Ronald De'Souza: Final member of Stockwell Six cleared nearly 50 years after being framed by corrupt officer

Sky News

6 days ago

The final member of the Stockwell Six - who were falsely accused of robbing a police officer on the London Underground in 1972 - has been cleared more than 50 years after his wrongful conviction.
Ronald De'Souza was one of six young black men who were accused of trying to rob British Transport Police officer Sergeant Derek Ridgewell during a night out on 18 February 1972.
Mr De'Souza has been cleared on the same day another man, Errol Campbell, who was investigated by Ridgewell in 1977 also had his conviction quashed after he was wrongly accused of stealing from the depot where he worked.
Ridgewell was a corrupt police officer who was jailed after he was involved in a number of high-profile and controversial cases in the early 1970s.
What happened to the Stockwell Six?
De'Souza and five other men - Texo Johnson, Courtney Harriot, Paul Green, Cleveland Davidson and Everett Mullins - were arrested on the Tube network while travelling from Stockwell station in south London.
They all pleaded not guilty and told jurors police officers had lied and subjected them to violence and threats.
However, five of them, including De'Souza were found guilty and jailed.
Johnson, Harriot, Green and Davidson were all acquitted in 2021.
The sixth member, Mullins, was acquitted at the time because it was proved his reading ability was not good enough for him to have fully understood his signed statement which was written for him by Ridgewell.
Campbell's conviction quashed
In a separate case, Campbell, who died in 2004, was sentenced to 18 months in prison after he was convicted of conspiracy to steal and theft from the Bricklayers Arms Goods Depot in south London where he was working for British Rail in April 1977.
Giving his judgement at the Court of Appeal after Mr Campbell was cleared on Thursday, Lord Justice Holroyde, sitting with Mr Justice Butcher and Mr Justice Wall, said it was with "regret" that the court could not undo Mr Campbell's suffering.
He added: "We can however, and do, allow the appeal brought on his behalf, and quash his conviction.
"We hope that will at least bring some comfort to Mr Campbell's family who survive."
Campbell 'became an alcoholic'
In a statement read out by his solicitor, Mr Campbell's son Errol Campbell Jr said: "The British Transport Police knew that Detective Sergeant Derek Ridgewell was corrupt, and they let him carry on regardless with what he was doing.
"My dad always said he was innocent, and today, that's finally been confirmed, almost 50 years later.
"He came to England in the Windrush generation and worked for years for British Rail. The conviction caused absolute misery to my dad and our family.
"Due to the shame and disgrace of this conviction, he found it difficult to get employment, so much so that he fled the country.
"On his return, he became an alcoholic and couldn't hold down a lollipop man's job.
"I'm angry that Ridgewell is not alive for this day and that he never went to prison for all the people he fitted up. He never answered for his crimes.
"I am Errol Campbell's first son. I look like him. Before this, he was a great family man and looked after us as children, and he was dapper. He was a good man."
Matt Foot, Mr Campbell Jr's solicitor, said separately: "Fifty years ago, it was no secret that Detective Sergeant Derek Ridgewell was racist and corrupt.
"There was a calypso song about him in south London. There was a BBC documentary made about him, nationwide. Millions of people saw that documentary, about him fitting up 16 young black men.
"What did the British Transport Police do? They took Derek Ridgewell into the headquarters. They harboured him, and then they put him back out to commit the misery that you have heard today, the misery that was inflicted on the British Rail workers at the Bricklayers Arms depot."
When asked about what steps he wished to see the BTP take, Mr Foot said: "Well, first of all, they need to state who was responsible for harbouring Derek Ridgewell in 1973, 74, 75, and then putting him out on duty.
"What is happening about those officers? Have they been held to account? This, also to say, is not going to be the last case relating to Derek Ridgewell... what are the BTP doing about finding those people and resolving those cases?"
Mr Foot is now calling for a change in the law that so when a police officer is jailed, there is an automatic review of their cases to look for miscarriages of justice.
The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) has said today's decisions mean 13 people from cases involving Ridgewell have now had their convictions overturned.
Mr Campbell had unsuccessfully appealed his conviction in 1978.
His son submitted an application to the CCRC in September 2024, with the help of the charity APPEAL.
Following a review, the CCRC found there was a real possibility Mr Campbell's conviction would be quashed, and it referred the conviction in February 2025.
In August 2023, the CCRC referred the convictions of Mr Campbell's co-defendants, Saliah Mehmet and Basil Peterkin, to the Court of Appeal after it tracked down their family members.
The convictions were both quashed in January 2024.
Ridgewell led the case against Mr Campbell and several others, but along with colleagues DC Douglas Ellis and DC Alan Keeling, later pleaded guilty to stealing from the same Bricklayers' Arms Depot.
Ridgewell died in prison of a heart attack aged 37 in 1982 before he had completed his sentence.
In a previous judgment, the court found their criminal activities between January 1977 and April 1978 resulted in the loss from the depot of goods to the value of about £364,000, "an enormous sum of money at that time".