Veteran actor Ricky Tomlinson – star of Royle Family, Brookside etc – has been engaged in a 47-year fight for justice alongside fellow trade unionists after being jailed in relation to their role during the 1972 builders strike. Today, the Court of Appeal will finally look at the convictions of the so called Shrewsbury 24 and, they hope, right a miscarriage of justice. In the latest episode of the Justice Gap
In the early morning of September 28 1985, armed police raided 22 Normandy Road in Brixton. As Cherry Groce rose from bed to see what was going on, she was shot, leaving her paralysed for the rest of her life and sparking the Brixton uprising of 1985. In this episode of The Justice Gap Podcast, the author and Cherry’s son Lee Lawrence speaks to Calum McCrae. ‘The last thing I remember
Tommy Nicol was sentenced to four years in 2009 under the now-abolished Imprisonment for Public Protection sentencing scheme. IPPs are indeterminate sentences under which offenders were given a minimum tariff but no maximum – meaning that they have no idea when they will be out. In 2015, Tommy lost hope that he would ever be released and took his own life. In episode 4 of the Justice Gap podcast, we spoke to
Michael Mansfield QC believes that he has been a victim of state surveillance since the early 1970s when as a newly qualified barrister he was acting for the likes of the Angry Brigade and the Price Sisters; almost half a century later the veteran radical lawyer finds himself at the Undercover Policing Inquiry not representing families but as a core participant. ‘People didn’t want me to do those cases,’ he
Dave Smith was always going to be builder – all the men in his family worked in the construction industry – but suddenly, and in the middle of a building boom, his worked dried up. His name appeared on the ‘blacklist’ – an unofficial and illegal checklist of workers involved trade union or other activism. In the second episode of The Justice Gap Podcast, Dave Smith tells Calum McCrae that, though
Ricky Reel’s family have always believed the 20-year old Asian student was killed in a racist attack. His body was found in the Thames after a night out in Kingston-upon-Thames. In this first episode of the new weekly podcast from The Justice Gap, his mother Sukhdev Reel tells Calum McCrae about how a family was devastated by the tragedy and how their misery was compounded when they discovered that that
Coming next week: A regular new podcast series where we hear from those at the sharp end of fighting injustice, wherever it may rear its head. Starting with interviews with core participants from the Undercover Policing Inquiry – the so-called Spycops inquiry. The Justice Gap podcast will present stories from activists, victims of injustice, lawyers, and those working in the justice system who have dedicated themselves to making positive changes.
