Two men more victims of the corrupt British Transport Police officer Derek Ridgewell have had their convictions quashed by the Court of Appeal.   In April 1976, Christopher Poulter and Kevin Biggs were convicted of theft of 13 mailbags and their contents at Inner London Crown Court, alongside their co-defendant Stephen Simmons. Poulter was given a 12-month prison sentence and Mr Biggs’ was sentenced to borstal training.

• The CCRC has now referred 15 cases involving DS Ridgewell to the Court of Appeal. You can read about others here
• You can read Winston Trew’s account here of Ridgewell. Winston was wrongly convicted of theft and assault as one of the Oval Four in 1972
• Last month Winston Trew launched the Trew’s Law campaign backed by the legal charity APPEAL to enact a statutory duty to immediately review the case files of the approximately 21 police officers per year who are convicted and sent to prison

In the 1970s, DS Ridgewell was involved in a series of arrests and convictions in which it was later discovered he had framed innocent people, particularly young black men, for his own criminality. In 1980 he was jailed for seven years after stealing more than £1 million of goods in transit. He died in prison two years later.

‘It is good news that Christopher Poulter’s and Kevin Biggs’ names are now cleared. But today’s justice has been far too long coming,’ said Jenny Wiltshire, head of serious and general crime at Hickman & Rose. Wiltshire said BTP knew by 1980 that the officer whose evidence helped convict the men was ‘corrupt’, yet did not revisit their convictions. ‘As a result of this inaction, Christopher Poulter has lived the majority of his life as a convicted criminal. Kevin Biggs died as one’.

The Criminal Cases Review Commission said Poulter applied to it in November 2025 after BTP contacted him during its investigation into Ridgewell’s misconduct. A February 2026 application was made on behalf of Biggs, who died in 2004.

Wiltshire said it was ‘a disgrace’ that BTP took so long to seek out Ridgewell’s victims. Poulter and Biggs are the 14th and 15th people to have convictions linked to the officer quashed. ‘I don’t think they will be the last,’ she said