- Police state - 12th October 2026
- Pikestiffed… - 10th October 2026
- Exam nerves - 9th October 2026
Indications from the Prime Minister (PM) Andy Burnham that power over policing might be devolved to Wales, could end a situation where FOUR forces exist in a country of only 3.1 million people, which was raised in a campaign to highlight a huge miscarriage of justice by officers in the biggest one.
Mr Burnham declared in Cardiff: “What I have promised the Welsh Government today is to look at any asks for further devolution, and policing has been specifically mentioned… and I’m ready to work with them to look at that”.
These words could prove prophetic, as the incredible duplication of resources are analysed.
The circumstances have been raised by The Eye’s Editor, Welshman Phil Parry at a Media Conference (MC) drawing attention to appalling events connected with the jailing of the Cardiff Three/Five.
Following the MC some then marched to the Welsh Parliament/Senedd Cymru (WP/SC), and Welsh Government (WG) buildings, with a number of politicians backing a Statement of Opinion to support the calls for an inquiry. A rally was held as well outside Cardiff Crown Court.
At the MC Phil stressed the disturbing fact that areas with a greater population, have FEWER police forces. “It is ridiculous that in a population of 3.1 million people we in Wales have FOUR forces”, he said: “Scotland is much bigger, but only has ONE. London has almost nine million people yet has just TWO. Think of the public money that is wasted duplicating resources, to pay fat salaries to all those Assistant Chief Constables, and Chief Constables!”.
The Cardiff Three/Five case is one of the most high-profile, and disturbing, in the UK.
Tony Paris, Yusef Abdullahi, and Stephen Miller were falsely found guilty in 1990 of the murder of Lynette White, and spent more than two years serving prison sentences having endured the same time on remand, while cousins John and Ronnie Actie were acquitted after being in custody since their arrests. Inaccurate eyewitness statements, coerced confessions, and more were used in the police ‘investigation’. However on appeal in 1992 the taped interviews with Mr Miller, who had a mental age of 11, were deemed an example of inappropriate interrogation for reference in future cases, such was their intimidating and coercive nature.
Three BLACK men had been convicted of the murder (although FIVE, including the Acties, were put on trial), when one WHITE man (Jeffrey Gafoor) was finally caught years later through DNA analysis (there had been major advances). He confessed to carrying out the appalling 1988 murder, and even apologised, through his barrister, to the others who had been incorrectly jailed.
The five innocent men, were arrested in December 1988 after detectives had been on the case for 10 months, and were pursuing a suspect seen nearby (who looked EXACTLY like Gafoor), minutes following the murder. But when South Wales Police (SWP) changed the investigating team, and pressure mounted to make an arrest, attention turned to locals. Despite no forensic evidence connecting the five to Ms White’s murder they were taken in.
There are now growing demands for a full legal investigation into the number of high-profile miscarriages in the 1980s, ’90s, and 2000s. Apart from The Cardiff Three (Five), they include: The Cardiff Newsagent Three, The Darvell Brothers, Jonathan Jones (The Tooze Murders), as well as Annette Hewins (The Gurnos Fire Case).
However this shameful list does NOT have on it all those innocent people, who were convicted of less important crimes than murder, yet who now have a record which will affect them for the rest of their lives, and there is a powerful argument for getting rid of SWP completely – perhaps endorsing Mr Burnham’s comments.
All of this has emphasised the shocking fact that across Wales and England the public’s confidence in the police is at an all time low. A YouGov poll found that only 49 per cent of Britons thought the police were “doing a good job”, down from 77 per cent four years before.
In an assessment of policing, Andy Cooke, His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary (HMCIC), described this as one of policing’s “biggest crises in living memory”. He could not remember, he said, “when the relationship between the police and the public was more strained than it is now”.
The figures for illegal violence in the UK tell a familiar yet depressing story, because they make up almost 40 per cent of all crime.
As the number of crimes plummeted in England and Wales over the last two decades, so too has the proportion that were solved. In 2015 around one in six recorded crimes resulted in a charge or a summons. Last year it was only around one in 20.
In sexual crime the clear up rate is particularly bad. The number of reported sexual offences has more than tripled over the last 20 years, to almost 200,000, yet the charge proportion is just 4.2 per cent.
The annual rate in Wales is 38.4 crimes per 1000 people (when for England and Wales it is 34.5 per cent), and compared to the UK crime rate, Wales was at 108 per cent as of October 2025. The total number of violent crime was 117,000, and this figure has increased by 1.6 per cent year-on-year in the period of October 2024 – September 2025.
After a Crime and Policing Bill was introduced to the House of Commons (HoC) earlier last year, the UK Government proclaimed: “Trust in the police has been undermined by failures in vetting and the appalling misconduct of some officers”.
Meanwhile ordinary police officers are at their wits’ end, and the Police Foundation (PF) has said: “There is a pressing imperative for ambitious police reform, which can only be delivered by the co-ordinated efforts of government, policing and its enabling partners”.
Meanwhile anger over the miscarriages of justices in Wales, has led to the tabling of an Early Day Motion (EDM) in the UK Parliament which was signed by several MPs, emphasising growing calls for a judicial review.
It proclaimed: “…this House notes the series of cases since the 1980s investigated by South Wales Police force that resulted in wrongful convictions; further notes the devastating impact that wrongful accusation and imprisonment can have on people subject to miscarriages of justice; expresses concern that many of the perpetrators of these crimes have yet to be found; and calls on the Ministry of Justice to organise a judicial inquiry into all miscarriages of justice that took place between 1982 and 2016”. The motion was immediately signed by three Plaid Cymru (Plaid) MPs, including the party’s leader in the House of Commons (HoC), who tabled the motion, Liz Saville-Roberts
At the MC to stress what had taken place, apart from drawing attention to the number of police forces in Wales, Phil also said to the audience that he was regularly approached by solicitors during the 1990s, who said officers were doing bad things, and that something had to be done. On one occasion he was told to put away his notebook because he was informed that no record should be made of the conversation.
He also described how other forces had been put in ‘special measures’, but that this was the least that should be done with SWP.
The MC was organised by Michael O’Brien (one of the so-called Cardiff Newsagent Three), who talked movingly about how his health had been badly affected after he spent 11 years inside prison, for a crime he did not commit.
Mr O’Brien told The Eye: “My health has been ruined, and there has been long-lasting damage. My miscarriage of justice case has caused a huge family rift”.
Mr O’Brien, who is now in his fifties, was jailed wrongly in 1988 for the killing of Cardiff newsagent, Phillip Saunders. Another who spoke emotionally of what had happened to him, was John Actie.
Several programmes have been broadcast looking at the events in which the police played such a major part.
The promotional material before one of them, proclaimed: “Episode One Monday 23rd May at 9pm Raphael Rowe delves into the brutal murder of Cardiff newsagent Phillip Saunders in 1987. The episode examines the investigation that led to the conviction of three innocent men, which resulted in their wrongful imprisonment. The episode reveals shocking police threats and coercion that led to the arrest and incarceration of Michael O’Brien, Ellis Sherwood and Darren Hall. After the men had spent more than a decade behind bars, a court appeal quashed the original verdict, but the unsolved case continues to haunt the city. Plus, for the first time ever, the victim’s sister and nephew break a 35-year silence and reveal exclusive insights into the case”.
Mr O’Brien told documentary-makers: “When I was released from prison I remember…saying ‘I’m going to be South Wales Police’s worst nightmare for what they did to me’, and I meant every word of it”.
Perhaps other words about the number of police forces in Wales may also become important, when Mr Burnham says he is ‘looking at’ the issue…
The memories of Phil’s remarkable decades long award-winning career in journalism (during which the mistakes of the police were often brought out) as he was gripped by the rare and incurable neurological disabling condition Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in a major book ‘A GOOD STORY’ (including The Cardiff Newsagent Three case). Order the book now!
Tomorrow – how we see more absurd examples of ‘BREAKING NEWS’ on media outlets now, yet he always believed that this label should only be employed rarely, and even then just put on significant stories, but items this year have revealed a continued ridiculous use of the term, with one Cardiff-based news website even having a ‘Breaking news editor’!
