"Cardiff Three" officers' corruption trial collapses

The collapse of Britain's biggest police corruption trial yesterday has been described as a 'dark shadow upon the justice system'.

Eight former police officers along with two other people were cleared of perverting the course of justice at Swansea Crown Court after the wrongful conviction of three men for the murder of prostitute Lynette White. The judge ruled the officers could not get a fair trial, bringing to an end 10 years of investigation which cost millions of pounds.

Yusef Abdullahi, Tony Parris and Steve Miller, known as the Cardiff Three, were convicted of White's murder in 1990 but their convictions were quashed by the Court of Appeal in 1992, with the judge criticising the police investigation.

For years, campaigners accused the officers in charge of the investigation of framing the three men to solve the case. Another man, Jeffrey Gafoor, pleaded guilty to the murder in 2003 and is serving a life sentence.

In July of this year, the eight officers from the original inquiry by South Wales Police went to trial at Swansea Crown Court, accused of manufacturing a case against the three men and two other men, who were acquitted.

Officers were alleged to have forced innocent witnesses to agree to fictional events during three weeks of intense questioning.

But the trial collapsed with Mr. Justice Sweeney telling the court that the trial had to stop because it had become "irredeemably unfair. He added that there had been a number of problems in relation not the conduct of the prosecution.

The collapse of the trial has left a host of unanswered questions and according to Elfyn Llwyd MP; a member of the Commons Justice Select Committee, "yesterday's events has been a very bad day for the CPS and South Wales Police. It has cast a dark shadow upon the justice system."

The lack of perceived justice in this case may further erode trust between the police service and the public.

The conclusion of the trial could have given us the answers to what went wrong and also ensure it didn't happen again.

Image: "The Cardiff Three" - Tony Parris, Yusef Abdullahi and Stephen Miller