Half-century convictions linked to racist officer quashed

Saliah Mehmet and Basil Peterkin

Two men jailed on the testimony of a corrupt police officer have had their convictions posthumously quashed after almost 50 years of campaigning.

The Court of Appeal formally exonerated Saliah Mehmet and Basil Peterkin.

The men were jailed in 1977 thanks to evidence that police chiefs now accept was racist and corrupt.

The men's families say the law must be changed to ensure that all cases linked to corrupt officers are reviewed in the future.

Basil Peterkin and Saliah Mehmet were British Rail workers who were convicted of conspiracy to steal tens of thousands of pounds worth of mail order parcels from a railway yard.

They were sentenced to nine months in prison and later died in 1991 and 2021 respectively.

Campaign: Family and supporters of the men at the Court of Appeal

At the heart of their prosecution had been Detective Sergeant Derek Ridgewell.

He was brought to justice in 1980 when he and two other detective constables - Douglas Ellis and Alan Keeling - were convicted of stealing £364,000 of property from the same depot that Mr Peterkin and Mr Mehmet had been accused of targeting.

Ridgewell, who died in prison, was later found to have been responsible for a series of infamous and racist miscarriages of justice in London, including the 'Oval Four' and 'Stockwell Six'. Instead of being sacked in 1973 after the first allegations against him emerged, British Transport Police (BTP) moved him to another team.

This morning, Lord Justice Holroyde - one of the most senior judges in England and Wales - said both the men were innocent and posthumously quashed their convictions.

"We cannot turn back the clock," said the judge. "But we can, and do, quash the convictions."

• Two convicted by corrupt officer could be cleared

Ridgewell's framing of the two men was not referred back to judges to be reconsidered until now - and was only uncovered thanks to work on another of the officer's victims by the official miscarriages review body.

Regu Saliah, Mr Mehmet's oldest son, said: "This judgment today brings some relief from an injustice that has lasted nearly half a century and for this we would like to thank our legal team and the Criminal Cases Review Commission for making it possible.

"Regrettably, our father doesn't get to experience this judgment today, he passed away two years ago having lived as a victim of Ridgewell, a corrupt, racist police officer for over 43 years.

"What he was put through over those years left a traumatic legacy that stayed with him his whole life.

"The injustice he suffered he never managed to comprehend - but even harder for him was knowing that his incarceration left my mother and I penniless and homeless in 1970s London."

Derek Ridgewell admitted theft and died in jail in 1982

Janice Peterkin, Mr Peterkin's daughter, said she had been determined to clear her father's name.

"He didn't deserve to spend time in prison," she said.

"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.

"Our dad was not given the chance to prove his innocence either at trial or when he appealed."

The long battle to clear the men has raised questions about how police forces investigate their own officers after an allegation of corruption has been proven.

In 2021, BTP said they had completed a search for any other potential wrongful convictions linked to Ridgewell - but did not submit the 1977 case to the Criminal Cases Review Commission, the body that investigates potential miscarriages of justice.

"As a family we find it extremely difficult to understand why BTP failed to initiate a review into my father's case when Ridgewell was convicted so soon after," said Regu Saliah.

"We are bitterly disappointed that to this day we have had no contact from the BTP to explain their actions and, more importantly, their inactions regarding what we consider to be a crime perpetrated against our father, and by extension us as a family."

Mr Matt Foot, the men's solicitor from miscarriages campaign group Appeal, said their case showed the law must be changed to prevent other such injustices.

He and the families are now calling for an automatic review of the corrupt officer's case files to avoid the same mistake being made again.

"There is no excuse for the hideous delay of nearly 50 years," said Mr Foot.

"We need [Justice Secretary] Alex Chalk to introduce an immediate change in the law so that miscarriages of justice caused by corrupt police officers like Ridgewell are swiftly put right."

In 2021 BTP apologised for what it said had been Ridgewell's "systemic racism".

Chief Constable Lucy D'Orsi, said: "I am sincerely sorry for the trauma suffered by the British African community through the criminal actions of former police officer DS Derek Ridgewell who worked in BTP during the 1960s and '70s.

"In particular, it is of regret that we did not act sooner to end his criminalisation of British Africans, which led to the conviction of innocent people.

"This is simply inexcusable and is something that my colleagues and I are appalled by."