How many people did DS Derek Ridgewell fit up? The sheer scale of his depravity, and his targeting of men of colour, is only now becoming clear
In the modest-sized court seven at the Royal Courts of Justice in central London, the children of Saliah Mehmet and Basil Peterkin squeeze into the rows of benches alongside journalists, campaigners and friends. It is the morning of 18 January 2024, almost 47 years since their fathers were imprisoned for conspiracy to steal goods from the Bricklayers Arms depot in south London, where they worked. Three years later, in 1980, the officer who arrested them, along with two of his team, was convicted of the same crime, in the same depot, which they policed.
Mehmet and Peterkin – both now dead – always said they were framed. Even now, their families refuse to believe that their fathers will have their convictions quashed until they hear the judge say the words.
