Innocent man suffers but crooked British police unrepentant

A man who spent 11 years in jail for a murder he did not commit has told how teenage rebellion got him into more trouble than he ever imagined. Michael O'Brien was 19 and working as a painter and decorator in Cardiff when he agreed to go "joy-riding" for the first time to be "one of the boys". But on the same night, Cardiff newsagent Phillip Saunders was ambushed and beaten as he returned home. Mr O'Brien and two other men were convicted and jailed for his murder.

Mr O'Brien has said his wrongful conviction for the 52-year-old newsagent's murder changed him forever. "On the night in question, that's what we were doing, trying to steal a car for joyriding purposes," Mr O'Brien explained. "I'd never done this before, but nevertheless I wanted to be one of the boys, so I went along with them. "Looking back on it, I was stupid...I've always felt a bit of an outcast, I just feel different in a sense to other people. "I was Mr Goody-two shoes, I never did anything wrong, it was a bit of a rebellion."

Mr O'Brien said his arrest left him "stunned" and shaken. "I allowed myself to be carried in a stolen vehicle...I was guilty of that," he said. "I was more worried about getting done for the car, because I knew I hadn't done the murder. "I just thought the police wouldn't charge innocent people. I was very naive in that sense, I thought only guilty people went to prison. "I had to face the harsh realities that everything I believed in was just caving in around me."

In 1988, aged 20, he was convicted of murder and sentenced to life-imprisonment alongside Darren Hall and Ellis Sherwood, both 19. Before the trial, Mr O'Brien's daughter died of cot death. He said he was left "devastated" and in "no fit state" to defend himself. He said the guilty verdict left him suicidal. "I was so traumatised. I wanted to die, I wanted to commit suicide," he said.

The three men, who became known as the Cardiff Newsagent Three, were eventually cleared by appeal court judges in 1999.

But during the 11 years he spent in jail, Mr O'Brien said his family was "ripped apart". He said: "It put me on a downward spiral...it devastated me. "I lost everything I had in my family unit...all that was diminished." He added: "I had to come to terms with my daughter's death, I had to come to terms with being wrongly convicted and I didn't know how to go about it. I turned to drink, drugs."

The turning point came in 1990, when he met other prisoners, who spurred him on to fight for justice. "I started getting stronger and decided to fight back... and that's when I started studying law in prison," he said.

Since his release Mr O'Brien has become a campaigner against miscarriages of justice. In 2001, he launched the Miscarriages of Justice Organisation (Mojo) at the House of Commons alongside Paddy Joe Hill - one of the Birmingham Six. But he says his time in prison has left him a "different person" . He said: "I missed seeing my son grow up...I missed out on a lot of my youth which I can't get back. "I've lost out on so much in just life in general, just doing everyday things.

"The positives are I fought my way out of prison because I studied law, I've made a number of legal landmark rulings in the courts, my name is in a number of law books for setting a legacy. "I'm also helping other innocent people which has got to be a good thing. "If I can stop one innocent person going to prison I feel all of this would have been worthwhile."

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Background:

Police are to pay 500,000 pounds in damages to two men who served more than a decade in prison after officers allegedly framed them for a murder they did not commit, the Guardian has learned. Two of the so-called Cardiff Three - who were convicted and jailed for the 1987 murder of a newsagent - sued South Wales police, alleging officers had fabricated evidence against them and suppressed material that may have exonerated them.

The force has now agreed to the payouts for false imprisonment and malicious prosecution, which are believed to be the highest of their kind. Michael O'Brien received 300,000 and Ellis Sherwood 200,000. Mr O'Brien will also receive 480,000 from the Home Office for lost earnings and for the lost decade of his life, taking his total compensation to 780,000.

South Wales police is not planning to apologise or take disciplinary action against any of the 40 officers it says were involved in the case. Furthermore, despite more than 1 million pounds being paid out in compensation to two of the men for their ordeal, the force says it does not accept liability or any wrongdoing.

On October 12 1987 newsagent Philip Saunders, 52, was viciously battered with a spade outside his Cardiff home. The day's takings from his kiosk had been stolen, and five days later he died of his injuries. The murder sparked a massive police hunt and 42 people were questioned including Mr O'Brien, Mr Sherwood and another man, Darren Hall. No forensic evidence linked them to the crime and they initially denied any involvement. Eventually Mr Hall gave a statement saying he had acted as the look-out man and that Mr O'Brien had held Mr Saunders down while he was hit. His statements to the police were rambling and often incoherent. At one stage, he said: "It's all bullshit".

According to court documents outlining Mr O'Brien's case against South Wales police, officers used Mr Hall's "vulnerability and malleability to secure a confession. "They then dishonestly concocted and manipulated evidence in support of it against those he had named ... without regard to or concern for the truth of the same and out of a desire to obtain a conviction at all costs." The men's murder convictions were quashed by the appeal court in 2000. In the case settled this week, lawyers said officers had "deliberately fabricated accounts of incriminating statements" against Mr O'Brien.

In a witness statement to the court, Mr O'Brien said: "I cannot begin to explain how I felt being sent to prison for a murder I knew I had not committed. "It is very important for me to prove that my prosecution and conviction was not just an accident due to Darren Hall's strange personality but was the result of misconduct by police officers. I have a deep need for misconduct to be uncovered in public so that the officers will not 'get away with it' and everyone will know what really happened. "This includes loss of liberty for 11 years 43 days and all the other hardships which arose from it including damage to my reputation through being branded a murderer and effects on my family life including divorce, separation from my son throughout most of his childhood, being in custody during the deaths of my daughter and my father and having to attend their funerals in handcuffs and effects on my relationships with other family members."

Recalling his repeated questioning by police Mr O'Brien said: "When I was in the corridor I would be handcuffed to a radiator at the bottom of the radiator so that I had to sit on the floor, I couldn't get up. The radiator was very hot. I asked officers if I could have a solicitor a few times but this was refused. I remember on one occasion an officer saying 'well you're not fucking having one, it's as simple as that.'" He says he was taunted by police about an indecent assault he had suffered aged 17, when he was attacked by an older man, with one of the officers saying, "you enjoyed it didn't you?"

Mr O'Brien was 20 when he was arrested and says he is still suffering 19 years later: "Over the years I spent in prison I felt extremely depressed, suicidal at times. I also became very angry. "I suffered from nightmares and was afraid to go out alone. I had panic attacks ... I found it very difficult to relate to my family and to my son after such a long separation." Mr O'Brien's solicitor, Sara Riccah, said: "It is an absolute disgrace that Michael has not received an apology from South Wales police for all that he has suffered - and that, despite the massive sum Michael has received in compensation, not a single officer has faced disciplinary, let alone criminal charges."

In a statement David Francis, deputy chief constable of South Wales police, said: "We have consistently maintained our position that the officers who worked on the investigation into the murder of Philip Saunders did so in good faith and the force was not liable for malicious prosecution or misfeasance. "Therefore, in accordance with counsel's advice, payment into court have been made in full and final settlement of the claims of Mr O'Brien and Mr Sherwood, without an apology. "It is emphasised that this has been done without any admission of liability and in full and final settlement. Mr O'Brien and Mr Sherwood have chosen to accept the payments on that basis rather than going to trial."

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