Has justice really been served in Cardiff Crown Court yesterday? They told lies and they put themselves first. It had devastating consequences for the Cardiff Five and their families. Innocent men lost sixteen years of their lives. They can never get those stolen years back, but the law takes little account of the realities of life. Was justice really served by criminalising three people for doing something they never wanted to do and would never have done, but for conduct that Mr Justice Maddison described as 'unacceptable in a civilised society.'

There were no winners in these proceedings and the law itself lost more than it gained. After all, how can we expect witnesses who have followed the sad path trod by Vilday, Psaila and Grommek to find the courage to tell the truth now, knowing that prison awaits them if they do. Ironically, this decision has made it harder for witnesses to retract false evidence than ever before. And what of the architects of their misfortune? Vilday, Psaila and Grommek have indicated that they will co-operate in any future proceedings, but the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has yet to decide whether any others will be made to account for their role in one of Britain's most shameful miscarriages of justice. It would be a travesty if the only ones to pay the price are three people who were victims of a corrupt process that masqueraded as justice almost two decades ago.

*****

For several months and many statements, Vilday, Psaila and Grommek gave truthful accounts that they had seen or heard nothing of interest. Police investigating the vicious murder of Lynette White refused to believe it, but were put under intolerable pressure to solve it. They soon decided that Vilday in particular was the key to solving it and they put her under severe pressure. It had an effect. In May 1988 Vilday drunkenly accused Abdullahi and Miller of the murder. She tried to explain that it was not true and that their names had been fed to her first, but this was investigating had waited for. They 'persuaded' her to agree to be hypnotised by Dr Una Maguire, which verified that she knew nothing of interest. The pressure let up, but it didn't last. In November 1988 it was cranked up to a new level. Vilday cracked after Psaila had done so and then Grommek did as well. Although their evidence was discredited during the trial process, those statements provided the basis for the arrests of the Cardiff Five (Yusef Abdullahi, John and Ronnie Actie, Stephen Miller and Tony Paris). The methods used to break the will of those witnesses were then used on the entirely innocent Miller who also cracked and confessed to a crime he did not commit. The evidence that these witnesses gave did not secure these wretched verdicts. They were described as thoroughly discredited during the appeal. The inconsistencies in their 'final' accounts were legion, but they played a part, however unwilling, in. a shameful miscarriage of justice.

Yesterday they began to pay the price for lies, which they were forced to tell through utterly disgraceful manipulation. In February 2007 the CPS approved the prosecution of these witnesses and Paul Atkins who was later found unfit to stand trial. Despite our repeated requests the CPS refuses to answer the question of how it relied on witnesses of such poor quality in the first place. It breached its own Code for Crown Prosecutors to prosecute the Cardiff Five. It acquiesced with a rush to judgment. Its conduct struck at the very heart of justice, but unlike South Wales Police it has refused to even acknowledge its mistakes, let alone apologise for them. Had Hywel Hughes done his job twenty years ago a young woman would have been spared the ordeal of witnessing her mother being sent to jail for lies that she told at least in part to protect her infant child. Where is the justice in that?

by Satish Sekar © Satish Sekar (December 20th 2008)