Investigating Miscarriages of Justice Thoroughly – Part Seven

Adverse Publicity:

Other notorious miscarriages of justice didn’t even get as far as trials. The Birmingham Six (Hugh Callaghan, Paddy Hill, Gerry Hunter, Richard McIlkenny, Billy Power and Johnny Walker) were the victims of an appalling miscarriage of justice. They had been brutally treated in the aftermath of the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings by thugs in uniform. Some confessed. Shoddy science contributed to their wrongful convictions as well.

The crimes were appalling. More than twenty people died in the bombings and well over a hundred were injured – some seriously. The public wanted  results – demanded it even. The six lost over a decade and a half for crimes they did not commit, yet no police officers stood trial, despite clear evidence of assault – a criminal offence – and other evidence of malpractice too. Officers were charged after the convictions were quashed and then Home Secretary Kenneth Baker ordered a Royal Commission.

The prosecutions were halted on the grounds that adverse publicity meant they could not get a fair trial – somewhat ironic given the media circus that helped to convict the Birmingham Six in the first place.

Betrayed:

Stefan Kiszko was a gentle man. He believed in British justice, but his trust was betrayed. He was robbed of a similar period of his life to the Birmingham Six and never recovered from a disgraceful miscarriage of justice. In 2007 the thirty-two year long miscarriage of justice that wrecked Stefan Kiszko’s life was finally resolved. Ronald Castree was convicted of the 1975 murder on Rishworth Moor near Rochdale of schoolgirl Lesley Molseed.

It was far too late for Kiszko and his marvellous campaigning mother Charlotte. Kiszko spent nearly seventeen years in prison for that crime and died within months of his release. Charlotte died soon after. This was one of the most disgraceful miscarriages of justice in British history, because it was a crime that Kiszko could not have committed – a fact that his lawyers failed to prove despite having unequivocal evidence of his innocence at their disposal.

Jack Dibb – the officer in charge – died before he could stand trial. He was blamed by forensic scientist Ronald Outteridge and Detective Superintendent Richard Holland  for the shameful methods used in this case. They then claimed that they could not get a fair trial because too much time had passed. A magistrate accepted their argument and the prosecution was halted.

The past told a grim story of failed prosecutions of police officers – a history that South Wales Police knew that they had to break. The public demanded that they put right what they had got wrong in the Lynette White Inquiry – the first case of vindication in Britain (the resolving of a miscarriage of justice by the conviction of the real murderer). It would not be easy and the precedents were against them. They would have to make yet more history in this extraordinary case if they were to regain public trust.