A court was told that Detective Inspector Richard Powell threatened Mark Grommek, 50, with imprisonment if Mr Grommek didn't say what he wanted to hear. DI Powell was very aggressive and the threat was said loudly enough to be heard outside the room. Mr Grommek was referring to how he was interviewed in November 1988 during the ill-fated Lynette White inquiry – a case that resulted in one of Britain's most shameful miscarriages of justice. After the real murderer Jeffrey Gafoor pleaded guilty to the murder of Lynette White, 20, that occurred in the early hours of Valentine's Day 1988, Mr Grommek was interviewed several times by police investigating how five innocent men had been wrongly charged.

He told them that he was never given a solicitor despite asking for one, because Powell told him that if he needed one then he obviously had something to hide. Mr Grommek never asked for legal representation again. He claimed that when Powell did not get what he wanted: “he got his hair off and threw a chair.” Mr Grommek said that happened when he maintained his account that he had seen nothing and heard nothing. At that time Powell said: “You're going to be away for a long time.” He also upended a desk.

 Mr Grommek told his interviewers that he was usually left there for an hour or two, then told he could go, but would be back the day after. The chair didn't hit him. He said that he was most frightened of Powell without a doubt, but that DI Graham Mouncher threatened him verbally. He was in his face and told him that he would be there until they got what they wanted. Mr Grommek said that he was told what Learnne Vilday and Paul Atkins had said and was taken past them. He then broke down and corroborated their account. “As soon as I corroborated it, they couldn't do enough for me. They were all sweetness,” he said.

He told them that he didn't realise that he was committing an offence at the time. He thought the police's word was law. It only occurred to him after the Cardiff Three (Yusef Abdullahi, Stephen Miller and Tony Paris) were released. In 2006 he accused police of “playing mind games.” He was shown a photos of a black man with dreadlocks whom he assumed was Stephen Miller, so he described that man as having been outside the flat where Ms White was murdered. He later found out that the photograph was of Mr Miller's brother, Tony. He was coached on what to say in his evidence and how to answer by Detective Constable Wayne Pugh. The court heard that the atmosphere was totally different after he gave them what they wanted. They were polite and nice to him. He claimed that he knew what to say because he had already been told. They were glad to get the statement and would polish it later. Mr Grommek claimed that he felt threatened that if he changed his statement something would happen to him. He knew that it was lies, but didn't feel that he had a choice. It only dawned on him that he had to lie when DI Powell said, “We'll be in shit and you'll be in bigger shit. We'll put you away.”


Mr Grommek claimed that he had been coached on what to say in both trials. He was given his depositions to read and allowed to keep them. He learned them pretty well. He was told to try to remember everything that he had said in the first trial. “There was nothing I could do,” he said. “I still felt under incredible pressure. I knew I couldn't change statements.” He told them that he believed it would start again if he changed his statements. He had been interviewed twenty times between 2002-2006. No criticism was made of those interviews by David Aubrey QC, defending. They were both tape-recorded and video-recorded even when he was interviewed as a witness without a solicitor. He claimed that he had been harassed by police and had acted under duress and maintained that account throughout those interviews.


The jury were played extracts from two interviews with Yusef Abdullahi, so the jury would hear how he had been treated and get a flavour of how Mr Grommek had been treated. The jury heard extracts from Mr Abdullahi's twelfth and thirteenth interviews. He repeatedly insisted that he had been working on a ship, the Motor Vessel Coral Sea, which was being repaired in Barry Dock – almost ten miles away from the scene of the crime – on the night of Ms White's murder. The jury heard him name the Coral Sea over a hundred times and refer to it almost twenty times as well. His standard reply was: “I was on the Coral Sea working.” He was told that it was an absolute lie and that he was in the flat when Ms White was murdered. Later he was told that he left the ship and then returned. His denials were ignored by the officers conducting those interviews, who demanded yes or no answers and ignored them when he said no. In his final interview DI Mouncher told him: “You are a wicked wicked person. You just slaughtered a young girl. You are a vicious, evil, wicked man...” The jury heard Mr Abdullahi maintain his innocence and accuse the police of trying to stitch him up and persecute him. He told Mouncher that he was an innocent man. Mouncher responded by saying, “You're a disgrace to the human race.”


The jury had previously been told that Mr Abdullahi was undoubtedly innocent and that Mr Gafoor alone had killed Ms White. Nicholas Dean QC rested the prosecution case and David Aubrey QC, offered no evidence on Mr Grommek's behalf. Mr Grommek denies three counts of perjury. The trial continues.

by Satish Sekar © Satish Sekar (October 22nd 2008)