Lynette White, a prostitute from Cardiff, was found murdered in 1988. A trial into eight police officers has just collapsed after the judge said a fair hearing could not be had. The former police officers were on trial for the wrongful conviction of three men for this murder.
The eight South Wales police men were accused of perverting the course of justice following these wrongful convictions. Three men, Tony Paris, Yusef Abdullahi and Stephen Miller were all given a wrongful life sentence. The police officers involved denied the accusation that they had tried to pervert the course of justice and have now been acquitted. Two civilians were also involved in this case and also denied a charge of perjury and they have now been cleared of this. Our Fida Hussain and Ruth Bingley defended one of these two civilians.
Miss White was found stabbed, 50 times, in a flat in Cardiff. Mr Paris, Mr Abdullahi and Mr Miller were convicted of the murder and later released in 1992. In 2000, due to advances in DNA and new evidence, the case was reopened. An inquiry then began into trying to establish what had gone wrong in the original investigation and year later; the eight police officers were arrested and questioned.
On 28th November, the judge asked the prosecution to review certain materials. These materials had not been used and brought to light that some copies of certain files had gone missing. The materials in question related to complaints by one defendant and a complaint in regards to the investigation. It was originally thought that this information should not be disclosed however it was reviewed. It was found that these copies had been destroyed and it was determined that although the information were copies, it is now impossible to tell whether this material was exactly the same as the material that was originally reviewed but not considered discloseable.
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- Illegal Motorcyclist Crackdown
- Drink Driving Samples Postponed
