Tottenham Three vindicated (1)
01 January 1991
Tottenham Three vindicated
artdoc February=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.
Statewatch, Volume 2 no 1, January/February 1992