The last convicted member of the Stockwell Six, a group of young black men falsely accused of trying to rob a corrupt police officer more than half a century ago, has had his case referred back to the court of appeal.
Ronald De Souza was arrested along with five friends and charged with attempting to rob the now notorious police officer DS Derek Ridgewell in 1972. They were put on trial at the Old Bailey largely on his word. All pleaded not guilty.
All but one were convicted and jailed, despite jurors hearing accusations that police officers had lied, used violence and made threats. De Souza received a sentence of six months’ detention.
The five convicted men attempted to appeal against their convictions and sentences in 1973 but were refused.
In 2021, after evidence of the corrupt and racist practices of Ridgewell emerged, De Souza’s co-accused – Paul Green, Courtney Harriott, Cleveland Davison and Texo Johnson – had their convictions overturned by the court of appeal.
Their cases had been referred by the Criminal Cases Review Commission but De Souza had still not been found. The then chair of the CCRC, Helen Pitcher, gave a statement asking for De Souza or his family to come forward.
In December De Souza made an application to the CCRC, which announced on Friday it had referred his conviction back to the court of appeal.
De Souza’s lawyer, Jenny Wiltshire, a partner at Hickman and Rose, said: “While it is good news that the CCRC has referred Mr De Souza’s conviction to the court of appeal, it is a tragedy that is has taken over 50 years for the miscarriage of justice he suffered to start to be rectified.
“Derek Ridgewell, the corrupt police officer at the heart of this case and others like it, was convicted in 1980. It was at that point that Ridgewell’s employer, British Transport Police, should have immediately reviewed every criminal investigation in which he was involved.
“But it didn’t. As a result it has taken half a century for the individual people victimised by him to come forward and fight to clear their names.”
Wiltshire said Ridgewell’s corruption was not confined to the Stockwell Six and Oval Four cases, adding: “I am not confident that all his victims have yet been identified.”
Paul Green (left) and Cleveland Davidson outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London in July 2021, after having their convictions overturned (along with Courtney Harriott) by the court of appeal. Texo Johnson’s conviction was quashed in November 2021. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PARidgewell’s practices at the British Transport Police were uncovered after he was caught using the guise of investigating mailbag fraud to split the profits of stolen mailbags with two others. He was jailed for seven years and died of a heart attack in prison in 1982, aged 37.
The Stockwell Six case happened after Ridgewell had been put in charge of a new mugging squad in the capital in 1972. He wanted to be credited with as many arrests as possible.
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He was wearing plainclothes on 18 February 1972 when he claimed that De Souza and five friends, who boarded the train at Stockwell station in south London, had attempted to rob him. Ridgewell claimed he had defended himself and arrested them with undercover officers.
Only one man, Everett Mullins, was acquitted at the time because it was shown that his reading ability was not good enough for him to have understood the signed statement written for him by Ridgewell.
The former Det Supt Graham Satchwell, who co-wrote a book on Ridgewell with Winston Trew, another of his victims, said it was “impossible to overstate” the impact of the wrongful convictions. “He really did smash up lives and families,” Satchwell said.
Matt Foot, the co-director of the miscarriages of justice organisation Appeal, who has represented many of Ridgewell’s victims, said their long wait for justice showed the need for reform. “It’s high time we changed the law so that when police officers like DS Ridgewell are sent to prison their files are automatically reviewed for miscarriages of justice,” he said.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice said there were no plans to change the law at the moment.
In a statement, the CCRC said it was still looking for more victims of Ridgewell’s corrupt policing: “Anyone else who believes they might be a victim of a miscarriage of justice, convicted in a case involving Derek Ridgewell, is urged to contact the CCRC.”