Wronged

Mpagi Edward Edmary

Mpagi Edward Edmary was living a nightmare not of his making. He had survived the tyrannical régimes of Milton Obote and Idi Amin only to fall victim to a despicable injustice. He was convicted of the worst type of offence – one that had not occurred. He was alleged to have murdered William Wandyaka. His cousin Fred Masembe had also been wrongly convicted in April 1982.

But this was no ordinary injustice. Wandyaka had not been murdered by Edmary or Masembe and it was no accident either. Unbelievably, Wandyaka had manipulated the law to further a dispute with Edmaryʼs family. It beggars belief that Wandyaka was in fact alive and well throughout this shameful miscarriage of justice.

Less than a year and a half after they were convicted of the crime they had not committed – they had believed that these things did not happen – the pair had lost their appeal too. The death sentence – a mandatory one – had been confirmed. They applied for the prerogative of mercy, but no mercy was displayed either. And to make matters worse malaria had considerably weakened Masembe. Denied medication he died in August 1985.

Harsh Realities

Edmary faced a huge fight on his own. Edmary had to take on and beat the utterly corrupt system that had wronged him, but he had some hope. The régime that had dispensed rotten justice had failed again. Obote II, was if anything, more brutal and corrupt than his first government.

A month before Masembeʼs tragic death Obote was once again overthrown by a military coup led by Brigadier Bazilio Olara-Okello and General Tito Okello. They established a Military Council which lasted a few months before Yoweri Museveniʼs National Resistance Army swept it from power. The Military Council did nothing to address the injustice suffered by Edmary and Masembe, even though they were victims of a corrupt judicial process.

Mpagi Edward Edmary at the school

Obote had already fled to Tanzania and then to Zambia. Meanwhile, Oboteʼs Vice President, Paulo Muwanga, would soon taste the harsh realities of prison life. After the coup he was arrested. Museveni came to power in 1986. He has been in power in Uganda ever since. Muwanga died in 1991. His fall from power had been catastrophic.

After Museveni came to power Muwangaʼs victims voiced their discontent. It resulted in Muwangaʼs arrest and later convictions. Muwanga was the star witness before the Uganda Human Rights Commission under Justice Arthur Oder in 1988. He defended his record. Sadly, Justice Oderʼs Commission did not consider the appalling abuse of the human rights of Fred Masembe and the ongoing injustice that Edmary had to fight without his cousin by his side any longer.

A Lone Furrow

Nobody had committed the ʻmurderʼ that Masembe had died over and Edmary was enduring a living death, wondering when the executioners would come for him. They were both innocent and the case was no accident either. Edmaryʼs amazing story that not only were he and Masembe innocent, but that there had been no crime, was proved true.

Edmary was adamant that Wandyakaʼs family had taken a callous revenge on his for the dispute by framing him and his cousin for a murder that never happened. Wandyaka, he insisted, was in fact alive and well, savouring this inhuman revenge. Edmary claims that he even saw Wandyaka attend the trial, relishing their ordeal.

Mpagi Edward Edmary

It took many years and considerable luck, but eventually a Presidential Commission established that Edmary was innocent. There was no means to adequately right the wrong. Wandyaka was alive and well. It was clearly unconscionable to keep Edmary in jail, so on July 20th 2000 – over 19 years after his ordeal began – Mpagi Edward Edmary was released by Presidential Pardon.

A Change is Gonna Come

It remains an egregious miscarriage of justice that shames Uganda despite Museveniʼs government belatedly putting it right. Oboteʼs criminal justice system had proved itself to be venal, corrupt and vicious. It also allowed itself to be used in a dispute. It allowed two innocent men to have their lives wrecked or taken when their ʻvictimʼ was in fact alive and well throughout.

This is Ugandaʼs difference-making injustice – the case from which a competent and just criminal justice system can emerge through its own Truth and Justice Commission. Uganda must seize that chance and shame those jurisdictions that talk about truth and justice, but fail to deliver, despite a plethora of worthy cases.

It must do so in the best interests of the Ugandan people. They deserve to know that the ordeals suffered by Fred Masembe and Mpagi Edward Edmary were not in vain and that from the entrails of this abominable injustice a fair and just system system will emerge. The Fitted-In Project is committed to playing its part in facilitating that process in Uganda.

For more information on the school that is Mpagiʼs passion and how to help him keep his dream alive see http://dreamoneworld.org/

Satish Sekar © Satish Sekar (June 1st 2011)

Discretion and Valour

Of the seven vindication cases in Britain four of them are no longer eligible for compensation or after-care and it is too late to help a fifth, who would have qualified.[2] The abolition of the Discretionary Scheme for compensation in 2006 denies anyone whose conviction is quashed too soon eligibility for compensation. The current government endorsed that shameful decision.[3]

“The discretionary compensation scheme was abolished on 19 April 2006 by the then Home Secretary and the coalition Government have no plans to reintroduce it,” Minister of State at the Ministry of Justice, Lord (Thomas) McNally replied to a written question from Lord (John) Laird earlier this year.[4]

“We will continue to consider applications for compensation under the statutory scheme, Section 133 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988, which fully meets our international obligations.”

Scandalous

That means that some people who have been vindicated would be excluded if their cases were to happen now, but compensation is only part of the problem. There is an even bigger scandal over the provision of care or restoration.
A ludicrous error passed unnoticed nearly a decade ago. The Home Office recognised that victims of miscarriages of justice required and deserved assistance to rebuild their lives. It established a Working Group to consider the issue and establish such a scheme. It was given terms of reference and so was Peter Shore (not the former MP of that name), the Consultant that it hired to conduct a scoping study.
Shore failed to execute those terms of reference adequately and recommended a scheme that excluded the vast majority of victims of miscarriages of justice. Only Sean Hodgson is alive and eligible for the scheme operated by the MJSS, which begs the question, what use is it if it excludes the demonstrably innocent?[5]

To its shame and disgrace it failed to highlight the obvious injustice of its remit excluding among others Colin Stagg. There is plenty of shame and disgrace to go round over this and that includes mainstream media.

Plain Wrong

The term injustice is grossly inadequate to describe the suffering that Stagg and others like him went through. If he is not the victim of a miscarriage of a justice, the term has no meaning. Stagg is entitled to more than just compensation for what happened to him.
He did not ask for what happened to him to occur and is in no way responsible for the incompetence and unethical practices that ruined his life. He will always be identifiable as the suspect in the Rachel Nickell case regardless of his proven innocence.
At last he has now received apologies for what he went through, but the state has an obligation to restore him to the life that he should have had if that miscarriage of justice had not happened to him. That has not happened and the coalition government has no intention of ensuring that it does. In fact, its ministers donʼt even know its own policy.
“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,” McNally replied to Laird. “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.”

Disgraceful

First of all, the MJSS does not provide help to those who have had their convictions quashed on appeal – it only provides that limited assistance to a tiny minority of such people. It shamefully reneged on a commitment to help Tony Paris and Yusef Abdullahi eight years ago to protect its funding, which included their wages.
The fact remains that there are several victims of miscarriages of justice who receive no help at all from the MJSS. If McNally is unaware of this, he ought to be ashamed of himself. The MJSS had the opportunity to help and improve the so-called service it provides eight years ago. It chose to sacrifice the interests of the undeniably innocent to protect its wages, claiming it was to protect its funding.
That disgraceful decision helped to cost lives. At least three vindicated people died without living to fifty without receiving any help whatsoever from the MJSS or the Ministry of Justice. Neither can ever make amends.

Exclusion Ordered

The original defendants in the Damilola Taylor case are at least still alive, but they receive no help from the MJSS. They were children when it happened; they had criminal records and were far from angels. So what!
They did not kill Taylor and they did not ask to be wrongly accused of a crime that shocked the nation. They have been compensated now after a long and hard battle and even that is resented. Why?
Where is the anger at the shoddy investigation that secured abysmal evidence from the child witness referred to as ʻBromleyʼ? Where is the anger at the utter incompetence of Sian Hedges that resulted in the wrongful release of the Preddie brothers (Ricky and Danny)?
The outrage at the size of the award given to two brothers (not the Preddies) is totally misplaced. They deserve compensation – at least that amount, but the size of the award given to Taylorʼs family is insulting. That should be addressed by increasing the award made to Taylorʼs family, not by attacking the award made to boys who stood trial when they should not have.

Motes and Specks

Meanwhile, we allow the undeniably innocent to be treated in a fashion that shames each and every one of us. That mainstream media ignores this scandal disgraces them too. That governments of both political hues refuse to act to end this outrage betrays every concept of justice.
They go to war in foreign fields to defend human rights, yet these hypocrites tolerate and ignore the human rights abuses that they allow to occur right here in Britain. By what right do they dare to lecture others when this is how they allow people they know to be innocent beyond doubt to be treated? It appears they need considerable assistance to remove the enormous mote from their own eyes, while tackling specks in the eyes of others.

Progress

The Fitted-In Project led the way in highlighting the treatment of these victims and in one of the cases we helped fill the void caused by the betrayal of the innocent with the assistance of a remarkable advocate and champion of restorative justice, Roger Backhouse QC. He led the delivery of after-care in practice to his former client, Yusef Abdullahi, without which, shorn of help and hope, the prospect of recovery was bleak.
While Backhouse and others provided the assistance required to an undoubtedly innocent man, the government and MJSS ignored that manʼs needs and those of the majority of victims of miscarriages of justice.[6]

Even now eight years later, the government has no plans to right the wrong that allowed this shameful injustice to occur. Instead it will consult with the very organisation that betrayed the innocent to protect its funding – shameful!

The Effects of Vindication

Instead of consulting people that played no part in catering for the needs of the vindicated, even at the cost of consigning them to early graves, we call for meaningful research that will boost our understanding of a shamefully neglected group of victims of miscarriages of justice.
The psychological effects of vindication remain a mystery. The vindicated are no more innocent now than they always were. The difference is that now they are believed by all but those who refuse to see. But what about the effects on vindication? Has the very thing they craved actually damaged them?
For many years they suffered whispering campaigns, including among so-called friends and developed paranoid reactions to their own communities, wondering who believed them and who didnʼt. Friendships and other relationships broke down under the strain of the certainty they now have against their knowledge that they should have been believed and supported to the hilt earlier.

Justice Betrayed

Feeling hurt – betrayed even – by people they trusted, but whose support was not strong enough, the vindicated may need extra support, or at least understanding. That requires research and it must include the psychological effects of tariff abuse.
Some vindicated people have seen the truly guilty receive more lenient tariffs than they did. How can this be justified and what effect does it have on the mental well-being of the vindicated? There is not so much a dearth of research on this – it is virtually non-existent.
Tariff Reform and after-care, especially in relation to the vindicated, are the flagship projects of The Fitted-In Project. They even involve sport as a means to aid their recovery.
We believe that research is essential on both topics and we are conducting it, but there are areas that we cannot cover as efficiently as we would like, so we call on the Clinical Forensic and Legal Medicine Section of the Royal Society of Medicine, other organisations and individuals to join us in facilitating understanding of the psychological effects of vindication in terms of after-care needs and also tariff abuse through research. We hope that its members will research these issues, or facilitate research projects with us on these issues.
It is through knowledge that their needs can be addressed, but first they need to be understood – that is a task to be led by professionals in the field through rigorous research. It is in our opinion an essential tenet of another integrated approach – one that integrates the vindicated back into society and the life they should have had.

[1] An indication of the importance of an integrated approach can be seen in Equality of Arms, at http://fittedin.org/fittedin/?p=690  for more on this case and others too.

[2]  Subsequently, a sixth who plainly was eligible has died, so it is too late for him too.

[3]  The current government has extended the attack on compensation to demand a standard that appears to demand that the wrongfully convicted must be exonerated – a standard that can prove impossible to meet unless the real perpetrator is brought to justice. Few independent observers believe that Barry George had anything to do with the murder of former gymnast and later television presenter, Jill Dando, but he has been denied compensation on the grounds of exoneration. This is grossly unfair as the criminal justice system rarely makes findings of innocence. A not guilty verdict includes both the innocent and also defendants who have not been proved guilty. The distinction is moot. Similarly convictions are quashed on appeal because they are unsafe. That includes both the innocent and appellants whose convictions were faulty. Again the distinction is moot as neither the trial nor appeal gives a finding of innocence, so how does a wrongfully accused prove that they have been exonerated and are therefore entitled to compensation?

[4] Please note that this was in 2011.

[5] That was correct when this presentation was given to a conference of medical practitioners, which included distinguished forensic pathologists.

[6]    See how we exposed this scandal in A Lack of Care at http://fittedin.org/fittedin/?p=709 and Who Cared? at http://fittedin.org/fittedin/?p=707

Kafkaesque

If the great writer Franz Kafka had written the story below nobody would believe it could really happen!

Most wrongly accused people at least have the cold comfort of knowing why they are suffering an injustice. Imagine being arrested, tried and sentenced to death for a crime you didnʼt commit. An horrific experience – no doubt. Now imagine that you served 18 long years – all of them, knowing that any day you could be dragged off and hanged without even being allowed to bid final farewells. Imagine that you knew for a fact that you and your co-accused were innocent.

Now imagine that your co-accused, a cousin fell ill. You knew that his life could have been saved, but the prison authorities refuse to give him the treatment he needs. Why, they argue, should they waste precious medicines treating a man they are going to execute anyway? Cruel and callous, definitely, but the logic is there, except you know that they are allowing an innocent man to die slowly and cruelly – a man you know for a fact is innocent.

The Shameful Secret

There is nothing that you can do about it. Youʼre helpless as your cousin is claimed by malaria and complications from the lack of treatment. Thereʼs nothing you can do to help yourself either. You know that the regime that imprisoned you has fallen – it was venal, corrupt and brutal. But despite that you remain in prison, still on Death Row, waiting for the executioners to come for you.

And all this time you know something big, something enormous, something that exposes your case as among the worst travesties of justice that your country – the world even – has ever seen.You know that the man you and your late cousin were convicted of murdering was not only not killed by you, he was killed by nobody. And no, this is not a case of death by natural causes wrongly called murder. You know the big secret, but you are locked up unable to conduct the investigation to prove your innocence in the most incredible fashion.

The big secret, the one that disgraces the system that robbed you of your liberty and your cousin of his life is shameful – beyond shameful even. It is incredible. It beggars belief. The man you were convicted of murdering is alive and well! Canʼt happen? Think again. This was the nightmare that The Fitted-In Projectʼs International Committee Member Mpagi Edward Edmary was forced to endure for more than 18 years.

Edit

Radio Cardiff

Part Four with Georgina Sammut

Satish Sekar explains the very lenient tariff that the real murderer Jeffrey Gafoor received for atrocious murder of Lynette White. He details the deficiencies in the tariff system, how they came about and the problems of innocence in such a system. Sekar explains the setting of the tariff for the murder of Lynette and how the judge made mistakes determining the tariff and in the balancing of aggravating circumstances against mitigation. Sekar explains his motivation in continuing to fight for justice. He then explains the damage done to the victims of injustice and the failure to provide after-care. Sekar argues for a Truth and Justice Commission rather than a Public Inquiry. He explains the failure of Royal Commissions to address the problems as governments can pick and chose, which bits they want to adopt.

Part Five with Georgina Sammut

Satish Sekar explains the work of The Fitted-In Project, highlighting the extent of vindication throughout the world. He argues that vindication has the power to change criminal justice systems. The FIP is working with organisations in the USA. He details the problems with the Grand Jury system, illustrated by the recent case of Michael Brown. Sekar argues for Truth and Justice Commissions over all the issues in different jurisdictions. He also explains how they would work, be constituted and what he hopes it would achieve.

Part Six with Georgina Sammut

Satish Sekar explains the projects of The Fitted-In Project. He explains that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and Attorney General failed to appeal against the leniency of the tariff imposed on Gafoor. He then details the lack of after-care and how the provisions of the government scheme excluded the vast majority of victims. Sekar highlights the benefits of sport to assist in the after-care of victims of miscarriages of justice. Michael O’Brien has benefited from it. Sekar also mentions the Dylan O’Brien Foundation.

Discussion hosted by Dr Feelgood aka Kervin Julien

Guests – Gregg L. Greer, Alex M. Salazar and Satish Sekar

Kervin Julien hosts a lively discussion on police brutality, miscarriages of justice and the lack of accountability over it on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Former police officer, turned activist, Alex Salazar details the battle for justice over brutality in Ferguson and New York, while Gregg Greer, President of Freedom First International, gave his perspective on the struggle for accountability in the USA. Satish Sekar spoke about the Crown Prosecution Service failing to ensure accountability, especially in the Lynette White Inquiry.

Discussion hosted by Dr Feelgood aka Kervin Julien

Guests – Gregg L. Greer, Alex M. Salazar, Satish Sekar and David Whitt 

Kervin Julien continues to moderate the discussion on police brutality and the lack of accountability. Towards the end of the programme one of the activists leading the fight for accountability in Ferguson, David Whitt, joins in. Julien has promised to return to these issues soon.

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Martin Shipton – Chief Reporter of the Western Mail and Echo

The Fitted-In Project is saddened that once again the BBC has chosen to marginalise our work on the Lynette White Inquiry, especially that of our founder and CEO, Satish Sekar. We are very disappointed that tonight’s Panorama programme has chosen to rewrite history. For an accurate record of that history-making case see Sekar’s books Fitted In: The Cardiff 3 and the Lynette White Inquiry and The Cardiff Five: Innocent Beyond Any Doubt, which was recently published by Waterside Press.

Michael Mansfield QC

• “Satish Sekar has been assiduous in following the events surrounding the murder of Lynette White in Cardiff in 1988. From the beginning he questioned the techniques that were used and decisions of the authorities in regard to this case and many of his views – which appeared marginal at the time – turned out to be accurate or close to the truth in a way that has certainly helped the cause of justice and investigation. As the local MP I came to respect and admire his thoroughness and persistence … His contribution has been enormous. … Satish is right to continue to ask questions both in respect of the workings of the criminal justice system and the policies that are pursued in a society that seeks to be governed by the Rule of Law.”

The Rt. Hon. Alun Michael JP, MP

The Fitted-In Project is concerned that the impact of the work conducted by its members has been marginalised. Incredibly this includes Professor Dave Barclay, the former Head of Physical Evidence at the National Crime Faculty. Barclay’s role in correcting the miscarriage of justice that befell the Cardiff Five has never been properly acknowledged by media. Sekar’s latest book explains the pivotal role played by Barclay.

Professor Dave Barclay

Sekar was told immediately after the convictions of the Cardiff Three were quashed to move on to other cases. He refused, seeing the potential for change and understanding that the Cardiff Five had to be vindicated – proved innocent beyond doubt by the conviction of the real killer. Other media left him to fight alone. That included the BBC, which only began covering it again after his work had borne fruit. It ignored both him and the work of The Fitted-In Project in that coverage.

Duncan Campbell

• “The Lynette White murder case, with its long-drawn-out repercussions, has now become one of the most important in the entire history of British criminal justice. This is entirely because of the tireless work and extraordinary insight of Satish Sekar, who has fought for many years to achieve justice for all concerned.”

Bob Woffinden

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)

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).