Today Cardiff Crown court finally heard 50-year-old Mark Grommek's explanation of why he lied over one of Britain's most notorious miscarriages of justice. Mr Grommek sat in the dock listening attentively as Nicholas Dean QC, prosecuting, detailed his contact with police during the course of the last twenty years. The jury was given a flavour of the interviewing methods used by South Wales Police during the inquiry into the brutal killing of 20-year-old Lynette White, which happened on Valentine's Day 1988. Extracts of the interviews with Stephen Miller, 42, were played to the court, consisting of parts of tapes seven, thirteen and eighteen. The jury heard Mr Miller's protestations of innocence shouted down by Detective Constable Peter Greenwood. “How you could sit there and say that after being in that room, seeing that girl there in the state that she was in, and you're supposed to have all this wonderful care for her, seen her damn head hang off and her arms cut and stabbed to death and you sit there and tell us you know nothing at all about it; nothing at all about it!” Mr Miller continued to deny presence. “You can lock me up for fifty billion years. I said I was not there.” Miller was shouted down and in later interviews he confessed to a crime he did not commit. The jury heard him break down.

  Previously Mr Miller had given evidence for the first time as a vindicated man. He was cross-examined sympathetically by David Aubrey QC, defending. It was a vastly different experience from his last cross-examination over those events nearly twenty years ago at the hands of David Elfer QC. Miller told the jury that he had tried hard to find out what happened to Ms White and detailed his experiences at the hands of his interviewers. Detective Constables Peter Greenword, John Seaford, Simon Evans and John Murray interviewed both Mr Miller and Mr Grommek. Similar methods Mr Grommek were criticised roundly in this trial. Both Mr Dean and Mr Aubrey accepted that Mr Grommek's account of police malpractice was true, but disagree on whether that constitutes a defence to the charges of perjury that Mr Grommek faces.

Mr Dean told the jury that Mr Grommek had made twelve statements and had two interviews recorded by contemporaneous notes in the original Lynette White Inquiry. None of those interviews were tape-recorded. The court was told that this was common practice at the time. It has changed now. Interviews with obviously important witnesses like Mr Grommek would now be tape-recorded and possibly video-recorded. Mr Grommek initially told police that he heard and saw nothing of interest, but by November 1988 he was put under such pressure that 'he decided to tell the truth.' Those statements and interviews implicated Ronnie Actie, Yusef Abdullahi, Martin Tucker and an unnamed black man with shoulder-length dreadlocks. He claimed that he opened the door to them and that Paul Atkins had been there and went downstairs. Atkins returned to tell him that there had been a murder with blood everywhere and was then violently sick. Mr Grommek accepts that this account was untrue.


In October 2002 he was interviewed by police re-investigating the murder of Ms White. It resulted in the conviction of the real murderer Jeffrey Gafoor, 43. Mr Grommek was not a suspect and was not cautioned. He spoke voluntarily in the presence of a representative, but not a solicitor. The jury heard that his evidence had been lies. “I was under a lot of duress. I had a real lot of harassment,” said Grommek in that interview. The court was told of several allegations that Mr Grommek made about his treatment. “The only reason I said it was to get myself off the hook – stop them harassing me.”


The situation changed after Mr Gafoor was convicted. Mr Grommek was interviewed as a suspect in October 2003. “I admit to giving false evidence and am deeply sorry for it,” he said. “Police threatened me with imprisonment if I didn't tell them what they wanted to hear.” Officers were accused of putting words into his mouth and threatened him with imprisonment. “They frightened me to death.” He said that pressure started within a month of the murder. First they used the soft approach, another was a 'hard nut' and then Detective Inspector Richard Powell threatened him with imprisonment. “Powell was a nasty piece of work – put the thumbscrews on so to speak,” the court was told. “I think I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown – the way things were going.” In later interviews Mr Grommek told the current investigation into what happened in the original inquiry that all he was thinking of was getting the police off his back and that he felt sick about it.


Mr Grommek also claimed in those interviews that police belittled him because he was gay – using offensive language. He also accused DI Powell of threatening him with a blanket job – wrapping him in a blanket and beating him up so there would be no marks – if he didn't say what they wanted to hear. He claimed that Powell was arrogant and aggressive and that he was frightened of him. He claimed that he was told that Learnne Vilday and Paul Atkins had said that he was there and that he had to corroborate their accounts. “I told lies just to get out of the station,” he said. “I shouldn't have signed it – shouldn't have done it, but I was under a lot of pressure.” He claims that he was told by police that a neighbour had been burgled, but that he might have been the real target. It persuaded him to accept police protection.


He was interviewed again in September 2004. They wanted to know why he had stuck to his lies. “I was too scared to go back to the truth,” he said at the time. He also described DI Powell as “A horrible, horrible person.” He insisted that he couldn't change his evidence because he was afraid of what the police might have done to him. Mr Dean told the jury that Mr Grommek stuck to his story convincingly when interviewed at his doorstep by Tom Mangold of the BBC's Panorama. Mr Grommek had told investigators that he never even thought of telling the truth then because he didn't want repercussions from the police. He said that he wasn't surprised when the Cardiff Three were freed and that it was a great relief to tell the truth.


Mr Dean went through Mr Grommek's interviews with Detective Sergeant Simon Evans – not to be confused with an officer of the same name who was involved in the original inquiry. Mr Grommek was interviewed again in November 2006. He claimed that Powell threatened him with a blanket job, but couldn't remember if anyone else was there. He also said that the bad cops ranted and raved at him. Mr Grommek said that DI Graham Muncher did a couple of interviews. He was a nasty person, who put pressure on him. He was alright at first but had 'a nasty streak.' Mr Grommek denies three counts of perjury. The trial continues.

by Satish Sekar © Satish Sekar (October 21st 2008)