Two men who were framed by a racist and corrupt detective for the same offence he was later jailed for have had their convictions posthumously quashed by the court of appeal 46 years later.
Saliah Mehmet and Basil Peterkin, who died in 2021 and 1991 respectively, are the 10th and 11th people to have convictions relating to the British Transport Police (BTP) officer DS Derek Ridgewell quashed. Their appeals after a referral by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) were uncontested on Thursday.
Ridgewell, who also framed the Oval Four and Stockwell Six, and died in 1982 in prison, was jailed for seven years in 1980 for stealing mailbags worth £364,000 from the Bricklayers Arms goods depot in Southwark, south London. He and two other officers carried out the thefts while giving evidence against Mehmet and Peterkin in their 1977 trial for the same offence at the depot. Mehmet and Peterkin were both sentenced to nine months in prison.
Speaking outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, the families of Mehmet and Peterkin lamented the amount of time it had taken for them to obtain justice and called for a new law so that the imprisonment of any police officer would trigger a review of their cases.
Regu Saliah, the eldest son of Mehmet, said: “He lived as a victim of DS Ridgewell, the corrupt and racist police officer, for over 43 years. What he was put through those years left a traumatic legacy that stayed with him his whole life, unfortunately.”
Saliah said his father’s imprisonment in the 1970s “left myself and my mother penniless and homeless” while Ridgewell “was kept in his position of power where he continued to victimise families like ours”. He said a review of Ridgewell’s cases after his 1980 conviction would have served to “clear his [Mehmet’s] name and to give him his life back”.
Peterkin’s daughters, Janice Peterkin and Lileith Jones, said: “He didn’t deserve to spend time in prison. He was a law-abiding citizen and a family man.
“Basil was unfairly targeted and framed by the ex-policeman Ridgewell, who was clearly racist and corrupt.”
Ridgewell investigated the pair having being moved from a previous post working on the London underground after exposure, both in court and in the media, of his dishonesty, violence and corrupt practices.
Henry Blaxland KC, appearing for Mehmet and Peterkin, told the court that Ridgewell should have been sacked in 1973, accusing the BTP of “systemic failure”.
Talking about Ridgewell’s conduct while working for BTP on the tube, Blaxland said: “What might have been expected at that point is the British Transport Police might have conducted a thorough investigation into Detective Sergeant Ridgewell with the end result that he might have been dismissed. What happened instead was that he was moved to a different section.”
Quashing the convictions, Lord Justice Holroyde said he saw “considerable force” in the arguments that Ridgewell should have been sacked in 1973 and that all of his cases should have been reviewed after his 1980 conviction.
“We express our regret so many years have passed before action was taken,” the judge said. “We can’t turn back the clock but we can – and do – quash the convictions.”
The appellants’ solicitor, Matt Foot, a co-director of the miscarriages of justice charity Appeal, said they would be writing to the lord chancellor to demand the change in the law spoken about by the families. He criticised the BTP, saying that Peterkin’s and Mehmet’s cases were identified after the force said it had carried out a review and said it had not detected any more injustices related to Ridgewell.
In 2021, BTP apologised to the British black community for the trauma caused by Ridgewell’s actions in light of the miscarriages of justice involving the Stockwell Six, who were accused of attempting to rob the corrupt officer on the London underground, and the Oval Four, who were accused of “nicking handbags” on the tube.
The BTP chief constable, Lucy D’Orsi, repeated the apology on Thursday and acknowledged that “systemic racism” had played a role in the culture of the force.
Mehmet and Peterkin were accused of relabelling parcels to direct them to alternative addresses and then selling the goods that were inside.
In 2018, Stephen Simmons, who was found guilty of stealing mailbags based on Ridgewell’s evidence, had his 1976 conviction quashed, having Googled his arresting officer and then taken his case to the CCRC.
