1 November 1999
Police unit to blame
for 'dozens more injustices'
Miscarriages of justice emerge 10
years after break-up of group that tortured suspects
By Ian Burrell and Jason Bennetto
Police face calls for a full and independent inquiry
as the West Midlands force prepares for revelations of at least seven new
miscarriages of justice.
Lawyers last night predicted that the notorious West
Midlands Serious Crime Squad, which was disbanded more than a decade ago,
could be responsible for dozens of wrongful convictions that have yet to
come to light. So far 30 convictions have been quashed by the Court of
Appeal because of evidence that the squad fabricated evidence, tortured
suspects and wrote false confessions.
The scale of the continuing scandal emerged as Keith
Twitchell had his conviction for manslaughter and robbery overturned by
the Court of Appeal last Tuesday.
Mr Twitchell remembers every detail of what was done
to him by members of the West Midlands squad. "Somebody put this bag over
my head and it was clamped tight around my mouth and eyes. I remember struggling
and heaving but then I must have gone unconscious," he said.
Under those methods, described to the Court of Appeal
as "a scenario of torture that beggars belief", he signed a confession
that led to him serving a 12-year jail sentence for manslaughter and robbery.
Last week he became the latest victim of the squad
to have his conviction overturned. Now 63, he savages the squad's officers
as "lazy, incompetent and careless". He was by no means the first, or the
last, victim of their actions.
In the summer of 1980 a group of ruthless armed criminals,
nicknamed the "Thursday Gang" was wreaking havoc throughout the West Midlands.
The gang had just made its biggest hit - £280,000
from a post office van in Dudley, near Birmingham - and the West Midlands
Serious Crime Squad was under pressure to get some results.
The breakthrough appeared to come when one of the
gang's number, Keith Morgan, agreed to become a supergrass, followed by
a second member of the outfit, Richard "Mad Mac" Mackay. Based on information
provided by Morgan and Mackay the squad set up a joint operation with the
West Mercia police, called Operation Cat, and in Easter 1982 they carried
out a series of raids that led to 29 people being charged.
Among those jailed were the brothers Donald and Ronald
Brown, Patrick Gaughan and Michael Dunne.
Despite the convictions being based almost entirely
on the uncorroborated evidence of Morgan, a disputed confession by Gaughan
and a semi-confession by Donald Brown, the prosecutions seemed to be another
successful case for the squad.
But Operation Cat started to unravel because of the
conviction of another supposed member of the gang, Derek Treadaway.
Treadaway's
conviction was later quashed after it was revealed he was forced
to sign a confession after detectives tortured him by placing plastic bags
over his head.
During a successful civil action by Treadaway, who
received £70,000 in damages from the police and won an Appeal Court
victory, the police were severely criticised, and the supergrass handlers
and their informants were discredited.
After Treadaway's case the Criminal Cases Review
Commission re-examined the cases of the Brown brothers, Dunne and Gaughan
and referred them to the Court of Appeal. The Browns' cases had previously
been turned down by the Home Office. All four men refused to admit to the
bank raids and served out their sentences. Dates for the appeal hearings
have yet to be set.
The origins of the West Midlands Police Serious Crime
Squad can be traced back to February 1952 when the old City of Birmingham
constabulary embarked on an experiment to tackle organised crime by assembling
a group of "seasoned and experienced" officers driving "wireless cars".
The Birmingham "Special Crime Squad" proved so successful
that it provided the inspiration for the now infamous West Midlands unit,
which was founded in 1974.
In 1985 a series of complaints prompted an investigation
by the Metropolitan Police.
The ensuing Hay report, which was never made public,
criticised the squad's interviewing techniques, failure to properly use
pocket books and the inordinate amount of time that officers were allowed
to remain with the élite unit.
Although the report was seen by senior West Midlands
officers, nothing appears to have been done to improve the practices of
those serving in the squad. The complaints continued and a succession of
the squad's cases were thrown out of court amid allegations of fabricated
confessions.
Many of these were exposed because of the coincidental
emergence of a vital new forensic technique, the Esda (Electrostatic Document
Analysis) test, which revealed that officers were making up statements.
Up until 1986 members of the 25-strong squad would
write out false confessions and force the suspects to sign them.
On 14 August 1989, the force's Chief Constable, Geoffrey
Dear, disbanded the squad, and an investigation was set up by the independent
Police Complaints Authority and conducted by West Yorkshire Police.
The PCA investigation looked at 97 complaints against
the squad made between January 1986 and August 1989. Ethnic minority complaints
were disproportionately high, with 35 registered by African-Caribbeans
and eight by Asians.
Between March 1990 and October 1991 the inquiry passed
a succession of files to the Crown Prosecution Service to consider criminal
charges against some of the officers concerned. By then the Birmingham
Six, convicted of the 1974 IRA pub bombings, had been freed by the Court
of Appeal after an investigation in which the squad had played an important
part had been shown to be flawed.
But in May 1992, Dame Barbara Mills, Director of
Public Prosecutions at the time, decided that there was "insufficient evidence
to prosecute" a single officer from the squad.
The PCA's final report was published in January 1993.
It revealed that officers in the squad were working
"totally unrealistic" hours. Officers were abusing the overtime system,
with some working 100 hours overtime a month, mostly for visits to licensed
premises to "meet contacts".
The official report made no mention of the "plastic
bagging" and other torture techniques referred to by the many victims of
the squad whose convictions have since been quashed by the Court of Appeal.
Nor did it highlight the repeated appearance in interview
notes of key "confessional" phrases such as "That bastard's really put
me in it" and "You're spot on".
At the end of its £2m inquiry, the PCA recommended
disciplinary charges against only seven officers. A further 10 officers
would have faced charges but they had already retired, it was announced.
In the event, just four of the squad's officers -
Detective Superintendent John Brown, Detective Constable Colin Abbotts,
Detective Chief Inspector Bob Goodchild and Detective Constable Tony Adams
- were punished for minor disciplinary offences.
Two years ago the three remaining members of the
Bridgewater Four, framed by the squad in 1978, were finally set free as
the Court of Appeal decided that the crucial confession had been forged.
Gareth Peirce, a lawyer who was involved in the campaign
to free the Birmingham Six, said yesterday that there were still dozens
of hidden miscarriages. She called for a fresh inquiry into the scale of
the corruption. "I have no doubt there are dozens of people who have served
time in jail but were innocent. The Serious Crime Squad were operating
like the Wild West, they were out of control."
A PCA spokesman said: "We have retained all the files
in the interest of justice. Everything was disclosed to the lawyers concerned.
The Home Office who handled such appeals at the time were fully briefed
of the technique that had been used by the squad."
Officers named in disciplinary inquiries
NO OFFICER from the West Midlands Police Serious Crime Squad has been successfully prosecuted.
DC John Perkins. Died in October 1993. Racially abused and attacked George Glen Lewis before forcing him to sign a blank confession. Framed the Bridgewater Four, boasting that his fist was a "truth drug". Perkins was involved in 17 of the 97 cases investigated by the Police Complaints Authority (PCA).
DC Graham Leake. Involved in the forged confession that led to conviction of the Bridgewater Four. Confession was described in court as a "vein of corruption and dishonesty" through the case. The convictions were quashed by the High Court in 1997. Now runs a security firm.
DC David Woodley and DC Roger Clifford. Accused of interfering with the course of justice by stealing interview notes in the Michael Bromell case. When charges against the pair were dropped they won libel damages from newspapers and the BBC. In 1992 Bromell won his appeal after the judge was shown documents that indicated there was "a very real possibility" the officers removed notes that could have proved his innocence.
Supt John Brown and DC Colin Abbots. Fined £1,500 for disciplinary offences after PCA inquiry in 1993. Brown, now retired, linked to the plastic bag technique, used in the Treadaway and Twitchell cases.
DC Tony Adams and Det Ch Insp Bob Goodchild. Found guilty of minor disciplinary offences after PCA investigation. Adams found to have not followed correct procedures in relation to payments to an informant.
DS Michael Hornby. Served with the squad for 16 years and was involved in the Birmingham Six and Twitchell inquiries. Retired from the force with diabetes in 1990. Has accused Chris Mullin, the MP and Birmingham Six campaigner, of pursuing a "vendetta" against the squad.
Supt George Reade, DS Colin Morris and DC Terence Woodwiss. All charged with perjury and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice in relation to their investigation of the Birmingham Six. The case against the three detectives, all now retired, collapsed when a judge ruled they could not receive a fair trial.
Insp James Price, DC Alan Pickering and Tim Russell. Named, with Supt John Brown (above) in Treadaway case over torture allegations. Decision not to bring charges against them criticised by the High Court.
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