Articles revealed in The Eye are written by a staff of contributors and edited by the multi-award successful former BBC information and present affairs reporter, Phil Parry.
After spending 23 years with the BBC, and a profession lasting 38 years, right here our Editor, Welshman Phil Parry, emphasises a key journalistic ability – recognizing the hyperlinks between tales, as information that the biggest police service within the UK has been put in ‘particular measures’ following a collection of scandals, places added strain on the largest pressure in Wales, which was accountable for a string of miscarriages of justice, and provides extra weight to requires a authorized inquiry into what occurred.
Earlier he has described how he was helped to interrupt into the South Wales Echo workplace automotive when he was a cub reporter, recalled his early profession as a journalist, the significance of expertise within the job, and making clear that the ‘calls’ to emergency providers in addition to court docket circumstances are central to any media operation.
He has proven how poorly paid most journalism is when trainee reporters needed to dwell in squalid flats, the important position of bills, and about one in every of his most vital tales on the now-scrapped 53 year-old BBC Cymru Wales TV Present Affairs collection he introduced for 10 years, Week In Week Out (WIWO), which gained an award even after it was axed, lengthy after his profession actually took off.
Phil has defined too how essential it’s really to talk to folks, the advantage of pace in addition to accuracy, why data of ‘historical past’ is important, how sure materials was faraway from TV Present Affairs programmes when secret cameras had for use, and a few of these he has interviewed.
He has additionally disclosed why investigative journalism is required now greater than ever though others have completely different opinions, and how info from trusted sources is essential at the moment.
There are a selection of essential expertise you need to have as a journalist, however maybe a very powerful is to have the ability to spot connections.
For instance a high-profile corruption trial in London, would possibly focus consideration on corruption you’ve gotten uncovered, nearer to residence in Wales.
So it’s with information which has simply damaged.
The Metropolitan Police (Met) has been positioned in ‘particular measures’ after a litany of “systemic” failings, with tens of hundreds of crimes going unrecorded and errors in cease and search.
The company which did it, HM Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC), cited a collection of scandals – from the homicide of Sarah Everard by the serving Met officer Wayne Couzens, the strip-searching of harmless kids, cease and search controversies akin to that of the champion athlete Bianca Williams, and offensive attitudes amongst officers revealed by racist messages exchanged between officers at Charing Cross Police Station. It additionally famous the “seemingly incomprehensible failures to recognise and deal with appropriately a collection of suspicious deaths…”.
The ‘particular measures’ notification specifies, too, the dealing with of the Daniel Morgan case.
Mr Morgan (who grew up in Monmouthshire), was murdered with an axe in a pub automotive park at Sydenham, London, in 1987. Regardless of a number of investigations, arrests, and a trial, the crime stays unsolved and an unbiased overview into the dealing with of the investigation of the killing, revealed in 2021, discovered that the Met had “a type of institutional corruption”, concealing or denying weaknesses within the case.
The overview included criticism of then Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick, for failing to supply entry to info over a seven 12 months interval. The HMIC has added to rising concern about this case, and says: “The gravity of the matter is amplified by the presence of a comparatively younger, inexperienced workforce”.
All of this shines the highlight, as nicely, on what has gone unsuitable in South Wales.
The most important police pressure in Wales (South Wales Police [SWP]) was accountable for a collection of miscarriages of justice, and critics argue that the large variety of these scandals imply this organisation ought to ALSO be put in ‘particular measures’.
The listing consists of, The Cardiff Three, The Cardiff Newsagent Three, The Darvell Brothers, Jonathan Jones, in addition to Annette Hewins, however this does NOT have on all of it those that had been convicted wrongly for much less vital crimes, but who now have a report which can have an effect on them for the remainder of their lives. There are actually rising calls to scrap SWP altogether.
A type of jailed wrongly says what has occurred to the Met, ought to occur with SWP too.
Mike O’Brien (one of many so-called Cardiff Newsagent Three) advised me: “Because of the variety of scandals in relation to South Wales Police, they too needs to be put in particular measures, due to the variety of miscarriages of justice, adopted by a full judicial inquiry”.
Mr O’Brien has organised a Media Convention (MC) to be held within the Autumn to press for that inquiry. He needs an official investigation into the actions of SWP from the late Eighties to the 2010s, due to the variety of miscarriages. The MC about what occurred in South Wales is on October 12 in Cardiff’s Norwegian Church Arts Centre at 11 am, and has been organised by Mr O’Brien to coincide with the homicide 35 years in the past of a newsagent within the metropolis, referred to as Phillip Saunders, for which he was wrongly incarcerated, earlier than his innocence was established.
Through the Nineteen Nineties I was recurrently approached by solicitors saying that unhealthy issues had been occurring in South Wales, and that one thing needed to be carried out.
I shall be speaking on the MC too, and a number of tv programmes have been made trying on the current occasions.
Earlier this 12 months, one other was broadcast inspecting Mr O’Brien’s story intimately. The promotional materials earlier than the programme, declared: “Episode One Monday twenty third Could at 9pm Raphael Rowe delves into the brutal homicide of Cardiff newsagent Phillip Saunders in 1987. The episode examines the investigation that led to the conviction of three harmless males, which resulted of their wrongful imprisonment. The episode reveals stunning police threats and coercion that led to the arrest and incarceration of Michael O’Brien, Ellis Sherwood and Darren Corridor. After the boys had spent greater than a decade behind bars, a court docket enchantment quashed the unique verdict, however the unsolved case continues to hang-out the town. Plus, for the primary time ever, the sufferer’s sister and nephew break a 35-year silence and reveal unique insights into the case”.
Sky documentaries had been additionally transmitted earlier this 12 months, referred to as Homicide within the Valleys (MITV), trying into the appalling Clydach murders in 1999, which isn’t (in principle) a miscarriage of justice case, though the person convicted of them (David ‘Dai’ Morris) died final 12 months nonetheless protesting his innocence.
Mr O’Brien, has been severely affected by being imprisoned for 11 years for one thing he didn’t do, and seems on MITV saying that he believes the conviction of Mr Morris is a FURTHER miscarriage of justice. He advised the MITV documentary-makers: “After I was launched from jail I bear in mind… saying ‘I’m going to be South Wales Police’s worst nightmare for what they did to me’, and I meant each phrase of it”.
In a proper interview for MITV (they wouldn’t do one with me!), Assistant Chief Constable (ACC) of SWP, David Thorne, made a startling admission, in regards to the errors that had been made by the police within the earlier miscarriages of justice.
Throughout filming for the programme Mr Thorne appeared on, a forensic overview discovered traces of DNA on a sock which it’s believed was used to carry the homicide weapon, that had been “doubtless” to have come from Mr Morris, and SWP trumpeted the discovering. They successfully mentioned: ‘We all know we received it unsuitable previously, however this time is completely different. Belief us’.
ACC Thorne acknowledged: “It’s protected to say we received it unsuitable (previously). We completely received it unsuitable. There have been HUGE errors in the way in which investigations had been performed (however) we HAVEN’T discovered that on this case. This isn’t a miscarriage of justice”.
I made a BBC Panorama tv programme in regards to the Clydach Murders three years after that they had occurred, and I used to be the primary to query the police actions throughout the investigation. As I mentioned within the opening of the programme: “One police pressure in Britain has a disturbing report of locking up the unsuitable folks in homicide circumstances”.
Throughout MITV, the Senior Investigating Officer (SIO) at the time, Detective Superintendent (DS) (Retd.) of South Wales Police (SWP) Martyn Lloyd Evans, is questioned in regards to the obvious mistake of not releasing to the general public a witnesses E-Match constructed quickly after the murders, which, it mentioned, had a 90 per cent likeness. He replies that as a result of the person seen was carrying a bag, and it was believed the killer didn’t have one, it was not put out.
Mr Evans mentioned: “I didn’t suppose it was related”, however the E-Match matched nearly precisely the face of the primary senior police officer on the scene, Inspector (on the time) Stuart Lewis, who (towards all process) had solely stayed there a matter of minutes, or that of his similar twin brother (one other police officer, Sergeant [also at the time] Stephen Lewis, whose spouse was having a homosexual affair with one of many victims).
Inspector Stuart Lewis, had modified his shift to be on that evening, nevertheless at essential hours throughout the murders his whereabouts had been unknown. He was driving a purple Peugeot diesel, and a automotive just like this was noticed close to the homicide scene.
So to say the E-Match was ‘not related’, appeared weird within the excessive.
Within the MITV movies Mr Evans’ boss because the then head of SWP CID, Wynne Phillips, additionally mentioned one thing unbelievable: “We will’t manufacture proof”. However occasions earlier than the murders, confirmed that SWP have carried out EXACTLY that.
To take simply a kind of circumstances (wherein I used to be intimately concerned, as a result of I had made ANOTHER programme questioning THAT conviction [The Cardiff Newsagent Three]), the police MANUFACTURED (as Mr Phillips mentioned they DIDN’T do) an overheard ‘confession’ between the younger males that they had arrested, when an admission was successfully made to the homicide of the newsagent, they usually introduced earlier than the court docket ‘EVIDENCE’ that the group had run from the scene, however one of many three had unhealthy legs and couldn’t run in any respect.
Now campaigners will level to the truth that what has occurred to the Met, is extra proof the identical ought to happen to SWP.
They imagine that this pressure, as nicely, needs to be put in ‘particular measures’…
The reminiscences of Phil’s a long time lengthy award-winning profession in journalism (together with a number of the miscarriages of justice he has uncovered) as he was gripped by the uncommon neurological situation, Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been launched in a significant guide ‘A GOOD STORY’. Order it now!
Publication of one other guide, nevertheless, was refused, as a result of it was to have included names.
Tomorrow – how controversial BBC Wales has harassed the significance of a brand new appointment who joins as they “carry the magic of the World Cup from Qatar”, though it might be problematic for the game Editor to go to the nation as a result of homosexuality is against the law there, however the govt is herself homosexual, and she or he has publicly declared her assist for a political social gathering but will broadcast an neutral information service.
