A man who was jailed after an investigation led by one of the UK’s most notorious corrupt police officers has had his conviction quashed nearly 50 years later.
Errol Campbell, who died in 2004, was sentenced to 18 months in prison after he was convicted of conspiracy to steal and theft from the Bricklayers Arms Goods Depot in south London where he was working for British Rail in April 1977.
The case against him was led by the disgraced British Transport Police officer Detective Sergeant Derek Ridgewell – who was eventually jailed after he was involved in a number of other high-profile and controversial cases in the early 1970s.
The Court of Appeal decision comes as the final member of the Stockwell Six – a group of friends accused of trying to rob Ridgewell on the London Underground in 1972 – waits to see if he will be cleared more than 50 years after his wrongful conviction.
Four of the men were cleared in 2021, while one of them was acquitted at the time.
Giving his judgement at the Court of Appeal in relation to Mr Campbell today, Lord Justice Holroyde, sitting with Mr Justice Butcher and Mr Justice Wall, said that it was with “regret” that the court could not undo Mr Campbell’s suffering.
He added: “We can however, and do, allow the appeal brought on his behalf, and quash his conviction.
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“We hope that will at least bring some comfort to Mr Campbell’s family who survive.”
Ridgewell led the case against Mr Campbell and several others, but along with colleagues DC Douglas Ellis and DC Alan Keeling, later pleaded guilty to stealing from the same goods depot.
Mr Campbell unsuccessfully appealed his conviction in 1978.
His son submitted an application Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) in September 2024, with the help of the charity APPEAL.
Following a review, the CCRC found there was a real possibility that, like the convictions of 11 other people that have been referred to the court, Mr Campbell’s conviction would be quashed, and it referred the conviction in February 2025.
In August 2023 the CCRC referred the convictions of Mr Campbell’s co-defendants, Saliah Mehmet and Basil Peterkin, after it tracked down their family members.
The convictions were both quashed in January 2024.
In 1980, Ridgewell, Ellis and Keeling pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal from the Bricklayers’ Arms Depot.
Ridgewell died in prison of a heart attack aged 37 in 1982 before he had completed his sentence.
In a previous judgment, the court found that their criminal activities between January 1977 and April 1978 resulted in the loss from the depot of goods to the value of about £364,000 “an enormous sum of money at that time”.
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