Stephen Simmons
Stephen Simmons and two of his friends were covnicted of theft after being arrested by Detective Sargeant Ridgewell. The prosecution case was that the three men had been observed by police officers while stealing mail bags from a stationary goods wagon in Clapham Goods Yard. All men were said to have made incriminating remarks at the time of arrest. Over 40 years after the conviction, Simmons googled Ridgewell and found evidence that he had been convicted of mailbag theft himself. Ridgewell’s testimony was the primary evidence against Simmons and as such Ridgewell’s conviction was found to undermine the prosecution’s trial case and Simmons’ conviction was quashed. Ridgewell was recognised by the police as corrupt, and evidence showed he had made unfounded accusations against many men.
View Press (www.theguardian.com)
< Back to Case Search < Back to Overview Graph- Offence: Other
- Jurisdiction: England & Wales
- County: Greater London
- Ethnicity: White
- Gender: M
- Years in prison: 0.6
- Offence convicted of: Theft
- Year of crime: 1975
- Year of initial conviction: 1976
- Year conviction was overturned: 2018
- Age when imprisoned: 20
- CCRC Referral: Y
- Tried with others: Y
- Link to full case: Not available
- Type of fresh evidence at appeal: Evidence casting doubt on the integrity of police
- Compensation: Unknown
- Crown argued case at CofA: No
- Retrial: No
- Previous appeals: Unknown