BELATED JUSTICE FOR RAIL WORKERS

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: march/april 2024 :: RMTnews 22 On January 18, 2024 two rail workers, Saliah Mehmet and Basil Peterkin, framed by racist and corrupt British Transport Police (BTP) officer, Det Sgt Ridgewell had their unsafe convictions quashed posthumously at the Court of Appeal. The two men worked for British Rail at the Bricklayers Arms Goods Depot in South London in the 1970s. Mehmet had worked at the depot for eight years after escaping from war torn Cyprus to live in London with his wife where he was raising a family. He was very proud of his work as a porter in the depot. Basil Peterkin also had a family in London and had previously worked at Bromley Rail Station before moving to the Depot. In 1977 they were accused of conspiring with a number of other black and Turkish Cypriot employees with re- labelling mail parcels, directing them to new addresses, and then selling their contents for profit. They were convicted at the Old Bailey and sentenced to nine months in prison. They have both since died (in 2021 and 1991 respectively). The cases against them were based on what turned out to be corrupt police evidence from DS Derek Ridgewell, along with DC Douglas Ellis and DC Alan Keeling, who in 1980 were convicted for stealing from the very same depot, £364,000 worth of items. They went to prison for seven years, six years and two years respectively. When Saliah Mehmet and Basil Peterkin worked at the depot in the 1970s they would have been members of the National Union of Railwaymen as the depot was a closed shop. There were nearly 600 NUR members working at the major parcel hub, which covered 26 acres. The union’s Divisional Officer was former RMT general secretary Jimmy Knapp. However, Mehmet and Peterkin and their co-accused had no chance against the brutal racist operations of Ridgewell and his squad. Ridgewell had years of practice of fitting up black people. When Ridgewell was based on the Underground he established the ‘mugging’ squad. Ridgewell’s corruption was extensive having been responsible for other miscarriages of justice including convictions in 1972 of the Oval Four and the Stockwell Six. He was renowned in the calypso bars in South London with the song: “If the muggers don’t get you, Ridgewell will”. In 1973, a BBC Nationwide documentary exposed his fitting up of young black men. In the face of complaints, The BTP relocated him on the same rank to BTP headquarters. The following year he was placed back on public duty in South London, which allowed to get back to policing his old haunt at the Bricklayers Arms Depot. Appeal Henry Blaxland KC, representing the Mehmet and Peterkin families, submitted to the Court two ‘systemic failures’ that seriously aggravated this case. Firstly, that Ridgewell was not sacked by the BTP in 1973, after the Nationwide documentary. Secondly the BTP failed to review Ridgewell’s files following his conviction in 1980, which would have saved decades of misery for these two men and their families and BELATED JUSTICE FOR RAIL WORKERS Matt Foot of the legal charity APPEAL exposes the wrongful convictions of rail workers quashed posthumously this year VICTORY: Onur Saliah, Janice Peterkin, Lilieth Jones, Winston Trew (Oval 4), Basil Peterkin (junior), Matt Foot, Arda Saliah, Regu Saliah