankfully it did happen. Gerry Conlon, you will be missed.

Injustice

Over a quarter of a century ago Michael OʼBrien was wrenched from his family. He suffered a grave miscarriage of justice that robbed him and his family of more than a decade of his life. He always knew that he was innocent of the robbery and murder of Cardiff newspaper vendor, Phillip Saunders – it should have been obvious to others too. During the dark days of his wrongful imprisonment – he was wrongfully convicted along with Ellis Sherwood and Darren Hall – OʼBrien needed an outlet.

He found it in football. He was a Cardiff City and Wales fan. For 90 minutes every weekend he could forget his woes and support his team. In his mind he was on the terraces willing his team on. It helped him cope. OʼBrien was one of the main inspirations for both the Fitted-In Project and Empower-Sport launching our project A Sporting Chance of After-care.

Inspiration

Football had given OʼBrien hope when he needed it most. He survived the miscarriage of justice and he fought tirelessly for others – he still does through the Dylan OʼBrien Foundation.¹ Victims of miscarriages of justice are largely forgotten about by society. The euphoria of their release, even in high profile cases quickly wears off. Support and assistance was hard to come by. Many retreat into their shells again unwilling to engage with people who do not and cannot understand.

But football had helped once. Perhaps it could again. Not only had it helped OʼBrien, but anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela and his comrades on the infamous Robben Island, too.

Football Unites

We decided that perhaps football could help again. We approached the Football Association of Wales to provide the practical support that our project needed. They readily agreed. It was fitting that OʼBrien was the first person to be helped under our scheme. Along with a trusted person – an essential part of the scheme – OʼBrien was provided with seats to support Wales against Cyprus. He enjoyed the experience greatly including the result as Wales beat Cyprus 2-1 to remain top of Group B. It helped him too

“Satish should be commended for setting up this project, which can benefit those who have suffered a miscarriage of justice”, OʼBrien said. “I thoroughly enjoyed the Wales v Cyprus game and I am extremely grateful to Satish and the FAW for taking part in this project and hope they continue to support this in the future”.

1 The Foundation was established in memory of OʼBrienʼs son whose death aged two could and should have been prevented. Together with his wife Claire, they campaign for greater awareness of the condition that Dylan suffered from and to help others. Dylan suffered from a rare, but tragically undiagnosed condition Mucopollysaccharidosis (see www.thedylanobrienfoundation.com for further information on the Dylan OʼBrien Foundation).