BELATED JUSTICE

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: nov/dec 2025 :: RMTnews 18 On July 17, 2025 the Court of Appeal posthumously quashed Errol Campbell’s 1977 conviction for theft and conspiracy to steal. Campbell, sentenced to 18 months, was a British Rail employee at the Bricklayer’s Arms depot in South London. The Bricklayer’s Arms depot, a closed shop of nearly 600 NUR members, was a goods depot for more than 100 years until it closed in 1983. Campbell died in 2004. His case follows last years’ posthumous quashing, of two other British Rail workers at the same depot, Basil Peterkin and Saliah Mehmet, co- defendants in the same 1977 case. All were framed by the racist and corrupt British Transport Police (BTP) officer, Detective Sergeant Ridgewell, who prosecuted them for conspiring with other black and Turkish Cypriot employees with re-labelling mail parcels, directing them to new addresses, and then selling their contents for profit. 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. The officers went to prison for seven years, six years and two years respectively. Why did it take so long to quash the British Rail workers convictions? It was not for want of trying. Winston Trew as part of the Oval 4, fitted up by Ridgewell in 1973, has been fighting for 50 years to clear his name. The brilliant recently parted crime journalist, Duncan Campbell, was writing about his case for Time Out in the 1970s. Not until 2019 was Trew’s conviction quashed. Back in 1973 the primetime BBC documentary programme ‘Nationwide’ presented an excellent expose of Ridgewell’s methods identifying 16 young black men arrested and prosecuted in similar circumstances, relying on police testimony only, with no independent witnesses. All professed their innocence including complaints against the police about beaten confessions. The BTP responded to the programme by taking Ridgewell off general duty, to work in their headquarters, the very place where complaints were being sent about his conduct. Ridgewell was later put back out on duty where he was able to continue his corrupt racist activity including fitting up the British Rail employees at the Bricklayers Arms. The Court of Appeal in 2024 recognised ‘some force’ in the argument that Ridgewell should have been sacked in 1973 and that his cases should have been reviewed in 1980 after he went to prison. In Campbell’s judgement the Court went further stating: “Mr Campbell (Junior) describes his father coming home from police detention beaten and bruised. Mr Campbell (Senior) maintained his innocence for the rest of his life. “He regarded himself, with BELATED JUSTICE: Onur Saliah, Janice Peterkin, Lilieth Jones, Winston Trew (Oval 4), Basil Peterkin (junior), Matt Foot, Arda Saliah, Regu Saliah in January 2024. BELATED JUSTICE Matt Foot recounts how NUR member Errol Campbell was framed by racist police