Yahoo News Oval Four: Black men arrested by corrupt police officer could be cleared 50 years after being jailed
Four black men who were jailed after being arrested by a corrupt police officer could be cleared almost 50 years after the alleged miscarriage of justice.
Known as the “Oval Four”, Winston Trew, Sterling Christie, George Griffiths and Constantine “Omar” Boucher were arrested at Oval underground station in 1972.
The operation was led by Det Sgt Derek Ridgewell, who was also the key prosecution witness, but was later jailed for conspiracy to steal and died in prison.
All four men were convicted of assaulting a police officer and attempted theft, while Mr Christie was also convicted of the theft of a female police officer’s handbag.
Appeals against their convictions failed, although their prison sentences were reduced from two years to eight months.
The case has now been referred to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) after a conviction involving the same police officer was successfully appealed last year.
“The commission considers there is a real possibility that the court will quash the conviction on the basis of new evidence and arguments concerning the integrity of Ridgewell,” a spokesperson said.
“The commission is aware of the potential significance that this case may have in a number of other similar convictions. We have determined to try to contact relevant individuals if appropriate.”
Ridgewell's usual tactic was to confront young black men at Tube stations and accuse them of theft, then arrest them for assaulting police officers if they resisted arrest.
He would then make up incriminating remarks he claimed they had made.
It led to a string of high-profile and controversial convictions, until eventually a judge threw out a case brought against two young Jesuits studying at Oxford University.
Judge Gwynn Morris said at the time: “I find it terrible that, here in London, people using public transport should be pounced upon by police officers without a word.”
Ridgewell was moved into a department investigating mailbag theft, where he joined up with two criminals with whom he would split the profits of stolen mailbags.
He was eventually caught and jailed for seven years, dying of a heart attack in prison in 1982 at the age of 37.
While working on mail theft, he pinned a crime on three white men who had been approached while sitting in a car in south London.
One of the three, Stephen Simmons, went on to become a successful businessman, setting up a company selling audio and phone equipment for cars.
In 2013, Mr Simmons called a legal phone-in on LBC radio to ask for advice and was told to try researching his arresting officer online.
When was shocked to discover Ridgewell had been jailed for a similar offence just two years after his own conviction.
Mr Trew formally applied to the CCRC after the Court of Appeal quashed Mr Simmons’s conviction because of Ridgewell’s misconduct.
The watchdog said the defendants in three other cases on the London Underground investigated by Ridgewell had been acquitted in the early 1970s – known as the Waterloo Four, the Stockwell Six and the Tottenham Court Road Two.
Speaking to The Guardian, Mr Trew said: “Ridgewell threw a hand grenade into my life and shattered it but I am not a person who gives up easily. Over the years I managed to rebuild my life and restore my confidence.”
He added: “When I got the report from the CCRC last week I felt that all my hard work had paid off.”
Only Mr Trew and Mr Christie’s convictions will be formally considered because the CCRC could not trace their co-defendants, who are thought to have left the UK in the 1970s.
Additional reporting by PA
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