South Wales Police have apologised to the family of a man who was wrongfully executed for a murder he did not commit 70 years ago. Mahmood Mattan, a British Somali and former seaman living in Cardiff, was hanged in 1952 after he was convicted of killing shopkeeper Lily Volpert in her store in Cardiff.
Ms Volpert, an established Cardiff shopkeeper and unofficial money lender, had her throat slashed with a razor and bled to the death in the very shop she had spent more than two decades running on March 6, 1952. Despite having alibis backed by numerous witnesses and no forensic evidence Mr Mattan was arrested and charged within hours of the murder by Cardiff City police, which is part of the now South Wales Police force.
Mr Mattan, originally from Somalia, denied the help of an interpreter at his trial. This, alongside feelings of prejudice from an all-white jury and unhelpful comments from his own barrister who described his client as “half child of nature, half semi-civilised savage”, saw Mr Mattan found guilty of the murder despite much of the prosecution evidence being ruled as inadmissible.
Read more: The unsolved murder of the pawnbroker slashed with a razor that saw an innocent man hanged
Within six months of the murder the 28-year-old was executed by infamous hangman Albert Pierrepoint at the gallows at Cardiff prison on September 3, 1952. His devastated widow Laura and his family began the fight to clear his name. The first attempt to overturn Mr Mattan's wrongful conviction came in 1969 following Cover's conviction for attempted murder. But home secretary James Callaghan refused to re-open the case.
In 1996 the family won the right to have Mr Mattan's body exhumed from where it had been buried at Cardiff prison and moved to Western Cemetery, where his epitaph reads: "Killed by injustice." But it wouldn't be until 1998, 45 years after the killing and subsequent execution, that the family would win the right to have Mr Mattan's conviction quashed. The late Bernard de Maid, a high-profile Cardiff lawyer, worked with the family on the case. He would later go on to overturn the wrongful conviction of the Cardiff Three.
Mr Mattan's case was the first to be referred by the Criminal Cases Review Commission and, on February 24, 1998, the Court of Appeal came to the judgement that the original case was, in the words of Lord Justice Rose, "demonstrably flawed". The family won a £1.4m payout after their successful campaign, which they received in 2001. The true killer has never been caught.
Now, seven decades after the horrific injustice, Mr Mattan's descendants have been issued a formal apology by police. However one of his six grandchildren branded the apology insincere and claimed police only issued it due to an upcoming podcast release examining the case. "It's far too late for the people directly affected as they are no longer with us and still, we are yet to hear the words I am/we are sorry," granddaughter Tanya Mattan told the BBC.
South Wales Police have formally apologised to the family. Chief constable Jeremy Vaughan said: "This is a case very much of its time – racism, bias, and prejudice would have been prevalent throughout society, including the criminal justice system.
"There is no doubt that Mahmood Mattan was the victim of a miscarriage of justice as a result of a flawed prosecution of which policing was clearly a part. It is right and proper that an apology is made on behalf of policing for what went so badly wrong in this case 70 years ago and for the terrible suffering of Mr Mattan's family and all those affected by this tragedy for many years.
"Even to this day we are still working hard to ensure that racism and prejudice are eradicated from society and policing. Police investigations would have been totally different then and a long way off today's excellent investigative standards. Even when reflecting on a case from 70 years ago we do not forget those who have been affected by miscarriages of justice and we do not underestimate the impact this has on individuals."
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