A man who was jailed on the basis of a corrupt police officer’s evidence has had his name cleared posthumously at the Court of Appeal.
Errol Campbell, who died in 2004, had his convictions for theft and conspiracy to steal from a goods depot in south London quashed at the London court on Thursday.
He was found guilty in April 1977 and sentenced to a total of 18 months’ imprisonment at the Old Bailey in relation to thefts from the Bricklayers Arms Goods Depot, where he was a British Rail employee.
The case against him was led by the discredited British Transport Police officer DS Derek Ridgewell.
Giving his judgment on Thursday, Lord Justice Holroyde, sitting with Mr Justice Butcher and Mr Justice Wall, said that 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.”
The Crown Prosecution Service did not oppose the appeal.
DS 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 goods depot.
Mr Campbell unsuccessfully appealed his conviction in 1978.
His son submitted an application Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) in September 2024, with the help of the charity APPEAL.
Following a review, the CCRC found there was a real possibility that, like the convictions of 11 other people that have been referred to the court, Mr Campbell’s conviction would be quashed, and it referred the conviction in February 2025.
Henry Blaxland KC, representing Mr Campbell, told the court it was dealing with victims of miscarriage of justice brought about by “state crime”.
He added that the case “throws a shadow over the administration of justice and lead to loss of confidence not only in the police, but in the legal system as a whole”.
Mr Blaxland also said the effect of the convictions of Mr Cambell had been “incalculable”.
He read a statement from his son, Errol Campbell Jr, to the court.
He said that the first time his father returned from the police station, “he had bruises on him where he said he had been hit by the police”.
Mr Campbell Jr said in his statement that he remembers helping to bathe his father after this, and that is something he will “never forget”.
He continued: “He (Mr Campbell Snr) called it n*****-hunting by the police.”
The court heard that after Mr Campbell was released from prison he went to America to “get away from his experience” and “took up heavy drinking”.
“He was a ruined man,” Errol Campbell Jr said in his statement.
Reading a statement on his behalf outside the Royal Courts of Justice, Mr Campbell Jr’s solicitor, Matt Foot, 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.”
In August 2023 the CCRC referred the convictions of Mr Campbell’s co-defendants, Saliah Mehmet and Basil Peterkin, after it tracked down their family members.
The convictions were both quashed in January 2024.
In 1980, Ridgewell, Ellis and Keeling pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal from the Bricklayers’ Arms Depot.
Ridgewell died in prison before he had completed his sentence.
In a previous judgment, the court found that 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”.
