Institutional Racism

Over 20 months before black aspiring architect Stephen Lawrence was murdered, the Metropolitan Police and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) had the opportunity to save his life, but institutional racism prevented it. 15-year-old Rolan Adams was brutally murdered on February 21^st 1991. His then 14-year-old brother Nathan escaped the killers. By the time he returned – it was before everyone carried mobile phones – Rolan was dead. His carotid artery had been cut.

A group of 15 racist thugs who had been involved in racist attacks before and since were responsible. They hurled ugly racist abuse at the two boys who had just been waiting for a bus and attacked them. Mark Thornburrow was the only one of them convicted of murder. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommendation that he serve a minimum of 10 years in jail. Despite that over 20 years after losing his son Rolan’s father, Richard, still feels betrayed.

Connived

“They connived to remove the racist element from the murder,” an angry Richard Adams said at the time. “We knew that we would not get justice when they started saying that territorialism rather than racism was the main motivation for the murder”.

Both police and CPS saw it as a triumph as Mark Thornburrow was jailed for life for the murder of 15-year-old Rolan Adams, but 15 racist youths attacked Rolan and his then 14-year-old brother Nathan, who survived the attack. Only 7 of the gang who had racially abused and attacked other black youths on the Thamesmead estate, were charged and that was reduced to 4, and only 3 eventually got 120 hours community service for violent disorder.

Fostering a Knife Culture

“The others are as guilty as Thornburrow”, Mr Adams told me. “My sons could not defend themselves from all of them. They should have been charged with murder by joint enterprise. If the police and CPS had done that my son’s murder might have been the last in the Borough of Greenwich instead of the first of three racist murders”.

Justice has finally taken its course in the notorious case of the murder of Stephen Lawrence, but the ordeal of the Richard and Nathan Adams and their family continues. It could and should have prevented the murders of Rohit Duggal and later Stephen Lawrence and many other knife-crimes too.

Cowardly

Mr Adams is dissatisfied with Thornburrow’s tariff. “10 years for the cowardly murder of my son is not enough,” said Mr Adams. “The judge acknowledged that it was racist and he carried and used a knife. What kind of deterrence is that? If Thornburrow had received the sentence he deserved, the knife-carrying culture that followed could have been stopped in its tracks. He should have been charged with the attempted murder of Nathan as well, which should have increased the tariff. The Lord Chief Justice could have increased his tariff and so could the Home Secretary at that time. Why didn’t they”?

Victimsʼ Rights

Their lives were torn apart by Rolan’s murder  a crime that should have been the pivotal moment in race relations in Britain. Mr Adams believes that the actions of the criminal justice system not only made their ordeal worse, but left other families vulnerable too.

“I have no doubt that institutional racism played a major part not just in the failure to give us justice, but encouraging the racists”, Mr Adams said. “We wanted victim’s rights back then, but we were left to fend for ourselves. The thugs hurled racist abuse at my sons before attacking them because they were black. They did nothing wrong. If the police and CPS had done their jobs properly, Rolan’s murder would have been seen as the racist crime it was and the families of Rohit Duggal and Stephen Lawrence would not have faced that same racism by a system that should have known better”.

Failed Miserably

Witnesses, including Nathan, testified that it was a racist attack and the judge was satisfied that they were right. “The CPS should not have relied on the police alone”, said Mr Adams. “The police had a racist view that this was not a racist murder. They were wrong and they made a terrible ordeal for us even worse. The CPS should have relied on the witnesses. They were there and they knew it was racist. When the judge agreed with us that the thugs who attacked my sons were racist, the police and CPS should have agreed to an independent judicial inquiry to find out why we were failed so miserably. That could have prevented other tragedies”.

Richard and Nathan and their family suffered a terrible ordeal. Nathan turned his back on a promising career in football. He went off the rails as a result of that terrible February night. He has got back on track without any help from the authorities.

“The police and CPS should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves”, said Mr Adams. “Not only did they fail us miserably in the prosecution, but they gave us no support either. Nathan especially really needed help. It took us many years to recover and ensure that Rolan has the fitting legacy he deserves.”

Legacy

They have established the Rolan Adams Legacy Trust to make sure that this important story in Britain’s race relations is never forgotten. They also want justice for both Rolan and Nathan. “Thornburrow got a minimum recommendation of 10 years, but he eventually served only 13”, said Mr Adams. “Why? It was a cowardly racist murder and he claimed he acted in self-defence. 15 against 2 and he had a knife as well and he is allowed to get out too soon”. His thoughts on that are understandably unprintable.

He has no doubt that institutional racism robbed his family of justice and that if the CPS had prosecuted the others through joint enterprise it would have sent a message to others not to encourage racist attacks and even restrain knife-wielding thugs like Thornburrow. He thinks that had those lessons been learned early enough, Rohit Duggal and Stephen Lawrence among others might still be alive. But he wants more – a legacy for Rolan and the justice he and his family were denied 20 years ago.

“There have been fantastic advances in forensic science in the last 20 years”, said Mr Adams. “The police and CPS have a chance to redeem themselves by investigating Rolan’s murder and the attempted murder of Nathan properly through modern investigative methods and forensic science. Both Rolan and Nathan are entitled to justice even if it is 20 years later than it should have been”.

Steven Bird
(Leading solicitor and Treasurer of the Criminal Appeals Lawyers’ Association)

We highlighted issues that other media have ignored – issues that contribute to the miscarrying of justice and the continued devastation of the lives of all of the victims of these injustices.Yusef Abdullahi was deprived of assistance to rebuild his life despite a government scheme to assist victims of miscarriages of justice. It took 8 years to correct a scandalous error by a Home Office appointed consultant. All other media have ignored this scandal.

Richard Adams
(Father of racist murder victim Rolan and Trustee of The Fitted-In Project)

We offered the BBC unique access to the historic inquiry into what went wrong, having secured unprecedented co-operation from the police. The BBC didn’t bother to accompany us to Cardiff to do so in 2008, refusing to commit to a story it now says is important for them to cover.

Mags Gavan
(BAFTA award-winning documentary-maker)

Sekar was offered an insulting choice by the BBC to take part in the programme by the BBC, which they have not tried to impose on other journalists who have not achieved as much. Sekar agreed to be interviewed, subject to a complaint. The conditions would ensure that his criticisms of the BBC designed to assist the reporting of miscarriages of justice and related issues would never be broadcast.

The Fitted-In Project is concerned about the conditions that the BBC tried to impose and justify even now. Nobody else has been treated like this, especially after an unprecedented achievement. For the truth about the Lynette White Inquiry see Sekar’s books Fitted In: The Cardiff 3 and the Lynette White Inquiry and The Cardiff Five: Innocent Beyond Any Doubt, which was published recently by Waterside Press.

Satish Sekar pioneered the concept of vindication. The FIP is proud to launch Vindication – The Last Hope of the Innocent today (September 5th). It aims to ensure that the lessons of cases where victims of miscarriages of justice have been proven innocent by the identification or even conviction of real killers are fully learned. There have been six cases of vindication in Britain in the DNA age, but only one had an investigation of what went wrong – a process that was ultimately betrayed. Vindication – The Last Hope of the Innocent is long overdue.

“This is the story of one of the most notorious miscarriages of justice in British history told by Satish Sekar, whose unremitting efforts helped lead to the vindication of the Cardiff Five. They always were innocent, but their freedom was not enough. The memory of Lynette White and her family deserved justice too and that required the conviction of the real killer, Jeffrey Gafoor.This book shows how even a very difficult case can be solved if there is the will to investigate it thoroughly. It details how an awful miscarriage of justice was finally corrected by the conviction of the real killer. Satish’s work was pivotal to achieve this, and he is keen to continue the fight to ensure that the lessons of an extraordinary case are properly learned.”

Steven Bird (Solicitor and Treasurer of CALA)

“I wish Mr Sekar all the best in his work. His passion in ensuring that all available support is directed to those wrongly convicted and incarcerated is admirable.”

The Rt. Hon. Jack Straw (Former Home Secretary and Minister of Justice)

We are delighted to launch Proved Innocent – Vindication. We highlighted the inequity of a system that ignored some victims of miscarriages even though there is no doubt about their innocence. Eight years of refusing to allow the government to ignore an egregious injustice to be ignored resulted in a shameful error being corrected, but too late for Yusef Abdullahi. Despite his innocence being beyond question John Actie is still excluded from the scheme as is Colin Stagg, the original defendants in the Damilola Taylor Inquiry and the family of Phillip Skipper. Disgracefully, the family of victims of crime like Lynette White’s do not qualify either. Proved Innocent – Vindication highlights this affront to justice.

“As a victim of institutional racism I quickly saw the injustice of the case of the Cardiff Five and came to appreciate and admire the work that Satish Sekar put in on that case especially. He cared about all of the victims of that injustice and others too. Twenty years later he continues to fight for justice. His role in that case especially was pivotal – having worked not only to free the innocent, but to bring the guilty to justice. Even after making history in that respect he continues to fight on to bring the system that allowed so gross an injustice to book. There are forgotten or ignored victims of crime. My family has first-hand experience of that. I appreciated Satish’s often unseen efforts to help all of the victims. Sadly, the battle against injustice that brought us together remains to be won.”

Richard Adams (Father of Rolan Adams)

Just Tariffs – Protecting The Innocent is another of our most important projects. We are honoured to launch it here today. It highlights the incredible situation where the truly guilty get treated more leniently than the undeniably innocent for the same crime. Astonishingly this happened after the criminal justice system claimed to have taken into account the fact that such a killer had allowed innocent people to go to prison for his crime. The Law Commission and Ministry of Justice, among others refuse to accept that there is a problem.

“The case of the Cardiff Three, as it is best known, was a miscarriage of justice written in the starkest language. This was the story of three young men convicted of the 1988 murder of Lynette White in Cardiff who were freed on appeal in 1992. It is of particular significance because the real perpetrator of the murder, Jeffrey Gafoor, was finally traced through developments in DNA and, after attempting suicide, confessed to his crime, a crime made worse by the fact that he had allowed others to, as it were, serve his sentence for him. Such vindication, as Sekar explains in this book, is rare. More often, a shadow of suspicion lurks over the innocent man or woman, with unsubtle hints that some of them have ‘got away with murder.’

The Cardiff Three – sometimes called the Cardiff Five, because five men were arrested and charged although only three convicted – was and will remain one of the most crucial cases in the history of criminal justice in the United Kingdom and is worthy of detailed examination. It is not only for what went wrong at the time but for the many other issues it has thrown up in its wake.No-one is better suited to the task of explaining and unravelling the complexities of the story than Satish Sekar whose pioneering work has played a large part in our understanding of the murder and its ramifications. He has ploughed an often lonely furrow in pursuit of the story long after it had slipped from the front pages of the national press. Investigating such cases is a time-consuming and sometimes dangerous occupation.”

Duncan Campbell (Former Crime Correspondent of the Guardian)