Lynette White
White had left school without any qualifications and had been working as a prostitute since she was 14 years old. Tim Rogers, a BBC Wales journalist, interviewed White a few weeks before her murder as part of an investigation into child prostitution. Rogers said that White was "probably the most visible prostitute working in Cardiff at the time." Acquaintances said that "she would be the first girl out at lunchtime, and the last one left at night", even working on Christmas Day. Described by friends as "pretty and popular", White earned around £100 each night. She told Rogers that she had been drugged and taken toMurder
White's throat had been cut from the right ear across the front and around to the left side of the neck, exposing the bones of the spine. There were multiple stab wounds to her chest and breasts, and other wounds to her face, stomach, arms, wrists and inner thighs, as well as defensive wounds on her hands.Regina v. Jeffrey Charles Gafoor 005EWHC 2163 (QB) Her Majesty's Courts Service 19 October 2005.Investigation
The subsequent murder inquiry was led byElimination of suspects
Francine Cordle, whom White had been due to testify against, and Cordle's mother, Peggy Farrugia, were also initially considered suspects, but the discovery of the blood on White's clothing allowed the police to eliminate them from their inquiries. Stephen Miller was questioned at the beginning of the inquiry, having been picked up by the police early on 15 February, but after giving a statement detailing his whereabouts during the crucial period, he was released without charge and the police announced that he had been ruled out of their investigations. When Miller was first taken in by the police for questioning he was still wearing the clothes that he had been wearing at the time of the murder. These were dirty and unwashed – the police even joked with Miller during his initial interview that he should sit in the opposite corner of the room due to the smell of his clothing – but there were no traces of blood found on them. His car was also forensically examined with no result, and his blood type did not match that found on White's clothing. Another witness, David Orton, also gave a statement to the police detailing his movements with Miller during the time of the murder, completely corroborating Miller's alibi.Mr. X
On 20 April 1988 DC Geoff Thomas put together a list of 12 people of interest, based on their previous criminal activities. One of the men, whose identity has never been publicly revealed and was referred to only as 'Mr X', was a convicted sex offender andConstructing a case
Paul Atkins and Mark Grommek
Although their prime suspect had been eliminated from the inquiry, the police had collected thousands of statements through interviews and door-to-door enquiries. After the collapse of their case against Mr. X the police now returned to these. Among them were statements from Paul Atkins and Mark Grommek, two associates of Mr. X. Grommek was the tenant of the flat immediately above that where White was murdered. Both Atkins and Grommek were homosexual and had previous convictions forRonnie Williams
Yusef Abdullahi had been questioned as part of the routine door-to-door enquiries. At the time of the murder he had been working on board the ship MV ''Coral Sea'', some away inLeanne Vilday
Leanne Vilday had also been placed under pressure during her interviews, particularly as it was she who had initially raised the alarm with the police, who felt she may be concealing information. She was a single parent, a lesbian, a drug addict, and a prostitute. The police were visiting her daily, leading to her being asked to leave the flat she shared with her friend, Angela Psaila, who was also a prostitute. She began lodging with another couple, who also complained that the police were calling round to speak with Vilday on an almost daily basis. On 19 May 1988, while drunk, Vilday eventually named Miller and Yusef Abdullahi as the killers in front of several other prostitutes. That evening she was questioned by PS David Hathaway and agreed that she had named the two men while drunk, but said this was a false accusation as a result of "drunken rambling" and that she had heard the names from DI Powell when he had questioned her earlier in the day. She was then asked by the police if she would agree to be hypnotised, and a session with a hypnotherapist was scheduled.Violet Perriam
Violet Elizabeth Perriam was a secretary at a Cardiff yacht club. On 10 November 1988, the day after Mr. X was cleared of any involvement, Perriam gave a statement to the police that she had been driving home from the club and had passed 7 James Street at around 1.30 am on the night that White was murdered. She claimed that she saw four "excited" black males outside the building, "arguing and gesticulating," and recognised two of them as John Actie and Rashid Omar, who was of mixed-race. John Actie had earlier responded to the door-to-door enquiries and told the police that on the night of the murder he had gone to the ''Casablanca'' club at around midnight, and had left there at around 3.30 am. John Actie was the cousin of Leanne Vilday's boyfriend, Ronnie Actie. Perriam's statement was the "breakthrough" needed by the police and her allegation that she saw John Actie and others "at or near the scene of the murder" allowed the investigation to take a new direction after it had reached an impasse following the elimination of Mr. X.Angela Psaila
Angela Psaila lived in a flat at St Clare's Court,Psaila and Vilday: December statements
Psaila gave a new statement to the police on 6 December 1988. In this account, she had been present at St Clare's Court with Leanne Vilday and on hearing the screams the two had gone to 7 James Street. In what Sekar called "a most remarkable coincidence", Vilday, Grommek and Atkins all decided independently to go to the police that day and give new accounts of the murder. Vilday said that on hearing the screams she had gone to the flat and found White dead inside. In the room were Miller, Abdullahi, Ronnie Actie, Tony Miller (Stephen Miller's brother) and an unnamed man of mixed-race. Grommek and Atkins gave statements which corroborated this new version of events. Psaila and Vilday were then taken intoStephen Miller's confession
Over a period of four days, Stephen Miller was interviewed on 19 occasions for a total of 13 hours; he was denied access to a solicitor for the first two interviews. Miller, who had a mental age of 11, confessed to the killing after making 307 denials. Miller also implicated the other men.Murder trial
The trial commenced atDoubts about the convictions
In early 1991 a number of journalists began to question the safety of the convictions and commercial television broadcasterAppeal
Their appeal was heard over four days in December 1992 and ended after the Court of Appeal listened to an audio recording of Stephen Miller's police interrogation. Mansfield argued that the trial judge "was wrong to admit the evidence of Mr Miller's police interviews contained on the tapes because it was tainted by the officers' 'oppressive' conduct." The interviews were, he said, "not a search for the truth but a police attempt to achieve—by any means short of violence—a concurrence between Mr Miller's account and Ms Vilday's." In his judgment, Lord Taylor said that the police had "bullied and hectored" Miller during a "travesty of an interview" and that "short of physical violence, it is hard to conceive of a more hostile and intimidating approach by officers to a suspect." The truthfulness of Miller's admission was, according to Taylor, "irrelevant" as the nature of the questioning "required the interview to be rejected as evidence." He ordered copies of the recording to be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Chairman of theCase reopened
In September 2000, the case was reopened. Forensic scientists led byIdentification of the murderer
In January 2002, after the development of theIndependent Police Complaints Commission investigation
In November 2004, the IPCC announced that it would supervise a reinvestigation by the South Wales Police into the original police inquiry. On 13 April 2005, five retired police officers were arrested in connection with offences ofLegal actions arising from the wrongful convictions
2008: Perjury trial
In February 2007, four witnesses who gave evidence at the original murder trial were charged with2011: Police corruption trial
In March 2009, the Special Crime Division of the2015: Horwell investigation
In February 2015, then2015: Civil action against South Wales Police
Following the collapse of the corruption trial, eight former police officers and seven others sued South Wales Police for damage to their reputations. The action alleged malicious prosecution, false imprisonment and misfeasance in public office by South Wales Police. On 14 June 2016, Mr Justice Wyn Williams ruled that the force "was within its rights to investigate the officers" and dismissed the case. He said: "I find it very difficult to understand how the accounts emerged as they did if no police officer was instrumental in what occurred. I have reached the clear conclusion that reasonable grounds existed from the start of LW3 he inquiry into police corruptionto suspect that the untruthful accounts which the core four saila, Vilday, Grommek and Atkinsgave about the involvement of the original defendants in Lynette's murder were brought about by criminal conduct on the part of police officers involved in LW1 he original murder investigation In my judgment, it was permissible for LW3 officers to suspect that officers who had been part of LW1 had engaged in a conspiracy to mould and manipulate evidence." Furthermore, the explanation given by Chief Superintendent Thomas Page regarding documents that he had burned in his garden prior to his arrest, was, according to the judge, "open to considerable doubt".See also
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