Lynette White: Corruption trial collapse public inquiry call

One of three men wrongly convicted of killing a Cardiff prostitute has said he wants an investigation into the collapse of the UK's biggest police corruption trial linked to the case to be a public inquiry.

Lynette White, 20, was stabbed more than 50 times in 1988 in the Cardiff docklands flat where she worked.

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

Tony Paris said he wanted somebody to "get into trouble" over its collapse.

The planned investigation is not believed to be a reopening of the case.

The case against eight police officers collapsed after copies of files were found to have been missing.

Mr Paris told BBC Wales: "I'm hoping it's a public inquiry so we can all know the results at the end of it all rather than one of those internal ones that you never get to hear.

"My community wants to know what happened because it just doesn't make sense how things can go missing one day and be found a couple of weeks later and meanwhile the witnesses have been gone, released, and you can't get them back."

Asked what he would like to see come out of the investigation, he said: "I'd like to see someone getting into trouble."

He said the person in charge of the documents which went missing, resulting in the judge stopping the trial, should get into trouble "or his boss".

"Somebody's responsible - someone's got to pay.

"The reason [the case] refuses to go away is that nobody's paid the price," he said.

Lynette White was murdered in Cardiff in 1988

Solicitor Matthew Gold told Good Morning Wales the investigation would address the systems employed by the prosecution to make sure the disclosure of court documents worked, as well as the the role of individual disclosure officers.

He added: "Why couldn't the police deal with a case like this? Why couldn't they disclose the documents they should have done? Why did they tell the court documents were destroyed when they weren't?"

South Wales Police and Crime Commissioner Alun Michael said: "I would welcome a comprehensive review of the history of this case, provided that the terms of reference are right and that they look at the role of all parties including the CPS, the IPCC and what happened during the court process in this case."

He said as the previous MP for the constituency where Ms White's murder happened, he had followed events "with care from the start".

'Unresolved questions'

South Wales Police deputy chief constable Matt Jukes said: "The very substantial investigation of police actions in the case was led by the force and other reviews have had our full support.

"We appreciate the need to bring together a full and final understanding of events over 27 years and will await the Home Secretary's announcement."

The Home Office did not confirm that a QC-led inquiry would be launched but said there were "unresolved questions" surrounding the miscarriage of justice that led to the three innocent men being jailed and said Mrs May 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.