The identity of 11 year old Lesley Molseed’s murderer was not ascertained until 22 years after her body was found near Rishworth Moor. But for 16 of those 22 years, an innocent man slept behind bars for the crime. The victim of what is often described as Britain’s worst miscarriage of justice, Stefan Kiszko, lived for barely a year following the overturning of his conviction and never got to see the conviction of the real killer in 2007.
Shockingly, the evidence that proved his innocence was known to the police at the time of his conviction. As a sufferer of hypogonadism, Kiszko could never produce the sperm heads that were found in the ejaculate on Lesley’s clothing. Nonetheless, Kiszko was found guilty on the strength of a confession made after hours of questioning and without a solicitor being present. Other alleged pieces of ‘evidence’ brought against Kiszko included his idiosyncratic hobby of writing down the registration numbers of cars he saw and allegations made by four local girls that he had exposed himself to them. Only after his conviction was quashed would the girls admit to having falsely concocted the claims – but even though would not apologise to him. Weird Island online article
The collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture or ethnic origin. It can be seen or detected in processes, attitudes and behaviour which amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping which disadvantage minority ethnic people. The MacPherson Report: The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry
Stephen Lawrence: The cruel and brutal murder of a young man made a police force examine its own attitudes to race. Murders that Shocked Britain
At first the racially motivated murder of Stephen Lawrence at a bus stop in Elton south-east London didn’t gain much media attention. However, the failure of police to bring the perpetrators to justice and accusations that race had played a part in the handling of the case would go on to trigger one of the most important legal cases in British history. ibid.
Good evening, a devastating and unprecedented attack on racism in Britain’s police forces was made today in the report into the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence. The Inquiry into the way the Metropolitan Police handled its investigation slammed its professional incompetence and poor leadership. It concluded that the country’s entire police service suffered from institutional racism and it condemned the treatment of the Lawrence family and the failure to arrest key suspects. ITV News at Ten
Lies, spies, cover-ups and corruption ... sickening extent of Stephen’s betrayal by the police is exposed. Daily Mail 7th March 2014
His name represents one of the most shameful episodes of British race relations history. Stephen Lawrence: Time for Justice, BBC 2011
For eighteen years Doreen and Neville Lawrence have struggled to win justice for their murdered son. ibid.
It was the first investigation which was crucial and it was hampered by incompetence and institutional racism from the outset. ibid.
Police failed to provide any medical attention to Stephen. ibid.
The MacPherson Inquiry would become the watershed moment in British race relations history. It exposed the Met ... as institutionally racist. ibid.
Stephen Lawrence: watchdog to probe police ‘corruption’: Scotland Yard has called in the police watchdog following allegations that police corruption hampered the original investigation into the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence.
The move comes after The Independent published police intelligence reports detailing extensive allegations of corruption against a detective, John Davidson. Following the reports, the Metropolitan Police began a trawl of documents to discover if anything was held back from the 1998 Macpherson Inquiry. The Independent 12th May 2012
Tonight: the legacy of Steven Lawrence. But twenty years on how much has really changed? Tonight: Stephen Lawrence – 20 Years On, ITV 2013
Stabbed to death by a gang of white youths in 1993 a Public Inquiry into the crime and the way it was handled branded the Metropolitan Police institutionally racist and called for widespread social reform ... We remember Stephen Lawrence. ibid.
Stephen’s death shocked the nation: both because the brutal manner in which it was committed and the way the police handled the case. ibid.
Exactly twenty years ago today teenager Stephen Lawrence was murdered in South East London by a racist gang. The compromised investigation to catch the killers would reveal a police force that was institutionally racist. The Lawrence family’ search for justice sent shockwaves to the heart of government. It was a crime that shook Britain. Crimes that Shook Britain: Stephen Lawrence s4e1 *****
In January 2012 ... two men – David Norris and Gary Dobson – were finally convicted of a murder they committed in 1993. ibid.
Duwayne Brooks was by now all too aware of how serious Stephen's injuries actually were. He ran to a phone box and frantically called for an ambulance, but was angry when shortly after a police car not a team of medics arrived at the scene. ibid.
In the following days the Lawrences at home grieving for their son were also beginning to have doubts about the direction of the police investigation. ibid.
They were inundated with leads pointing the finger of suspicion at a gang of white youths who had been terrorising Eltham ... Nothing was done. ibid.
The interviews represented another missed opportunity. ibid.
The Macpherson Report was published in February 1999 and concluded the police investigation into Stephen's murder was marred by a combination of professional incompetence, institutional racism and a failure of leadership by senior officers. ibid.
The Lawrence Inquiry would go on and have a dramatic effect on Britain. ibid.
It’s almost as if they are condoning what these people are doing. Doreen Lawrence
They weren’t interested in catching his killers at all. Doreen Lawrence
Of all the things I have found out over the years this [rozzers spying on family] has certainly topped it. Doreen Lawrence
Police gunned down in the streets. In the city of Chicago a manhunt underway. Justice appeared to prevail. But had one man been condemned for another’s crime? I Didn’t Do It s2e4: Alton Logan, CI 2012
Both lawyers knew they could only reveal the truth if and when their client Andrew Wilson either gave them permission to speak up or die. ibid.
A firestorm of torture allegations and caused a scandal that rocked the Chicago Police Department. ibid.
More than two decades in prison for a crime he did not commit. ibid.
The so-called M25 3 who were jailed for life 10 years ago after being found guilty of murder and robbery were freed yesterday when their convictions were quashed as unsafe by the Court of Appeal.
In a reserved judgment, three judges said they could not be sure that, if ‘irregularities’ that came to light since the trial of the three men had not occurred, a reasonable jury would have returned verdicts of guilty. In the original trial, the prosecution had failed to disclose that an associate of the three defendants, a police informer, told police that another man and not Randolph Johnson – one of the defendants – had taken part in the crimes.
The defence was also not told that the informer, Norman Duncan, was paid a reward. Police and Duncan, a key prosecution witness, had been involved in a ‘profoundly disturbing’ conspiracy to give perjured evidence, the judges found. Ten years on it was ‘not appropriate to order a retrial,’ said Lord Justice Mantell, who was sitting with Mr Justice Blofeld and Mrs Justice Rafferty. Telegraph online article 18th July 2000
The four were all convicted on the basis of false confessions extracted after physical abuse and threats by Surrey police while detained under anti-terrorism laws. Among the coerced confessions was the assertion that the Maguire household was a bomb factory.
Police found no evidence of bomb-making, but they took swabs from under the fingernails of the family. Using later discredited forensic tests they said the family had handled the explosive nitroglycerine.
Seven people were jailed: Patrick, by then aged 14; his brother Vincent, 17; both their parents; Anne Maguire’s brother William Smyth; her brother in law Guiseppe Conlon (Gerry’s father) and a family friend, Patrick O’Neill. Patrick and Vincent were given sentences of four and five years respectively; their parents 14 years; their uncles and Patrick O’Neill 12 years.