Key facts
- Christopher Poulter and Kevin Biggs had their 1976 theft convictions quashed by the Court of Appeal.
- The convictions were linked to corrupt police officer DS Derek Ridgewell.
- Ridgewell was jailed in 1980 for stealing over £1 million and framing innocent young black men.
- Poulter and Biggs claimed they were at a pub when arrested.
- Kevin Biggs died in 2004 without seeing his conviction quashed.
Two men have had theft convictions quashed by the Court of Appeal, half a century after they were wrongfully arrested due to the actions of a corrupt police officer. Christopher Poulter and Kevin Biggs were convicted in 1976 of stealing 13 mailbags from a wagon at Clapham goods yard in London. Their defence was that they were at a pub in Tooting at the time of the alleged crime.
Poulter, then 21, was sentenced to a year in prison, and Biggs, then 18, was sentenced to borstal training. The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) referred their case to the court of appeal earlier this year after new evidence emerged concerning Detective Sergeant Derek Ridgewell. Ridgewell was later jailed for seven years in 1980 for stealing over £1 million and was found to have framed innocent young black men for his crimes.
Biggs, who died in 2004, had his innocence revealed through an investigation by British Transport Police. He and Poulter are the 14th and 15th individuals to have their convictions overturned due to Ridgewell's misconduct. A third man convicted alongside them, Stephen Simmons, had his conviction quashed in 2018.
At a hearing on Tuesday, Lord Justice Edis stated that the 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."
Jenny Wiltshire, head of serious and general crime at Hickman & Rose, who has represented many of Ridgewell’s victims, criticized the British Transport Police for the lengthy delay in identifying victims. "It is now half a century since these two men were found guilty of a crime they did not commit," she said. "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."
CCRC chair Dame Vera Baird KC stated, "It is absolutely right 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."