Stockwell Six

Last updated

The Stockwell Six are a group of black British men who were put on trial for attempted robbery in 1972. [1] [2] [3] Five of them were convicted, but in 2021 the convictions for four of them were overturned. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

Contents

Arrests

Courtney Harriot, Paul Green and Cleveland Davidson were arrested on the London Underground in February 1972 after travelling from Stockwell tube station. [3] They were aged from 17 to 20 at the time. [3] [1]

Trial

They were tried on charges of assault with intend to rob British Transport Police Detective Sergeant Derek Ridgewell. [6] [1] Ridgewell claimed that Courtney Harriot and his friends has accosted him on an underground train between Stockwell and Oval tube station. [6] Ridgewell claimed that Harriot had snapped fingers at him and said "Give me some bread, man" then produced a knife and said "Your wallet or it's this!". [6]

Ridgewell claimed he then drew his truncheon, then knocked the knife out of Harriot's hand as other undercover officers entered from adjoining compartments. [6] He claimed that Harriot shouted "Fuzz!". [6]

All six defendants pleaded not guilty and testified that the alleged incident had never happened and that they had been arrested at Oval tube station. [6] [1] They testified that police had threatened them, been violent and put words in their mouths. [6] [1]

Verdict

Paul Green was convicted of assault with intent to rob and sent to Borstal. [6] Courtney Harriot was sentenced to three years in prison. [6] Cleveland Davidson, Texo Johnson and Ronald De’Souza were convicted of related offences and Everet Mullins was found not guilty. [6]

Campaigns

In 1973 the BBC television programme Nationwide investigated the case and concluded that Ridgewell's account couldn't be true, as there was not enough time for the events to happen in an Underground stop that took place in less than two minutes. [6]

Derek Ridgewell

Derek Ridgewell was involved in a number of controversial high-profile cases in the early 1970s, until the "Tottenham Court Road Two" were acquitted in 1973. [1] He was then moved into a department investigating mailbag theft where he worked with two criminals to split material stolen from mailbags. [1]

He hid the profits of his crimes in five bank accounts, one in Zürich and a bank deposit box. [7]

He stole over £1m sterling (approx £4m sterling in 2021). [7] Although just a detective sergeant, he owned property and businesses. [7]

Ridgewell was convicted of theft in 1980 and sentenced to seven years. [1] [7]

Convictions overturned

In July 2021 Courtney Harriot, Paul Green and Cleveland Davidson were acquitted at the Royal Courts of Justice. [1] The two other members of the Stockwell Six who were convicted had not then been traced. [1] In November 2021 Texo Johnson‘s conviction was also quashed by the Court of Appeal. [5]

Sir Julian Flaux sat with Mr Justice Linden and Mr Justice Wall and said "It is most unfortunate that it has taken nearly 50 years to rectify the injustice suffered by these appellants.". [1] He added "These appeals are allowed and the convictions are quashed." [1]

The governor of Ford prison asked Ridgewell why he had committed crimes, to which Ridgewell replied "I just went bent". [7]

Aftermath

Cleveland Davidson said after the hearing: "For 50 years, it affected me … I haven’t been the same. My family didn’t believe me, no one believed me because they thought ‘well, you must’ve done something’. We just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time with a bad, corrupt police officer." [3] He described Ridgewell as a "corrupt and wicked and evil police officer". [3]

In November 2021, Lucy D'Orsi, the British Transport Police chief constable, apologised to black community in the United Kingdom "for the trauma suffered by the British African community through the criminal actions" of Ridgewell, adding that "In particular, it is of regret that we did not act sooner to end his criminalisation of British Africans, which led to the conviction of innocent people", and said his actions did "not define the BTP of today". [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

The Guildford Four and Maguire Seven were two groups of people, mostly Irish, who were wrongly convicted in English courts in 1975 and 1976 for the Guildford pub bombings of 5 October 1974, and the Woolwich pub bombing of 7 November 1974. All the convictions were eventually quashed after long campaigns for justice, and the cases, along with those of the Birmingham Six, diminished public confidence in the integrity of the English criminal justice system.

The West Midlands Serious Crime Squad was a police unit in the English West Midlands which operated from 1974 to 1989. It was disbanded after an investigation into allegations of incompetence and abuse of power on the part of some of the squad's members. Some of this misconduct resulted in wrongful convictions, including the high-profile case of the Birmingham Six. The sister Regional Crime Squad based at Bilston was responsible for the investigation of the Bridgewater Four.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geoffrey Lane, Baron Lane</span> British judge (1918–2005)

Geoffrey Dawson Lane, Baron Lane, was a British barrister and judge who served as Lord Chief Justice of England from 1980 to 1992, having previously served as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary from 1977 until 1980.

James Francis Hurley is an English convicted murderer and long-term fugitive from justice.

Don Hale is a British author and journalist known for his investigative work and campaigning against miscarriage of justice in specific legal cases.

The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) is the statutory body responsible for investigating alleged miscarriages of justice in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. It was established by Section 8 of the Criminal Appeal Act 1995 and began work on 31 March 1997. The commission is the only body in its area of jurisdiction with the power to send a case back to an appeals court if it concludes that there is a real possibility that the court will overturn a conviction or reduce a sentence. Since starting work in 1997, it has on average referred 33 cases a year for appeal.

Des Warren was a British construction worker, trade union activist and – with Ricky Tomlinson – one of the Shrewsbury Two, convicted at Shrewsbury Crown Court for "conspiracy to intimidate" whilst picketing in Shropshire in 1972, and imprisoned for three years. His autobiography, The Key To My Cell, put forward his version of events, and what he considered "the real conspiracy" — that the arrests were part of a plan to intimidate the trade union movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ali Dizaei</span> London police officer

Jamshid Ali Dizaei is a former Commander in London's Metropolitan Police Service, Iranian-born with dual nationality, and formerly one of Britain's more senior Muslim police officers. Dizaei came to prominence as a result of his outspoken views on racial discrimination in the London Metropolitan Police and various allegations of malpractice on his part. He had received advancement after his criticism of the force following his claims of racism. He was a frequent media commentator on a variety of issues, mainly concerned with ethnicity and religion. In April 2008, he was promoted to Commander, responsible for West London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raymond McCartney</span> Northern Irish politician (born 1954)

Raymond McCartney is an Irish former Sinn Féin politician, and a former hunger striker and volunteer of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA).

The Cardiff Newsagent Three were three men wrongly convicted of the 1987 murder of Cardiff newsagent Phillip Saunders, who was attacked with a shovel in the back yard of his Cardiff home and later died in hospital. Michael O'Brien, Darren Hall and Ellis Sherwood were arrested and spent 11 years in prison before being released.

Nicola Maree Gobbo, sometimes known as Nikki Gobbo, is an Australian former criminal defence barrister and police informant.

This is a list of notable overturned convictions in Canada.

Unaoil is a Monaco based company which provides "industrial solutions to the energy sector in the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa." Unaoil is incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, a tax haven with an opaque banking system.

Robert Brown is a Scottish man who spent 25 years in jail for a crime he did not commit, the murder of worker Annie Welsh.

The Oval Four are four black men—Winston Trew, Sterling Christie, George Griffiths and Constantine "Omar" Boucher—who were arrested by police at Oval tube station in March 1972 supposedly on suspicion of stealing passenger's handbags. The four were held overnight, and their trial eventually lasted five weeks. They were all found guilty of assaulting police officers and attempted theft in November 1972 and received sentences of two years in prison. Following an appeal led by John Platts-Mills, QC, their sentences were later reduced to eight months, although the convictions themselves were upheld, and Lord Justice Haymes commented that the reduction did not ameliorate the seriousness of their crimes. Christie was also convicted of stealing a female police officer's handbag. All four men subsequently appealed, which failed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Derek Ridgewell</span> Scottish police officer and criminal (1945–1982)

Derek Arnold Ridgewell was a Scottish police officer in the British Transport Police (BTP) who was involved with a series of arrests followed by court cases in which it was later found that he had framed innocent people, and was eventually jailed for mail theft. When allegations against Ridgewell were first made, BTP moved him to another team instead of dismissing him. Several of those convicted by courts based on Ridgewell's false testimony, including the Oval Four and the Stockwell Six, had their convictions quashed decades later. Ridgewell died of a heart attack in Ford open prison on 31 December 1982.

<i>AB v CD</i> (Australia) High Court of Australia judgement

AB v CD; EF v CD is a decision of the High Court of Australia.

Alan Hall was convicted of murdering 52 year old Arthur Easton in 1985 in what has been described as one of New Zealand's worst miscarriages of justice. In August 2023, the Government agreed to pay him $5 million in compensation, the largest payout for wrongful conviction in New Zealand history.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 "Stockwell Six: 1970s convictions of three black men overturned by UK Court of Appeal". TheJournal.ie . Press Association. 6 July 2021. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
  2. 1 2 "Stockwell Six: Three men have 1972 convictions quashed by Court of Appeal". BBC News. 6 July 2021. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Rawlinson, Kevin (6 July 2021). "Three members of Stockwell Six cleared after nearly 50 years". The Guardian . Retrieved 6 July 2021.
  4. ↑ "Stockwell Six: Texo Johnson's conviction quashed at Court of Appeal". BBC News. 23 November 2021. Retrieved 23 November 2021.
  5. 1 2 "Fourth member of Stockwell Six has conviction quashed 50 years after arrest". The Guardian . 23 November 2021. Retrieved 23 November 2021.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Campbell, Duncan (14 December 2020). "'Stockwell Six': two men could have convictions overturned". The Guardian . Retrieved 6 July 2021.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Campbell, Duncan (1 May 2021). "A real Line of Duty: the London police officer who 'went bent'". The Guardian . Retrieved 6 July 2021.
  8. ↑ Gayle, Damien; Mohdin, Aamna (5 November 2021). "British Transport Police apologise to UK black community for corrupt ex-officer". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 November 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.