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15 Charged over Notorious Miscarriage of Justice Case |
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The Crown Prosecution Service's Special Crime Division announced that there is sufficient evidence for three serving police officers, Police Constable John Murray, who was with CID at the relevant time, Detective Sergeant (DS) Paul Stephen and Detective Constable (DC) Paul Jennings to face trial for Conspiracy to Pervert the Course of Justice and False Imprisonment and Misconduct in a Public Office over the ill-fated inquiry inquiry into the horrific murder of Lynette White that occurred on Valentine's Day 1988. Wayne Pugh, a Detective Constable at the time retired at the rank but worked as a South Wales Police staff member until his arrest. He faces the same charges along with retired officers, DCs Rachel O'Brien: Michael, Daniels, John Bryan Gillard, John Seaford, Peter Greenwood, DS Stephen Hicks and Detective Inspectors Thomas Page, Richard Powell and Graham Mouncher. Civilian witnesses Ian Massey and Violet Perriam will face trial for perjury as well in relation to the investigation into the 1988 murder of Lynette White and subsequent trials in 1989 and 1990.
John Actie and his cousin Ronnie stood trial along with Yusef Abdullahi, Stephen Miller and Tony Paris for the crime that Jeffrey Gafoor admitted he had committed alone, pleading guilty in July 2003. “Our lives have been utterly destroyed by being branded brutal murderers,” said a statement issued on their behalf by lawyers for the Cardiff Five. The conduct of the original inquiry was reviewed by South Wales Police, which delivered a file to the CPS in 2005. Three years later Mark Grommek, Angela Psaila and Learnne Vilday were jailed for perjury at the committal hearing and two trials. After those verdicts SCD lawyers reviewed the evidence that officers had moulded, manipulated and fabricated evidence against the original defendants. Yesterday the SDC announced that there was sufficient evidence for the 13 serving or former police to face trial along with the two witnesses.
“At the forefront of our thoughts is Lynette White who was brutally murdered on February 14th 1988,” said Assistant Chief Constable Colette Paul,
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A DNA database would help convict the guilty - and protect the innocentreproduced with kind permission from http://www.walesonline.co.uk/ Jan 8 2009 By Satish Sekar As the debate over a national DNA database continues, author Satish Sekar calls for its establishment to prevent future miscarriages of justice – but only if proper safeguards are in place IT WILL probably never happen now, but I support a fully independent national DNA database that would contain at least the records of the DNA profiles of every citizen. However, I have always been unequivocally opposed to the records, DNA profiles and excess DNA being held or controlled by the police. |
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Sekar published in The Voice |
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Article from The Voice can be found here, or please read belowWrongly jailed for murder: 'Cardiff Three' are finally seeing real justice carried out.
Last month Mark Grommek, 50, made legal history. He was the first person to be found guilty of perjury in a miscarriage of justice case where both the prosecution and defence agreed that his accusations of police malpractice were true. Almost twenty years ago The Voice was the first newspaper to report on the wrongful convictions of Yusef Abdullahi, Stephen Miller and Tony Paris – the Cardiff Three. They had been found guilty of the horrific murder of Lynette White, 20, that occurred in a run down flat in Butetown, Cardiff in the early hours of Valentine's Day 1988. The longest murder trial in British history resulted in the wrongful convictions of the Cardiff Three in November 1990. The cousins John and Ronnie Actie were acquitted. All five were innocent. Five years ago history was made in Cardiff Crown Court when Jeffrey Gafoor, now 43, pleaded guilty to the murder of Lynette White. It was the first time in Britain that a miscarriage of justice had been resolved in with the conviction of the real murderer. |
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