A miscarriages of justice campaigner who was wrongly accused of involvement in a Welsh nationalist bombing campaign has died at the age of 62.
Adrian Stone, who in later years went on to become a community councillor in Caerphilly, was one of the defendants in an infamous trial in the 1980s when he was just 21 years old.
Together with eight other men - one of whom, Robert Griffiths, went on to lead the Communist Party of Britain and another, Nic Hodges, to be Mayor of Barry - Mr Stone was charged with being in possession of explosives and conspiring to cause 13 separate bombing incidents in Cardiff, Birmingham, Stratford, Pontypridd and London.
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The case against him was based on admissions he allegedly made in police interviews, the supposed discovery of potassium chlorate - an explosive ingredient - in his bedroom and statements made to the police by Mr Hodges.
Later he told an author who wrote about the case: “I gave evidence at trial that the incriminating comments included in the [police] interviews were not made by me and were fabricated.”
According to police officers, he supposedly said: “I agree with direct action against anything or anybody who is opposed to the aims of our political beliefs. I believe in the overthrow of a democratic society by force to establish a free Welsh Socialist Republic similar to France and the United States.”
Mr Stone said: “I did not make those comments or anything resembling them and I challenged them in court.”
During the trial, Mr Stone gave evidence that he was offered £10,000 by the police to implicate Dafydd Elis-Thomas - at the time a Plaid Cymru MP and later Presiding Officer of the National,Assembly - in the bombing campaign. All the defendants, including Mr Stone, were acquitted.
Michael O’Brien, one of the Cardiff Newsagent Three who spent 11 years in jail for the murder of newsagent Phillip Saunders before their convictions were quashed, said: “Adrian was a lovely man and I am very sad that he has passed away. He was very supportive of us, and in fact what happened to him was very useful in our appeal because there was a police officer crucial to the prosecution in both cases. Being accused of a crime you haven’t done takes its toll on your health.
“Tony Paris [wrongly convicted of murdering sex worker Lynette White in Cardiff] died at 65, Annette Hewins [wrongly convicted of arson with intent to endanger life following a fire in Merthyr Tydfil that killed a young mother and her two children] died at 51 and Yusef Abdullahi [also wrongly convicted of murdering Lynette White] died when he was 49.”
Mr O’Brien: “It’s cases like this that explain why we’re calling for a public inquiry into a series of miscarriages of justice linked to South Wales Police over several decades.”
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For more than 10 years until his death, Mr Stone was a community councillor serving on Llanbradach and Pwllypant Community Council.
In a post to Facebook, Caerphilly’s Plaid Cymru group said: “While we mourn the loss of a friend and true activist, we pay tribute and celebrate a life that was well lived. A colourful character larger than life, a life committed and devoted to the cause, to Wales and her political independence.”
They added: “His quirky approach on life was always uplifting. He was unforgettable, sometimes unfathomable but always likeable. He would often test the boundaries just to see how much they would flex but if there was work to be done he would be the first to step up.”
Caerphilly Plaid councillor Colin Mann said: “Adrian lived in the family home with his twin sister Julie and always reminded her that he was five minutes older than her. Adrian was a Welsh nationalist all his adult life, joining Plaid Cymru as a teenager. He was well-read and an intelligent person and was not afraid to express his opinion regardless as to whether or not it would be well received.
“He was described by some as a ‘mixed blessing’ due to his forthright views but was never short of stories and reminiscences of various situations he had been in. In spite of suffering ill-health for a number of years he was always one of the first to volunteer when there was work to be done and was totally reliable when it came to election duties.”
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