Mark Grommek, Learnne Vilday and Angela Psaila were sentenced to eighteen months imprisonment for perjury on December 19th. They are the first witnesses to be convicted of perjury in a miscarriage of justice case, where even the prosecution accepted that their allegations of police malpractice including violence and wrongful imprisonment were true. The case of the Cardiff Five (Yusef Abdullahi, John and Ronnie Actie, Stephen Miller and Tony Paris) was the first miscarriage of justice in Britain to be resolved by the conviction of the real murderer, Jeffrey Gafoor. The four alleged eyewitnesses – Paul Atkins was deemed unfit to stand trial – were the first to be charged with any offence in that case since Gafoor's conviction on July 4th 2003.

Grommek Vilday and Psaila pleaded guilty to perjury in October. There is no doubt that those witnesses perjured themselves, as they have admitted it and the conviction of Gafoor proved it, but such cases are rare and this is unique in terms of it being accepted that they were mistreated by police. Grommek was subjected to threats of violence by a then Detective Inspector Richard Powell, before he gave accounts that falsely implicated Abdullahi and Ronnie Actie, but will they be only witnesses to face trial over a miscarriage of justice case in such circumstances? Vilday was also put under intolerable pressure as was Psaila who believed that her blood had been found in the room was murdered until told differently in 2004. She reacted with shock at the news.

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There is no shortage of miscarriage of justice cases, but none of the major cases have resulted in such an investigation let alone convictions. The closest is the case of former Greater Manchester police officer Ged Corley, who was accused of a series of armed robberies. After it became clear that he was on duty at the time some offences occurred, several of Manchester's criminal fraternity were allowed to change their accounts and accuse him of master-minding the robberies instead. After his convictions were quashed in March 1990 an investigation resulted in perjury convictions. Another is Kevin Sarbutts whose false evidence resulted in the wrongful conviction of Alban Turner, who was freed in March 1990 as well. Despite perjury convictions, the accusations of police malpractice were not accepted. In the Corley case the only convictions that were obtained of police officers were because they pleaded guilty to lesser offences, but not perjury or conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

The recent trial in the case of the Cardiff Five is different and there is another case that involves lying witnesses and proven malpractice by police, but nobody is being investigated in that one. Last April the Independent Police Complaints Commission announced that after an 'investigation' lasting over four years, no police officers would be charged or disciplined over the case of Gary Mills and Tony Poole, despite a libel trial, the then Lord Chief Justice, appeal judges and Law Lords reaching different conclusions. Even the 1996 appeal judges strongly criticised the police's conduct towards a crucial witness Paul White, who claimed to have seen a fist make a downward movement and heard a man shout “No Tony, no!” above the sound of a blaring sound system. Nobody else inside the flat heard that and if White had seen what he claims then he had to be at least ten feet tall, as the flat is on incline to street level.

Detective Constables Brian Paine and Mark Cheminais also allowed White to lie in his witness statement by saying he had gone there on his own when he had previously said that he had gone there with the late Andrew Neal. White was facing arson charges at the time, which were not prosecuted subsequently. He was described at trial as an important witness, but Lord Justice Otton as he then was dismissed his evidence as incapable of belief. Despite overwhelming evidence that White lied, he has never been investigated for perjury and perverting the course of justice. Mills and Poole were freed after 14 years wrongful imprisonment in June 2003.

Less than a month later Jeffrey Gafoor pleaded guilty and the process that would result in perjurers being convicted over a miscarriage of justice began. Do Mills and Poole have to wait for similar resolution of their case before White's lies are even investigated? There is strong evidence of police malpractice in this case that has yet to be adequately investigated too.