Wrongly accused who are still waiting for answers

Jul 3 2009 by Our Correspondent, Western Mail

TEN years ago Tony Rogers, then an Assistant Chief Constable of South Wales Police, established the country’s first unit to examine unsolved and unresolved cases. The Western Mail broke the story of the unit being set up, following pressure over a number of miscarriages of justice, such as the Cardiff Five, Jonathan Jones, the Gurnos Fire and the Cardiff Explosives Conspiracy. The case of the Newsagent Three was waiting in the wings and of course the Darvell Brothers and Mahmoud Mattan had also been cleared.

All of these defendants had either been acquitted or cleared on appeal. They were demanding answers and a public inquiry. The police responded with the unit, but it wasn’t just miscarriages of justice that were investigated; there were cases that had never resulted in arrests. In 2003 it made history twice. The first miscarriage of justice that it looked at was the Cardiff Five (many call it Cardiff Three, but John and Ronnie Actie were victims of that case as well as Yusef Abdullahi, Stephen Miller and Tony Paris). After four years and a superb investigation Jeffrey Gafoor became the first British murderer to be tied to his crime after a miscarriage of justice, but what about the rest of them?

Jonathan Jones was wrongfully convicted of the murder of Harry and Megan Tooze – the parents of his then girlfriend, now wife. There were several false dawns, but no final breakthrough, despite scientific evidence that could tie the killer to his crimes even now.

Annette Hewins was another of those cleared to demand a public inquiry. She also wanted the real killer brought to justice, but before her case was re-investigated the site of the fire that cost Diane Jones and her infant children Shauna and Sarah-Jayne Hibberd their lives was torn down. A forensic scientist was instructed to obtain samples from the scene before it was destroyed. What happened to those samples? Were they ever tested? Ms Hewins still awaits an answer.

Paul and Wayne Darvell were cleared of the murder of Swansea sex-shop manageress Sandra Phillips in 1992. It has been looked at by the unit as well, but Paul Darvell went to his grave without knowing who he went to prison for. Samples were taken from the scene of the crime and subjected to re-testing, but the case remains unresolved

The Newsagent Three were duly cleared on appeal in December 1999. Michael O’Brien was the most vociferous critic of police methods used against him and even posted a reward for information leading to the conviction of the real killer. The unit did not look at his case until 2004. By then it had achieved the thing he most wanted – the conviction of the real killer in the Cardiff Five case.

The newsagent’s murder is a difficult case to solve as it occurred outdoors on a rainy night, but there are still possibilities that O’Brien wanted investigated, especially a whiskey bottle and some clothes found nearby. There were even arrests, yet these turned out to be people close to O’Brien and co-accused Ellis Sherwood. No charges were brought and O’Brien feels that it was a cynical attempt to accuse him of the murder.

So is the Cardiff Five’s case unique? It was resolved by the conviction of the real murderer, but why was it the only one in Wales to achieve that? Actually it wasn’t. The definition of a miscarriage of justice is itself flawed. John and Ronnie Actie served nearly two years in prison for a crime they did not commit. They are just as innocent as Abdullahi, Miller and Paris and received an apology from Sir Tony Burdon, then Chief Constable of South Wales Police. Yet because they were not wrongfully convicted many do not consider them victims of a miscarriage of justice. Why not?

If those who are wrongfully accused are accepted as victims of miscarriages of justice, as I believe they should be, then South Wales has achieved another case of vindication – the conviction of the truly guilty after a miscarriage of justice. Phillip Skipper was accused of the murder of his estranged wife Karen over a decade ago. John Pope was arrested on an unrelated matter a couple of years ago. His DNA profile established him as the prime suspect. Earlier this year he was found guilty and given a tariff of 19 years, but it was all too late for Mr Skipper who died before Pope was arrested, let alone convicted.

But while this unit has not managed to resolve the miscarriage of justice cases, it has had its successes in previously unsolved ones. The best known identified Joseph Kappen as a serial killer, although it was too late to bring him to justice; he died in 1990. His body was exhumed in 2002 and comprehensively tied by DNA to the 1973 rape and murders of Geraldine Hughes and Pauline Floyd and the previous rape and murder of Sandra Newton.

As time passes crimes become more difficult to solve, and squeezed budgets, especially in the midst of the worst recession for decades, mean that hard commercial decisions have to be taken. How many samples will be tested? How do you decide how much time and resources should be allocated to these cases? But advances in forensic science mean that there is a real possibility that these cases can be solved.

“All we ever wanted was justice,” said O’Brien. “We are entitled to it. I firmly believe that all of these cases can and should be solved by bringing the real killer to justice. I hope South Wales Police have the integrity to show that the Lynette White inquiry was just the first case to deliver justice to the wrongly accused.”