Court quashes 1972 robbery convictions of three black men

LONDON: A member of the “Stockwell Six”, who was jailed on the word of a corrupt police officer nearly 50 years ago, has said he has finally been vindicated after his name was cleared by the Court of Appeal.

Cleveland Davidson was just 17 when he and five friends, all young black men, were arrested on the London Underground while on a night out on February 18 1972.

The Stockwell Six were accused of trying to rob British Transport Police officer Detective Sergeant Derek Ridgewell, who was in plain clothes and had previously served in the South Rhodesian, now Zimbabwean, police force.

Ridgewell claimed the six, who got on the train at Stockwell station in south London, attempted to rob him before he fought back and arrested them with a team of undercover officers.

They all pleaded not guilty, but all bar one were convicted and sent to jail or borstal, despite telling jurors that police officers had lied and subjected them to violence and threats. Davidson, now 66, was convicted of attempted robbery and sentenced to six months’ detention.

On Tuesday, three members of the Stockwell Six –Davidson, Paul Green, also now 66, and Courtney Harriot – finally had their names cleared by the Court of Appeal, which ruled that their convictions were unsafe.

Sir Julian Flaux, sitting with Mr Justice Linden and Mr Justice Wall, said: “It is most unfortunate that it has taken nearly 50 years to rectify the injustice suffered by these appellants.” The two remaining members of the Stockwell Six who were convicted, Texo Joseph Johnson and Ronald De’Souza, have not yet been traced.

But the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which referred the convictions to the Court of Appeal, said it is “desperate to find other men who were part of this group of friends so many years ago”. Speaking outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London after the hearing, Davidson said: “It’s vindication that we were innocent at the time. We were only young then, we did nothing.”

“It was a total stitch-up, it was a frame-up for nothing,” he added. Davidson said Ridgewell was a “corrupt and wicked and evil police officer”, adding: “We don’t know how many other people Ridgewell stitched up … it’s just endless.”

He said his conviction had affected him for the last five decades and “ruined” his life. He asked: “We got justice today, but it has not put it right – how can it put it right?”

Winston Trew, whose 1972 conviction for attempted theft and assaulting police was overturned by the Court of Appeal in December 2019, said after the hearing that he was “very pleased” . Trew was also “fitted up” by Ridgewell and was jailed for two years, later reduced to eight months on appeal.

Ridgewell was involved in a number of high-profile and controversial cases in the early 1970s, culminating in the 1973 acquittals of the “Tottenham Court Road Two” – two young Jesuits studying at Oxford University.

He was then moved into a department investigating mailbag theft, where he joined up with two criminals with whom he split the profits of stolen mailbags.

Ridgewell was eventually caught and jailed for seven years, dying of a heart attack in prison in 1982 at the age of 37.

The case of the Stockwell Six is the third time Ridgewell’s corruption has led to wrongful convictions being overturned by the Court of Appeal.