Justice must be seen to be done in South Wales police scandal | Observer editorial
In December, the case was halted against eight former detectives accused of fabricating evidence and perverting the course of justice in a trial for the 1988 murder of Lynette White. It was halted after prosecutor Nicholas Dean told the court: "Deliberate destruction of documents by the senior investigating officer appears to have occurred." The case cost an estimated £30m and took almost 10 years to come to court. Then, last week, the Independent Police Complaints Commission announced that the documents had not been shredded. It demanded to know why the South Wales police had claimed they had been.
The South Wales police has form. For the past decade, it has been trying to regain a reputation for integrity and fairness after a shockingly high number of miscarriages of justice occurred on its patch over the previous 20 years. These include the wrongful convictions of Jonathan Jones, Annette Hewins, the Darvell brothers, and the so-called Cardiff Three – Stephen Miller, Yusef Abdullahi and Tony Paris – for White's death. Some of those who were wrongly imprisoned will never put their lives back together; others remain free who have committed murder.
While there are undoubtedly sterling members of the South Wales police, punishment for those officers who have failed to meet the expected standard has been next to non-existent. So what should happen now?
Keir Starmer, director of the Crown Prosecution Service, has ordered an inquiry, supported by Peter Vaughan, chief constable of the South Wales police. It is unlikely that there will be a retrial even though the jury had yet to hear the full evidence. That is not justice being seen to be done.
Matthew Gold, the solicitor who represented Stephen Miller, has rightly called for an independent inquiry. If the findings of such an inquiry are to convince it would also need to take a thorough look at South Wales police practices for the past 30 years – only then can amends begin to be made.