A black man who was falsely accused of assault by a corrupt police sergeant has been cleared by the Court of Appeal nearly 50 years after his conviction.
Texo Johnson was one of the “Stockwell Six” group of young men who were alleged to have attacked and planned to rob DS Derek Ridgewell, head of a British Transport Police (BTP) anti-mugging squad, in south London in February 1972.
Now 67, Mr Johnson was 17 when he and the others were arrested on the London Underground and told to sign false confessions.
Five of them were sent to either prison or borstal after being convicted largely on the word of Ridgewell, who was later jailed over corruption in a different line of policing.
One escaped conviction when it was found he had poor English and was not literate enough to have been able to read the confession he had signed.
Three of them — Courtney Harriot, Paul Green and Cleveland Davidson — had their convictions quashed in July and authorities are still trying to reach Ronald De’Souza.
Mr Johnson, who was sent to borstal, was urged to get in touch with the Criminal Cases Review Commission by his sister, who heard about the earlier cases in the media.
After Tuesday's ruling, Mr Johnson said: “While the result of today is great, it does not take away the pain and suffering of that awful night.”
His is the latest in a series of miscarriage of justice cases related to Ridgewell, who has become notorious for false allegations made mainly against young black men, many on the London Underground.
In the early 1970s, the sergeant was invloved in the cases of the “Oval Four”, the “Stockwell Six”, the “Waterloo Four” and the “Tottenham Court Road Two”, all of which drew their names from the rail stations at which the suspects were arrested.
Three of the “Oval Four” were jailed in 1972 for two years and their convictions were not overturned until 2019.
After criticism of his methods in the other two cases, Ridgewell was transferred by the BTP to a squad investigating Royal Mail theft.
He was jailed in 1980 for plotting with two criminals to steal mailbags with hundreds of thousands of pounds of goods in them. He died in prison two years later.
After today’s hearing, Jenny Wiltshire, who represented Mr Johnson, criticised the police for having known about his corruption for so long without taking action.
She said: “Texo has lived his entire adult life with this hanging over him, and time has not lessened his ordeal. He has said that the pain of what happened still lingers, and that it is something he will take to his grave.“
She added: “I sincerely hope that the police’s internal review of DS Ridgwell’s actions as thorough as it could have been and that there aren’t other victims who had to yet to achieve the justice they deserve.”
The Independent has asked the BTP for comment.
