Tottenham Three vindicated
01 January 1992
The Court of Appeal formally quashed the convictions of Winston Silcott, Mark Braithwaite and Engin Raghip for the murder of PC Keith Blakelock, on 5 December 1991, and expressed their profound regret to the three for the "shortcomings of the criminal process." The Court had surprised observers by granting unconditional bail to Raghip and Braithwaite three days into the hearing, on 27 November, having declared Silcott's conviction unsafe on the first day.
Silcott's conviction was quashed first, because ESDA tests on his "admissions" interview had established that pages had been rewritten and that officers, notably Detective Chief Superintendent Melvin, the officer in overall charge of the investigation into Blakelock's murder, had lied when describing the notes of the interview as "contemporaneous". The prosecution then conceded that "we would not have gone on against Raghip or Braithwaite, or any of the other defendants, having learned of the apparent dishonesty of the officer in charge of the case." The judges said that "no system of trials is proof against perjury, although this will be of little consolation to its victims."
The Court of Appeal also reaffirmed the rights of people in custody, saying that the denial of access to a solicitor was enough to quash the convictions of Raghip and Braithwaite. "Access to legal advice is one of the most important and fundamental rights of a citizen", they said. They heard that Melvin took a policy decision to refuse suspects access to a solicitor, and as a result 77 suspects saw no solicitor. Raghip was interviewed ten times in five days, and succumbed to the pressure by making a number of self-incriminating statements. But psychological evidence, ruled inadmissible by Lord Chief Justice Lane in the men's previous appeal in 1988, established that he was extremely suggestible. Braithwaite was interviewed seven times. He was not arrested until about three months after the event, by which time, the Court said any legitimate reason for withholding access to a solicitor had long gone.
The finding of dishonesty and improper denial of access to legal advice by Detective Chief Supt Melvin comes four months after Home Secretary Kenneth Baker accepted the recommendation of an appeal tribunal that he be exonerated on disciplinary charges relating to the investigation. He had been found guilty of denying access to Jason Hill, a 13-year-old charged with the murder, but acquitted at trial after the judge described his confession as "high fantasy". Two other juveniles were acquitted after their confessions were thrown out of court.
The Broadwater Farm trials involved 69 defendants, six charged with murder and 63 with riot or affray. In the majority of cases the only evidence was confession evidence. During the murder trial, in March 1987, the judge condemned police treatment of suspects in custody as illegal. Despite his remarks, and despite the weakness of the evidence, Silcott, Braithwaite and Raghip have been in prison for five years on charges on which they should never have been convicted.
Police reaction to the quashing of the conviction was divided. Mike Bennett, the chair of the Police Federation's Metropolitan Branch, felt "let down by the hierarchy", while the national director of the Federation, Barrie Irving, called for a professional code of ethics, in the police to be monitored by an external body which had the power to dismiss police. But the Police Superintendents' Association said it was backing Melvin. Met Police Commissioner Peter Imbert, in an ambiguous statement, said he regretted that anyone had been wrongly convicted, but suggested that the people of Broadwater Farm were guilty of not cooperating to find the killers.<