Cardiff 3: Five retired cops arrested

[Udo Erasmus]

The Cardiff 3 were framed by the police for a murder that they didn't commit:
"Lynette White was murdered in Cardiff in 1988. Tony, Yusef and Steven were jailed for life for her murder before eventually being cleared on appeal. In 2003 another man was jailed after admitting he had killed her."

Lloyd Paris: "After Lynette White’s murder the police said they were looking for a white man who had been seen covered in blood near where the murder took place. Ten months later they arrested five black men!"


An interview about the campaign to free them can be found here:
http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/article.php4?article_id=6275

 

[Sweaty Betty]

They were easy targets oweing to their connection with lynette, but to go down and serve time for something they did not do was wrong and im glad they will get the chance to have some much needed questions answered.

 

[rhos]

and my family cant understand why im such a cynic.

 

[Grandma Death]

I did a fair bit of work around the C3 campaign days when I was in the SWP. Completely unbelievable how these guys went down.

 

[bendeus]

Looks like dodgy coppage for the Clydach murders as well. Morris is getting a retrial 'cos his solicitor had also represented the two poliss also seen as prime suspects. The thin blue line, eh?

 

[Grandma Death]

Looks like dodgy coppage for the Clydach murders as well. Morris is getting a retrial 'cos his solicitor had also represented the two poliss also seen as prime suspects. The thin blue line, eh?

I read somewhere (not sure where) that certain areas of wales have the highest levels of complaints against the police and more internal investigations than anywhere else in the UK. Forgive me for not remembering the source.

 

[Belushi]

South Wales Police are one dodgy bunch of corrupt fuckers and no mistake.

 

[LilMissHissyFit]

Looks like dodgy coppage for the Clydach murders as well. Morris is getting a retrial 'cos his solicitor had also represented the two poliss also seen as prime suspects. The thin blue line, eh?

Not to mention the fact that the 'other' prime suspect was a serving officer in CID whos wife was having a lesbian affair with the deceased. That officers movements and his unmarked police car are also unaccounted for on the night of the killings at the right times.
He wasnt in the station so where was he?

- source Panorama just in case anyone wants the documentary tape. Ive got a copy here

 

[Grandma Death]

Not to mention the fact that the 'other' prime suspect was a serving officer in CID whos wife was having a lesbian affair with the deceased. That officers movements and his unmarked police car are also unaccounted for on the night of the killings at the right times.
He wasnt in the station so where was he?

- source Panorama just in case anyone wants the documentary tape. Ive got a copy here

I saw that....fucking fit up. That pig done it now doubt in my mind.

 

[bendeus]

I saw that....fucking fit up. That pig done it now doubt in my mind.

Looks like we'll soon find out. The feckers can all keep each other company in the can: one stands guard while the other picks up the soap.

 

[laptop]

Über-bump:

The trial of eight plod and two civilians opened yesterday.

Former police officers Graham Mouncher, Richard Powell, Thomas Page, Michael Daniels, Paul Jennings, Paul Stephen, Peter Greenwood and John Seaford deny conspiring to pervert the course of justice... Mouncher also denies two charges of lying while on oath during the trials of the five men. Also in the dock are civilians Violet Perriam and Ian Massey, who each deny two charges of perjury.

 

[ymu]

Finally!

Can't say I'm unhappy about the timing. An outrageous acquittal would be hard to pull off in the current climate, and if they try they're handing over some very explosive ammunition.

I suspect the orders will be to bury them. That'll do.

Justice would demand life sentences, of course. Too much to hope that they'll get buried that deep though.

 

[Divisive Cotton]

I think this could be unique. I'm not aware of any copper being brought to book for a miscarriage of justice

 

[davesgcr]

That Clydach affair was well complicated (and awful) - to say the least.

 

[zog]

I can't think of one murder case investigated by South Wales Police that actually caught the real offender first time, Cardiff 3, Cardiff newsagent 3, M50 murder, Clydach, Toose murders. Corrupt to the core and the Chepstow forensic lab was right up to their neck in guilt with the SWP around practically all these cases.

Personally know two folks from the above list. To their credit Jon Jones (wrongly convicted and served two years) is one of the most balanced , caring and thoroughly decent chaps I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. 2 of the coppers who fitted him up have just been sent down for an unrelated corruption offence, how we laughed.

Sad to say though Yusef Abdulla won't be around to see the outcome of this trial. Being jailed for a murder he didn't commit, and the fact that some mud sticks even though he was cleared heavily affected both him and his family. Sadly Yusef died earlier this year after years of struggling with his experiences and changed the life of his family to the point where others have ended up doing serious time.

RIP Yusef and I hope the corrupt fuckers get the sentences they deserve.

 

[butchersapron]

Here's a real shock eh? The trial of the 8 coppers accused over the fit up has collapsed.

 

[ddraig]

just heard that from somewhere else too

ah, online now http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-15981541

The trial has collapsed of eight former police officers over the wrongful conviction of three men for the murder of Cardiff prostitute Lynette White.
The ex-police officers denied conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. Two other people denied perjury.

 

[spacemonkey]

I definitely didn't see that coming.

 

[laptop]

I trust there'll be a thorough investigation of who destroyed the copies of the IPCC complaint and buggered up the prosecution?

FFS.

 

[bendeus]

I trust there'll be a thorough investigation of who destroyed the copies of the IPCC complaint and buggered up the prosecution?

FFS.

I actually know one of the coppers on the investigation pretty well. Their HQ was on RAF St. Athan due to fears about the team or their evidence being 'got to' by their S. Wales police colleagues. The person I know has been ostracised by a large number of the force due to their involvement.

I'll try and find out what my contact's take on it all is. One thing I know is that they'll be gutted - they were entirely convinced about the guilt of those charged and had put a lot of fucking effort and graft in to getting things this far.

FFS indeed

 

[goldenecitrone]

The judge ruled the officers and two other defendants, who were also found not guilty, could not get a fair trial

The judge was right, they could never get a fair trial as a fair trial would send them all to prison, and that was never going to be allowed to happen. Bent cunts.

 

[ddraig]

bastards
video
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-15996311?

 

[laptop]

Used car, anyone?

 

[Kaka Tim]

Fucking nob head on radio 4 was tying himself in knots trying to avoid stating the obvious as to why vital evidence had been 'lost'.

Depressingly predictable outcome.

 

[Col_Buendia]

Here we go again - Jason Evans, reporter on South Wales Evening Post in Swansea now claiming on Twitter that the "destroyed" files (the line that the BBC is still reporting even today) have turned up in their original boxes in the possession of the South Wales Police. How big a font can I use for FFS

 

[Col_Buendia]

Now there's an IPCC statement:

STATEMENT FROM IPCC COMMISSIONER SARAH GREEN ON THE LYNETTE WHITE INVESTIGATION

​26 January 2012

“The Independent Police Complaints Commission has now verified that the documents that the Lynette White trial at Swansea Crown Court on 1 December 2011 was told may have been destroyed have been discovered and were not shredded as first thought.
“The court was told that some enquiries had been made about documents relating to complaints made to the IPCC itself and that it seemed that these documents may have been shredded on the orders of SWP Senior Investigating Officer Chris Coutts.
“The documents were found in the original boxes that the IPCC had sent those files to South Wales Police as part of the trial disclosure process in 2009. These boxes were still in the possession of SWP and have subsequently been verified.

"The IPCC investigation has not yet concluded and will also need to establish what happened to these two files of documents. The IPCC will also continue to liaise with the review being carried out by the director of public prosecutions. We have of course informed the DPP about the discovery of these documents.
“The IPCC will of course publish its findings in due course.”

It's the way they do this right under our noses that makes me the most angry. Fucking corrupt scumbags. It's like they live in The Sweeney, but know that no one is payng serious attention.

 

[laptop]

Now there's an IPCC statement:

It's the way they do this right under our noses that makes me the most angry. Fucking corrupt scumbags. It's like they live in The Sweeney, but know that no one is payng serious attention.

I think the IPCC statement, decoded, reads: "Fuck you, you scumbags. We're coming back at you - and in particular you, Senior Investigating Officer Chris Coutts, are toast."

Hope so, anyway...

 

[Col_Buendia]

It just makes me wonder, in my legal-knowledge free sort of way, why the trial against the 8 coppers can't be reinstated? If they've tried Stephen Lawrence's killers more than once, can these bent fuckers not be sent back to the dock?

This piece from December's Guardian says it all I think: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/dec/01/no-justice-for-cardiff-3

 

[laptop]

It just makes me wonder, in my legal-knowledge free sort of way, why the trial against the 8 coppers can't be reinstated? If they've tried Stephen Lawrence's killers more than once, can these bent fuckers not be sent back to the dock?

Allegedly bent alleged fuckers.

Otherwise, my thought exactly.

Of course, were it possible to establish a connection between them and the allegedly bent alleged fucker who claimed to have shredded shit, whoever that was, they'd be back in the dock for a lot more than they were in for just now.

Fitting three decent geezers (or so they seemed when I visited them in jail) up for murder is one thing. Interfering with the course of justice is, in the eyes of Justice, something else again...

 

[Col_Buendia]

Allegedly bent alleged fuckers.

Otherwise, my thought exactly.

I know, I know, you have to have the allegations alleged, otherwise we'll all end up in court. But from the article I linked to this is what made me eschew the "allegedly", iyswim:

Vilday, Psaila and Gromek pleaded guilty to perjury in 2008; but at that trial defence, judge and prosecution all agreed the police had forced them to lie.

Don't know if "forcing someone to lie" is a prosecutable offence in its own right, but it certainly works as a fair definition of "bent" in my book.