The Court of Appeal has finally overturned the wrongful convictions of two men who were fitted up by the notorious corrupt police officer Derek Ridgewell. Christopher Poulter and Kevin Biggs were convicted half a century ago of the theft of mailbags from Clapham Goods Yard. Their 1976 convictions were based on the evidence of a disgraced British Transport Police Officer who was also behind the wrongful conviction of the Stockwell Six and Oval Four, though a string of other cases related to his wrongdoing have only come to light in recent years.

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. He died in prison two years later.

The conviction of Biggs’ co-defendant, Stephen Simmons, was the first conviction to be referred by the CCRC to the Court of Appeal as part of their investigation into Ridgewell and was successfully quashed in January 2018. Christopher Poulter’s case was recently the fourteenth reference and is awaiting a hearing from the Court of Appeal.

CCRC Chair Dame Vera Baird KC said: ‘It is absolutely right that that these men have had their convictions quashed by the court today. Anyone else who believes they have been convicted through the actions of Derek Ridgewell should apply to us so we can investigate whether we can also refer your case to the courts.’

A campaign launched earlier this month by charity, APPEAL, aims to enact legislation that would see police officers who are sent to prison for corruption and other offences immediately having their past cases reviewed to prevent miscarriages of justice. Trew’s Law would 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. Currently a serving police officer can be jailed for offences including corruption, dishonesty, and abuse of their position, but there is no duty to systematically reviews cases they investigated to ensure innocent people weren’t fitted up or implicated by their wrongdoing. Winston Trew, who the law would be named after, was fitted up by Ridgewell in 1973, and spent 50 years fighting to clear his name.