Just over eighteen years ago the late Mr Justice (John) Leonard had the misfortune of sentencing three innocent men to life imprisonment. Some observers believed it was significant that he refrained from using the usual emotive language when passing sentence on Yusef Abdullahi, Stephen Miller and Tony Paris. After the longest murder trial in British history they were convicted of the murder of Lynette White, which occurred in the early hours of Valentine's Day 1988. At that time it was the most brutal crime of its type in Welsh history. White had been stabbed more than fifty times. Her throat had been slit from ear to ear. Her wrists had been slashed too and the attack had sexual overtones to it. It was on every level a bestial crime, complicated by the way she made her living.

Unbeknown to investigators, one of her punters was a vicious young man with frightening character traits. Not only was he capable of a sadistic murder, but he operated under everybody's radar and got away with murder for more than fifteen years. During the first ten months of South Wales Police's investigation the inquiry stagnated, but then came the dramatic breakthrough, or so it seemed. However, Gafoor – her real murderer – was not under arrest. Five innocent men were forced to endure a prosecution that disgraces Welsh justice. John and Ronnie Actie were acquitted, but the criminal justice system can take no credit from that. There never was credible evidence against any of the original defendants – a fact that has belatedly been acknowledged, but not by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which still takes no responsibility for its role in this case.

The wrongful prosecution of the Cardiff Five protected Gafoor from facing the consequences of his crime. The Cardiff Three faced the prospect of life in prison for it. South Wales Police deluded themselves and the public into believing that justice had been served, but there was a problem and a big one in fact. Innocent men had been condemned to life imprisonment, while the real murderer savoured ill-deserved freedom. Leonard sentenced the Cardiff Three to life imprisonment, but he made no recommendations on the minimum time that they should remain in prison – an unusual decision given the brutality of the crime. He did not describe them as monsters or use any other pejorative term. He did the absolute minimum that he could do.

 by Satish Sekar © Satish Sekar (December 27th 2008)