Rail workers jailed 46 years ago on word of corrupt detective could have names cleared

Two British Rail workers who were jailed on the evidence of a corrupt and racist police officer 46 years ago could have their names cleared posthumously as their case is reviewed.

Basil Peterkin and Saliah Mehmet died with convictions after the British Transport Police's Detective Sergeant Derek Ridgewell accused them of theft from a site he later admitted stealing from.

Their convictions could now be overturned after the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) referred them to the Court of Appeal, a move which has been welcomed by the men’s children. Ridgewell was involved in a number of high-profile and controversial cases in the early 1970s - including the framings of the Oval Four and Stockwell Six.

The CCRC says it has been investigating the “historical racist and corrupt practices” of Ridgewell, who died of a heart attack in prison in 1982, aged 37.

The independent public body said it has referred 11 cases which relied on the officer's evidence. Nine other convictions relating to Ridgewell, have been quashed.

In a joint statement, Mr Peterkin’s children Basil, Janice and Lileith said: “Our father’s conviction was devastating for him and our whole family. He never got over it. He felt such shame that he left his home in the UK to try to start afresh. “We now know that the officer who arrested our father was found guilty of the very crime he had accused our father and others of committing.

"That officer was corrupt. We want justice and we want our father’s name cleared.” Mr Mehmet’s children Regu, Arda and Onur said: “After fleeing war in Cyprus, our father started a family in this country. This conviction left him a changed man who never again trusted the police. “It had a traumatic effect on our mother and our whole family for decades, including making us homeless.

“We are pleased and relieved that this case is going to the Court of Appeal. The behaviour of Ridgewell was atrocious and we are hopeful that our father’s name will finally be cleared.” Mr Mehmet, who died in 2021, and Mr Peterkin, who died in 1991, were both sentenced to nine months in prison in 1977, over the theft of parcels from the Bricklayers Arms goods depot in south London, where they worked. They said the items found in their possession had been planted, and that any admissions said to have been made by them had been fabricated by the police.

In 1980 Ridgewell was jailed for seven years for stealing property worth £364,000 from the same site, while his colleagues Detective Constable Douglas Ellis and Detective Constable Alan Keeling were sentenced to six and two years respectively. Helen Pitcher, chairwoman of the CCRC, said: “I urge anyone else who believes that they or a loved one, friend or acquaintance was a victim of a miscarriage of justice to contact the CCRC – particularly if DS Derek Ridgewell was involved.”

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