Lynette’s Law – Needed?

By Satish Sekar © Satish Sekar (March 31^st 2025)

Lynette’s Law

The treatment of murder victim Lynette White, her family, the Cardiff Five (Yusef Abdullahi, John Actie, Ronnie Actie, Stephen Miller and Tony Paris), their families, the community of Butetown which was wrongly punished for Lynette’s murder – its only crime was having the misfortune to have been the location of her horrific murder – and others too, disgraces any concept of justice. However, despite having several opportunities to put right this terrible wrong, little to nothing has been achieved.

Somehow, wretched defeat has been snatched from the jaws of what should have been an easy victory – a very easy one. Lives have been wrecked and millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money has been wasted on futile processes that served no purpose but denying accountability. Three witnesses who were treated in a manner that was “unacceptable in a civilised society” according to the judge, the late Mr Justice (Sir David) Maddison, were the only people sent to jail over a case that is belatedly acknowledged as one of Britain’s most notorious miscarriages of justice. Over 35 years after Lynette’s murder, answers to important questions remain denied.

Jeffrey Gafoor slit Lynette’s throat to the spine and stabbed her over 50 times in a grotesque and savage sexually-motivated murder on St Valentine’s Day 1988. He allowed a disgraceful miscarriage of justice to occur as he alone knew that when the Cardiff Five stood trial in 1989 and again in 1990, they were being prosecuted for his brutal crime. At that time he was the only person who knew for certain that they were innocent and he was guilty. He chose to stay silent and savour his ill-gotten freedom.

A Coward’s Way

Even after he was brought to justice, he cheated all the victims of justice. A hollow apology was delivered to Lynette’s family and the Cardiff Five at his hearing in 2003, but that was through his leading barrister, John Charles Rees QC. However, there was no believable explanation of why Gafoor murdered Lynette beyond the far from believable claim that it was because he wanted £30.00 returned to him because Lynette had refused to have unprotected sex with him. This from a man who had no criminal record at that time nor history of mental illness.

It beggars belief that this was the reason Lynette’s life was stolen by him.

Over two decades of imprisonment has revealed nothing more, but the Parole Board has decided that the public is likely to be safe if Gafoor is released. It chose to free him and earlier this year Gafoor was released from prison. This has happened without him being obliged to provide a credible explanation of why he killed Lynette – something that the right-thinking would believe was essential to decide whether it was likely to be safe to release him or not.

Both the tariff process, all the enquiries that have taken place into this case, and the parole process have not only failed to resolve the issue of why he murdered Lynette, especially in such an atrocious manner, but it also remains unclear if the slightest effort was ever made to resolve that issue. It must therefore be clear that the current system cannot be trusted to adequately protect the public and ensure that vicious killers understand that they must provide answers if they expect to be freed.

If the system cannot and will not deliver, then let Lynette’s Law provide protection and answers.

Kenyan Athletes Lead the Charge

Kenya has its own appalling problem of gender-based violence. The best-known example is the vicious murder of Olympian athlete and then 10Km road race world record holder Agnes Tirop. She was just 25 years when she was brutally murdered on October 13^th 2021. She had a bright future awaiting her – at least she should have had.

Joan Chelimo, herself a talented athlete and good friend of Agnes Tirop, is very active in the group Tirop’s Angels to highlight Agnes’ case, but also to raise awareness of the issues facing female athletes in particular.

She is supported in that endeavour by Kenya’s former long-distance runner and leading member of the Veterans’ Association, Simion Biwott.

“The proposed Lynette’s Law is credible,” Biwott says. “Its implementation is overdue. I think it is not only going to be useful for the victims in Britain, but I believe it is also going to assist the victims here in Kenya, especially families who have had their loved ones murdered. If they don’t know reasons why their loved one was murdered, that alone gives a lot of torture; it traumatises and it tortures people for some time, so I think that before anyone is pardoned, the way Parole Board left Gafoor, I think the murderer should really be in a position to confess and tell the truth and the reasons as to why he murdered the victim. So, I believe Lynette’s Law, as being proposed, is credible. It is overdue and it is going to assist many families who have suffered from not having been given reasons as to why their loved ones were murdered.”