Men behaving badly

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Nine chances were missed to stop rapist David Carrick

Details about a serial rapist in the UK’s largest police forcehave highlighted huge failings by officers at the biggest one in Wales.

David Carrick (who was known as ‘bastard Dave’ in the force) admitted dozens of counts of rape and sexual offences against 12 women over two decades, but was only finally sacked from the Metropolitan Police (The Met) the DAY AFTER his court case, when he’d been a convicted rapist FOR HOURS!

The police failed to stop Carrick

Journalists have revealed that NINE chances to stop him were missed by The Met, and the Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has apologised. In October 2021 Carrick was finally caught when one of his victims told how she had been raped by him, after he flashed his police warrant card to reassure her and boasted of his proximity to powerful people.

Carrick was eventually suspended after being arrested for this offence – which as far as officers knew, was the SECOND rape allegation against him, and now there are calls to make him ineligible for his pension.

The front page headline of the Daily Mail last week was: “Strip the rapist PC of his £222,000 pension”.

Sir Mark admitted on television following the appalling case: “…we’ve let London down – he’s been a police officer for 20 years. Through a combination of weak policies and weak decisions, over those 20 years we missed opportunities when he joined and subsequently, as behaviour came to the fore, we should have removed him from policing. Whether it would have affected him being a sex offender I don’t know, but he shouldn’t have been doing it as a police officer.”

Kristina O’Connor is suing the police

Even after Carrick’s conviction, one woman who is suing the Met over alleged harassment, has been deluged with messages from women who have suffered similar experiences.

Kristina O’Connor, told The Sunday Times: “I have received messages from so many brave women, I hate the reason that connects all of us, but it feels comforting…”.

Meanwhile, these awful disclosures put centre stage actions by officers at the largest force in Wales, South Wales Police (SWP).

Sir Mark Rowley said the police had let people down

There has been a string of miscarriage of justice cases on its watch, and a Media Conference (MC), was held last year (at which our Editor, Phil Parry, spoke) calling for a judicial inquiry to uncover the truth about what happened.

Following the MC some then marched to the Welsh Parliament/Senedd Cymru (WP/SC), and Welsh Government (WG) buildings to demand action. Nine members of the WP/SC have backed a Statement of Opinion supporting the calls for an inquiry.

They were all underlining alarm about miscarriages in the 1980s, ’90s, and 2000s including: The Cardiff Three (Five), The Cardiff Newsagent Three, The Darvell Brothers, Jonathan Jones (The Tooze Murders), as well as Annette Hewins. But this shameful list does NOT have on it all those innocent people, who were convicted of less important crimes, 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.

There are a LOT of police forces in Wales

Phil emphasised 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 told The Eye. “Scotland is much bigger, but only has ONE. London has almost nine million people yet has just TWO (including The Met).Think of the public money that is wasted duplicating resources, to pay fat salaries to all those Assistant Chief Constables, and Chief Constables!”.

Phil was told to put his notebook away when one solicitor described what was going on

At the MC, Phil told the audience that he was regularly approached by solicitors during the 1990s, who said the police were doing bad things, and that something had to be done. On one occasion he was instructed 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’ (including The Met), but that this was the least that should be done with SWP.

Cardiff newsagent, Phillip Saunders, and one of the three people wrongly convicted of his murder, Mike O’Brien

The MC was organised by one of those wrongly convicted after a flawed investigation by its officers, (Mike O’Brien, of the so-called Cardiff Newsagent Three). Mr O’Brien spoke movingly about how his health had been badly affected after he spent 11 years inside prison, for a crime he did not commit. He told The Eye earlier: “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.

Lynette White was murdered by one white man but several black men were arrested

Another who spoke emotionally at the MC of what had happened to him, was John Actie, one of the Cardiff Three/Five. He was accused of involvement in the murder of 20-year-old Lynette White, who was viciously killed in James Street in what is now known as Cardiff Bay. 

Three BLACK men had been convicted of the murder (although FIVE, including Mr Actie, were put on trial), when one WHITE man (Jeffrey Gafoor) was finally caught years later through DNA analysis. He confessed to carrying out the terrible 1988 murder, and even apologised (through his barrister) to the others who had been incorrectly jailed.

Murderer Jeffrey Gafoor and photofit the police had originally

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 Mr Gafoor), minutes following the murder. But when 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.

The Cardiff Three. Three black men were convicted of murder but one white man actually did it

Tony Paris, Yusef Abdullahi, and Stephen Miller were found guilty in 1990 of the murder and served more than two years in prison, having spent the same time on remand, while cousins John and Ronnie Actie were acquitted after being in custody since their arrest.

False 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.

 

After looking into the history of the Cardiff Newsagent Three case, new evidence was secured which led to their release from prison

Several programmes have been broadcast looking at the events in which the police played such a major part, and a number are in production now. Earlier last year, another was transmitted examining Mr O’Brien’s story in detail.

The promotional material before it, declared: “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”.

Phil Jones had a “lack of moral fibre” according to the judge when he was jailed

Adding to the woes of SWP, and emphasising the bad publicity for the police after revelations that they harboured a serial rapist, is that a former head of CID was recently jailed. A highly complex sting operation trapped one time Detective Chief Superintendent Phil Jones, which involved the bugging of cars, and deploying of decoy ‘clients’ who made out they wanted to pay for information.

It climaxed in Mr Jones admitting to paying an ex-colleague to supply him with information from police databases, after he retired from SWP to run a private investigations agency in 1997.

The lengthy investigation, called Operation Boost, led to the once-lauded police officer being jailed for 18 months. Mr Jones confessed to conspiracy to commit wilful misconduct in a public office, and conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation, at Bristol Crown Court in December 2008.

Bristol Crown Court where a former senior South Wales Police officer was jailed for corruption

The judge Simon Darwall-Smith said: “For a person of your age and former seniority, retiring at the rank of detective chief superintendent, it saddens this court to see how you conspired with your friends…because you knew they were prepared to break the law to access information.

“This lack of moral fibre on your part goes to the root of the corrupt culture existing in parts of the force.”

Campaigners supported David (Dai) Morris, before he died in prison still protesting his innocence

Sky documentaries were also broadcast earlier last year, called Murder in the Valleys (MITV), looking into a FURTHER CASE – the horrific Clydach murders in 1999.

This, too, was put centre stage by the MC, as well as by the jailing of a serial rapist at The Met, despite the fact it is not (in theory) a miscarriage of justice case, although the man convicted of them (David ‘Dai’ Morris) died in prison still protesting his innocence. They were nominated for two awards at the BAFTA Cymru ceremony, including one for best Factual Series.

Mike O’Brien said on the television programme ‘Murder in the Valleys’ he would become the police’s worst nightmare

Mr O’Brien appears on MITV saying that he believes the conviction of Mr Morris IS in fact a miscarriage of justice. He told the MITV 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”.

In a formal interview for MITV (they wouldn’t do one with Phil), Assistant Chief Constable (ACC) of SWP, David Thorne, made a startling admission, about the mistakes that were made by the police in the earlier miscarriages of justice.

Dai Morris’ sister, Debra (now Thomas) with parents after the conviction: ‘They’ve got the wrong man’

During filming for the programme Mr Thorne appeared on, a forensic review found traces of DNA on a sock which it is believed was used to hold the murder weapon, that was “more likely than not” to have come from Mr Morris, and SWP trumpeted the finding. They effectively said:  ‘We know we got it wrong in the past, but this time is different. Trust us’.

Yet a long-running campaign has been launched to establish his innocence, and after the first trial when Mr Morris was convicted, his sister Debra gave a press conference with her parents when she stressed her belief that he was NOT guilty. She said: “He just didn’t do these things…they’ve got the wrong man”.

David Thorne of South Wales Police – ‘We got it wrong’

However, ACC Thorne insisted on MITV, that Mr Morris was the RIGHT man, but acknowledged that mistakes had been made in previous police inquiries.

He proclaimed:  “It’s safe to say we got it wrong (in the past).  We absolutely got it wrong. (There were) HUGE errors in the way investigations were conducted (but) we HAVEN’T found that in this case.  This is not a miscarriage of justice”.

A complaint followed one of their programmes

However another television programme late last year, on 5Star (which pretended to be looking into ‘cold cases’) incurred the wrath of many close to what had happened.

5Star is a free-to-air television channel owned by Paramount Networks UK & Australia and a sister to Channel 5, which specialises in documentaries.

It originally launched as the female-orientated Five Life in October 2006, and was relaunched as Fiver in 2008 with a revised version of the same concept. The channel later re-branded as 5Star in 2011.

One of the daughters of Mr Morris, Janiene Marie O’Sullivan, publicly declared to her dedicated website group: “I am finding it difficult to put into words how it made me feel….

“Basically it was a whole hour of Martin Lloyd-Evans (who led the investigation into the Clydach Murderstalking rubbish!…South Wales police have done themselves no favours again with this one”.

Mr Morris’s sister Debra Thomas also proclaimed on the site: “Can you believe the utter verbal diarrhoea Martin Lloyd was spouting in that cheap channel 5 program…I also know the journalist is on this group so I hope and pray she gets to read this.”

And: “What disgraceful journalism!! They should hang their heads in shame”

How much research was done?

The website Mrs Thomas helped set up, along with her niece, questions her brother’s guilt and has over 30,000 members.

On it she published a reply from Channel 5 to her complaint about the programme, but above the letter she wrote: “What research did they do????”.

Years before this controversial transmission, Phil had made a BBC Panorama television programme about the appalling Clydach Murders after they had been committed, and he was the first to question the police actions during THIS investigation too.

As he said in the opening of the programme: “One police force in Britain has a disturbing record of locking up the wrong people in murder cases”.

Martyn Lloyd Evans on ‘Murder in the Valleys’, didn’t think an E-Fit was ‘relevant’

During MITV, the Senior Investigating Officer (SIO) at the time, Detective Superintendent (DS) (Retd.) of South Wales Police (SWP) Martyn Lloyd Evans, is questioned about the apparent mistake of not releasing to the public a witnesses E-Fit constructed soon after the murders, which, it said, had a 90 per cent likeness. He replies that because the man seen was carrying a bag, and it was believed the killer did not have one, it was not put out.

Phil Parry and Stuart Lewis on BBC Panorama

Mr Evans said: “I didn’t think it was relevant”, but the E-Fit matched almost exactly the face of the first senior police officer on the scene, Inspector (at the time) Stuart Lewis, who (against all procedure) had only stayed there a matter of minutes, or that of his identical twin brother (another police officer, Sergeant [also at the time] Stephen Lewis, whose wife was having a gay affair with one of the victims).

Inspector Stuart Lewis, had changed his shift to be on that night, yet at crucial hours during the murders his whereabouts were unknown. He was driving a red Peugeot diesel, and a car similar to this was spotted near the murder scene.

Stuart Lewis’ identical twin brother Stephen, and the ‘irrelevant’ E-fit which was never released to the public

So to say the E-Fit was ‘not relevant’, appeared bizarre in the extreme, to critics of the police.

In the MITV films Mr Evans’ boss as the then head of SWP CIDWynne Phillips, also said something incredible: “We can’t manufacture evidence”. But events before the murders, showed that SWP have done EXACTLY that.

To take just one of those cases (in which Phil was intimately involved, because he had made ANOTHER programme questioning THAT conviction [The Cardiff Newsagent Three]), the police MANUFACTURED (as Mr Phillips said they DIDN’T do) an overheard ‘confession’ between the young men they had arrested, when an admission was effectively made to the murder of the newsagent, and they presented before the court ‘EVIDENCE’ that the group had run from the scene, yet one of the three had bad legs and couldn’t run at all!

Wynne Phillips, formerly head of CID South Wales Police on ‘Murder in the Valley’ – ‘We can’t manufacture evidence’

It is a different court case which has hit the headlines now, though, with details divulged about the activities of a serial rapist in the UK’s largest police force, and they have thrown the spotlight on enormous failings by officers at the biggest one in Wales.

 

The memories of Phil’s incredible 39-year award-winning career in journalism (including important miscarriage of justice stories), as he was gripped by the rare neurological condition , Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in a major book ‘A GOOD STORY’. Order the book now!

‘READ MY BOOK!’

Regrettably publication of another book, however, was refused, because it was to have included names.