Oval Four
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Oval Four are four black British men—Winston Trew, Sterling Christie, George Griffiths and Constantine "Omar" Boucher—who were arrested by police at London's
Oval tube station Oval is a London Underground station in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is on the Northern line between Kennington and Stockwell stations, and is in Travelcard Zone 2. The station opened on 18 December 1890 as part of the City and South Lo ...
in March 1972 supposedly on suspicion of stealing passengers' handbags. The four were held overnight, and their trial eventually lasted five weeks. They were all found guilty of assaulting police officers and attempted theft in November 1972 and received sentences of two years in prison. Following an appeal led by
John Platts-Mills John Faithful Fortescue Platts-Mills, (4 October 1906 – 26 October 2001) was a British barrister and left-wing politician. He was the Labour Party Member of Parliament for Finsbury from 1945 to 1948, when he was expelled from the party effec ...
, QC, their sentences were later reduced to eight months, albeit the convictions themselves were upheld, and Lord Justice Haymes commented that the reduction did not ameliorate the seriousness of their crimes. Christie was also convicted of stealing a female police officer's handbag. All four men subsequently appealed, which failed. The officer responsible for their arrest, who was also the chief prosecution witness at their subsequent trial—
Detective Sergeant Sergeant (Sgt) is a rank in use by the armed forces of many countries. It is also a police rank in some police services. The alternative spelling, ''serjeant'', is used in The Rifles and in other units that draw their heritage from the Brit ...
Derek Ridgewell of the
British Transport Police British Transport Police (BTP; ) is a national special police force that polices the railway network of England, Wales and Scotland, which consists of over 10,000 miles of track and 3,000 stations and depots. BTP also polices the London Under ...
—was later tried and convicted for
conspiracy A conspiracy, also known as a plot, ploy, or scheme, is a secret plan or agreement between people (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder, treason, or corruption, especially with a political motivat ...
to rob from the
Royal Mail Royal Mail Group Limited, trading as Royal Mail, is a British postal service and courier company. It is owned by International Distribution Services. It operates the brands Royal Mail (letters and parcels) and Parcelforce Worldwide (parcels) ...
in 1980, for which he received a seven-year sentence. The
Criminal Cases Review Commission The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) is the statutory body responsible for investigating alleged miscarriages of justice in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. It was established by Section 8 of the Criminal Appeal Act 1995 and be ...
(CCRC) argues that Ridgewell—in charge of a group of
undercover A cover in foreign, military or police human intelligence or counterintelligence is the ostensible identity and role or position in an infiltrated organization assumed by a covert agent during a covert operation. Official cover In espionage, a ...
officers known as the
Northern Line The Northern line is a London Underground line that runs between North London and South London. It is printed in black on the Tube map. It carries more passengers per year than any other Underground linearound 340million in 2019making it the bu ...
"Mugging Squad"— was known to confront young black men at tube stations, accuse them of theft, and then arrest them for
resisting arrest An arrest is the act of apprehending and taking a person into custody (legal protection or control), usually because the person has been suspected of or observed committing a crime. After being taken into custody, the person can be Interroga ...
, which he would back up with fictional, incriminatory remarks from the prisoner. If they resisted, a charge of assaulting a police officer was added to the
charge sheet In policing on the Indian subcontinent, a chargesheet is prepared after first information reports (FIRs), and charges an individual for (some or all of) the crimes specified in those reports. Once the chargesheet has been submitted to a cour ...
. This led to a number of "high-profile" cases, which began attracting attention after a judge threw out Ridgewell's case against two
Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
students studying at
Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...
. The judge, Gwynn Morris summed up: "I find it terrible that, here in London, people using public transport should be pounced upon by police officers without a word."


Campaign for justice and quashing of the conviction

The following decades saw a campaign develop for the men's convictions to be examined, which included demonstrations and public meetings at
Lambeth Town Hall Lambeth Town Hall, also known as Brixton Town Hall, is a municipal building at the corner of Brixton Hill and Acre Lane, Brixton Brixton is an area of South London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. The area is identified in ...
. As a result of Ridgewell's
corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense that is undertaken by a person or an organization that is entrusted in a position of authority to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's gain. Corruption may involve activities ...
the four men's case was returned to the
Court of Appeal An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to Hearing (law), hear a Legal case, case upon appeal from a trial court or other ...
in October 2019, which indicated that the case would review Ridgewell's "integrity". A number of Ridgewell's other cases had recently come before the appeal court, such as that of businessman Stephen Simmons who was also found to have been framed. Their convictions were quashed on 5 December 2019 by
Lord Chief Justice The Lord or Lady Chief Justice of England and Wales is the head of the judiciary of England and Wales and the president of the courts of England and Wales. Until 2005 the lord chief justice was the second-most senior judge of the English a ...
, Lord Burnett, in a judgement given alongside Mrs Justice McGowan and Sir Roderick Evans. Burnett stated that the appeal court recognised "an accumulating body of evidence that points to the fundamental unreliability of evidence given by DS Ridgewell...and others of this specialist group". The four men were all aged between 19 and 23 when they were arrested by police investigating crime on
London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or as the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent home counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The Undergro ...
; Trew later claimed that they were all "given a good hiding there to confess to things we didn't do". The CCRC supported Trew's and Christie's appeal, although noted that they had not been able to discover the whereabouts of Griffiths or Boucher, whom they believed to have emigrated later that decade. Their cases will remain available to prosecute should they request it, said the CCRC, who made the referral, they said, because "the commission considers there is a real possibility that the court will quash the conviction on the basis of new evidence and arguments concerning the integrity of DS Ridgewell." They also suggested that the appeal had "potential significance" for others convicted following Ridgewell's investigation or testimony. In November 2021, Lucy D'Orsi, chief constable of the British Transport Police, apologised to the black community in the United Kingdom "for the trauma suffered by the British African community through the criminal actions" of Ridgewell, adding that "In particular, it is of regret that we did not act sooner to end his criminalisation of British Africans, which led to the conviction of innocent people", and said his actions did "not define the BTP of today".


Related cases

The similar " Stockwell Six" case also involved Derek Ridgewell.


Notes


References


Further reading

* {{Miscarriage of justice in the UK Anti-black racism in England 1972 in England 1972 in British law 2019 in England 2019 in British law Court of Appeal (England and Wales) cases Overturned convictions in England Quantified groups of defendants Trials in England British Transport Police Police misconduct in the United Kingdom