A Killing in Tiger Bay

To my shame, I somehow wasn't aware beforehand of this shocking miscarriage of justice from 1988 in Wales, although I could point to it being just one of many perpetrated by the British justice system at the time and in this particular case, also highlight the actions (or inactions) of the local police force.

A young prostitute is brutally murdered in her flat, stabbed over 50 times in a frenzied attack. Besides the victim's own blood, there is another blood type, a rare one, found at the scene, implying the murderer has cut them-self in the process. A witness recalls seeing a floppy-haired man outside the apartment, bloody and dazed and reports this to the police. An identikit is produced and the case even features on the national BBC TV series "Crimewatch" on this basis, but then, after a year of fruitless investigation, the police suddenly change tack and bring in for questioning the dead girl's black boyfriend and four other mixed race men, all of them accused, unbelievably, of some sort of bizarre ritual murder. They're subject to rigorous questioning, the police in particular concentrating on the girl's boyfriend, Stephen Miller but roping in four other young men, most of them involved in local petty crime, but nothing like a killing before. Conveniently, three witnesses are produced, all vulnerable to police influence who testify for the prosecution, indeed two of them are cast as actual participants in the deed itself.

To "complete" their investigation, the police then extort a confession from the boyfriend and so, despite a number of the defendants having alibis and no forensic evidence against them, they're all five remanded in prison for two years, then face trial, where three of them are convicted and get life sentences. Thankfully, the families of two of the convicted parties start up a "Free the Cardiff Three" campaign, which gradually gains traction and succeeds in getting the three a retrial which at last sees them freed after four years of incarceration. Later, the arrival on the scene of DNA evidence finally uncovers the real killer, who turns out unsurprisingly to be a disaffected client of the slain girl.

Meanwhile, eight cops who were later charged with fabricating the misleading evidence walk free when the case against them collapses after incriminating documents against them conveniently go missing, meaning the eight probably retired on full pension, with an unblemished record while the five victims of the fit-up have obviously all suffered lasting psychological damage, indeed two of them died separately some years ago obviously before their time.

This 3-part BBC documentary pulled no punches in exposing this travesty of an investigation. They even managed to force a fulsome apology from the current South Wales police chief, although I didn't anywhere hear mention of any compensation being paid out to the five or their dependants. I felt however that the drama was a bit overdone in the telling, with moody, pounding background music which could have been by Hans Zimmer and involving one of the five to participate too much I felt in recreating his arrest and trial. Much is made of the racial motive behind the arrests of the five, but I was a little less convinced of this than I was by the police lazily going back to the girl's boyfriend who just happened to be black himself and them extending their catch to four other young petty criminals. There have been plenty of other examples of rough justice in the British courts where race wasn't an issue, even though it could conceivably have been a factor here too.

Nevertheless this was another revelatory exposé of the terrible abuse of powers by police forces of the time, taking the easy option to railroad completely innocent people to get the case closed, regardless of how unsafe the convictions were. I was pleased that the show named and shamed the acquitted police officers and that the law has changed from its over-reliance on confessions, especially when these could be so easily coerced.

One can only hope that the chances of such a thing happening again in Britain are lower than they were thirty or so years ago when this case came to trial, but somehow I doubt it...

A brilliant documentary! Even though I'm from Wales, I'd never actually heard about this. It was listening to James English's podcast that shed light on this for me. I was so happy to see this and get more background from what happened. It's a clear they were not involved but how that amount of people could let this happen is shocking! A must see.

If you don't mind terrible production value but a good story this is okay. The interviews I think are filmed on phones so it feels like it's even made by students and not film students. Anyway great story and good access.

When Lynette White was murdered in Cardiff, there was some evidence pointing toawrds a white man as a killer; and many years later the suspect was found, and ultimately pled guilty in court. But in the meantime, the police arrested five random black men, concocted a story about a ritual killing, bullied a confession out of one of the accused, and ignored the evidence that another had thirteen abilis. Three of the five were convicted before being freed on appeal two years later; even those freed spent two years on remand. Watching this series about this sorry episode, what's shocking is not just that the justice system got it wrong, but the sheer preposterousness of the allegations. The centrality of racism to the story seems incontravertible; otherwise it makes no sense whatsoever, and the end of the programme makes it clear that the men have all had their lives badly damaged by what they went through. If you watch lots of police dramas where it seems impossible for the good cops to get a conviction, watch this and understand why protection for the accused is absolutely necessary.