Court quashes 1976 theft convictions over link to corrupt London police officer

Two men have had theft convictions quashed at the court of appeal half a century after they were wrongfully arrested because of a corrupt police officer, although one did not live to see his exoneration.

Christopher Poulter and Kevin Biggs were 21 and 18 respectively when they were convicted in 1976 of taking 13 mailbags from a wagon in Clapham goods yard in London.

The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) referred their case to the court of appeal earlier this year after new evidence emerged about the disgraced police officer DS Derek Ridgewell.

Ridgewell was jailed for seven years in 1980 after stealing more than £1m in goods, and was found to have framed innocent young black men for his own crimes, the CCRC said. He was one of three officers said to have seen Poulter and Biggs taking the mailbags and fleeing by car. The men’s defence was that they had been in a pub in Tooting, in south London, all night, before being approached by officers and arrested.

Poulter was sentenced to a year in prison and Biggs was sentenced to borstal training, at their hearing at inner London crown court 50 years ago.

The innocence of Biggs, who died in 2004, emerged through an investigation by the British Transport Police, who were searching for victims of Ridgewell. He and Poulter are the 14th and 15th people to have their convictions quashed in relation to Ridgewell’s misconduct. They were convicted alongside a third man, Stephen Simmons, whose conviction was quashed in 2018.

At a hearing on Tuesday, Lord Justice Edis, sitting with Mr Justice Lavender and Mr Justice Linden, said their appeals should have been heard together. “It had not been possible to add any relatives of Mr Biggs, who had by then died, or find Mr Poulter, so they could be joined on to the appeal by Mr Simmons. The two appeals are allowed and the convictions quashed.”

Speaking after the hearing, Jenny Wiltshire, the head of serious and general crime at Hickman &and Rose and who has represented many of Ridgewell’s victims, said it was a “disgrace” British Transport Police had taken so long to track people down.

“It is now half a century since these two men were found guilty of a crime they did not commit. The British Transport Police knew for certain that the police officer whose evidence sent them to jail was corrupt just four years after they were convicted, and probably a lot earlier.

“The British Transport Police did nothing at the time and have only relatively recently started to take this issue seriously. As a result of this inaction, Christopher Poulter has lived the majority of his life as a convicted criminal. Kevin Biggs died as one.”

The CCRC chair Dame Vera Baird KC said: “It is absolutely right that that these men have had their convictions quashed by the court today. Anyone else who believes they have been convicted through the actions of Derek Ridgewell should apply to us so we can investigate whether we can also refer your case to the courts.”

The British Transport Police have been contacted for comment.