South Wales Police have announced that they will review forensic evidence in the case of a Cardiff shopkeeper who was murdered in 1987. Three men were wrongly convicted for the crime, Michael O’Brien, Ellis Sherwood and Darren Hall – later known as the Cardiff Three, who served 11 years in prison before their convictions were overturned in 1999. The real killer in the case has never been found.
Speaking to Wales Online, Michael O’Brien said he had recently met with police officers after having campaigned for the case to be reexamined for much of the last two decades. He told the site: ‘I’m really pleased they are taking it seriously, it’s so important. In the Cardiff Five campaign (the 1988 murder of Lynette White which resulted in three men wrongly being found guilty of her murder) they found the real killer. I’m hoping the same can be done here.’
O’Brien said he was ‘really hopeful’ as a result of this development, adding ‘I am on cloud nine to be honest, I didn’t think I would ever see this day.’
Speaking to the Justice Gap in 2018, O’Brien described his experience of facing a guilty verdict in court: ‘I was absolutely numb. I started to cry and was holding onto the rail. I turned to my father and said: “As long as you know I didn’t do it, that’s all that matters”.’
Experts testified at the Court of Appeal over a decade later that Hall’s confession was unreliable as it was influenced by a combination of a previously undiagnosed personality disorder and police pressure. It would be reported that the police had breached PACE (the Police and Criminal Evidence Act) some 115 times in their questioning of the suspects. The three men were handcuffed to hot radiators, denied food, water and access to lawyers.
South Wales Police announced that their Major Crime Review Unit will be examining the forensic exhibits taken at the time ‘in the hope that advances in forensic science will provide the breakthrough needed’ and identify who killed Phillip Saunders.
They said Mr Saunders’ family and others affected by the case had been informed of the development.
