Lynette White: Corruption trial collapse investigation

Lynette White was murdered in Cardiff in 1988

Just why the UK's biggest police corruption trial collapsed will be the focus of an investigation ordered by the Home Secretary, says the solicitor for one of the men wrongly convicted of killing a Cardiff prostitute.

Lynette White was stabbed more than 50 times in 1988 in the Cardiff docklands flat where she worked.

The quashed convictions later led to the £30m corruption case in 2011.

The Home Office said it would make an announcement shortly.

Lynette, 20, was murdered on St Valentine's Day 1988 at the flat in Butetown, where she took clients.

Tony Paris, Yusef Abdullahi and Stephen Miller - who became known as the Cardiff Three - were wrongly jailed for life in 1990 for the murder and freed in 1992 after their convictions were quashed.

In 2003 new DNA technology led South Wales Police to Ms White's real killer - Jeffrey Gafoor. He confessed to stabbing her in a row over £30.

Twelve former South Wales Police officers were charged with perverting the course of justice - but the trial of eight of them collapsed in 2011.

Sharing evidence

Matthew Gold, who acts for Stephen Miller, said the investigation would examine how the process of ensuring the defence had all the relevant evidence failed.

The system - known as disclosure - is supposed to mean both sides in a case share all their relevant documents.

"This investigation is not a reopening of the case against the (police) officers," insisted Mr Gold.

"It will address the systems employed by the prosecution to make sure disclosure worked, which in this case it did not, and also the role of individual disclosure officers."

Mr Gold said he had been informed that the investigation will start on 2 March, led by Richard Horwell QC.