Welsh police persistently corrupt

Hard to find an honest cop in Wales. Crooked cops not disciplined. Fresh crookedness instead

The complaints body that ordered South Wales Police to discipline two officers involved in reinvestigating the force’s most notorious miscarriage of justice was unaware its instructions have not yet been complied with, we can reveal. Saturday’s Western Mail told the story of Lynn Powell, a former police officer working on the reinvestigation of the Lynette White murder case who was wrongly accused of making fraudulent expense claims from the South Wales force.

Three men were wrongly convicted of murdering Cardiff prostitute Miss White, 20, in 1988. Their convictions were quashed by the Court of Appeal because of serious irregularities in the original police inquiry. The Lynette White reinvestigation was launched four years ago after advances in DNA technology led to the conviction of the real killer, Jeffrey Gafoor. A number of witnesses at the trial in 1990 of three men convicted of murdering Lynette made statements saying they had been pressured by police officers to implicate the original defendants.

Now two of the police officers responsible for reinvestigating the case are themselves to be disciplined for conduct that could have led to the wrongful conviction of Lynn Powell for fraud. John Penhale and Gavin Lewis gave incorrect statements suggesting that Ms Powell, an agency employee working as an intelligence officer on the inquiry, had added false information to claim forms after they had signed them. Forensic tests proved that was not so, and it was established beyond any doubt that overpayments to Ms Powell were the result of an administrative error by her employer.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), which is supervising the reinvestigation of the Lynette White case, said in a report, “The irony, of course, is that Ms Powell was part of a team investigating the most serious miscarriage of justice in South Wales Police and, as the investigating officer does admit, a further grave miscarriage of justice may well have taken place.”

South Wales Police confirmed to the Western Mail last week that although the IPCC report instructing the force to give written warnings to the two officers had been completed in early March this year, the warnings had not yet been issued. Asked whether the IPCC was aware of this, both South Wales Police and the IPCC said the body had not been informed. A spokeswoman for the IPCC confirmed there was an expectation that the officers would be disciplined, although there was no formal requirement in the process for the force to report back.

Ms Powell said, “It was my understanding that the Lynette White inquiry is an open and transparent investigation. It has been my experience, during the course of my complaint, that it is anything but. I doubt very much that the original defendants were kept informed that two of the men responsible for seeing that they were given justice, were themselves being investigated for similar misdemeanours to those alleged within the 1988 inquiry. “It makes me wonder, if I had not approached the Western Mail, whether this would ever have come to light, or when, in fact, the officers would ever have been disciplined.

“I have been a great admirer of [South Wales Police chief constable] Barbara Wilding and have tried to send correspondence regarding this matter to her. I would like to meet with her as I am sure she would be disturbed to know what some of her officers have done in the name of her police service. “I am aware that once the officers are disciplined, there will be a duty to inform the Crown Prosecution Service, which will decide whether charges should be brought in the Lynette White reinvestigation.”

South Wales Police issued a statement saying, “We acknowledge the delay [in issuing the written warnings] but this matter has generated a considerable amount of work and correspondence on the subject continues to this day.”

It is understood that Mr Penhale, who is now a temporary detective superintendent on attachment to the policing standards division of the Home Office, will receive his written warning on his return from holiday. Mr Lewis – a detective sergeant – will be disciplined on his return from a career break as a ski instructor. Commissioner Ian Bynoe of the IPCC said, “We’ve learned nothing to suggest South Wales Police don’t fully accept the IPCC’s decisions and it is for them to implement these.”

Report here



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