Overview

Michael O’Brien was notoriously falsely imprisoned for the murder of a Cardiff newsagent in 1988. His sentence was overturned in 1999 and he successfully sued South Wales Police, eventually receiving a large financial compensation in 2006. In the first part of The Dossier he presents new evidence concerning his own case, which further calls into question the actions of the police which led to his conviction. The second part of the book considers nine other case of miscarriages of justice in South Wales between 1982-2016 for a variety of crimes including murder. These cases concern the convictions of twenty-three people, who between them have spent eighty years in prison. The earliest is Anthony Yellen, convicted of murder on a manufactured confession in 1983. The book includes the Welsh conspiracy trial, the case of the Darvell brothers in Swansea, the Cardiff Three, Jonathan Jones, the Merthyr arson case, and the Clydach murders. It concludes with an analysis of the Miscarriage of Justice Unit at South Wales Police. The Dossier calls into question methods of policing and a judicial system in which too little have changed over the past thirty years, and calls for a judicial inquiry to investigate the culture which has resulted in so many dubious and plainly wrongful convictions. No police officer has been brought to book for their part in these cases, despite the evidence produced for the convictions to be judged unsafe. Some officers have been involved in more than one of the cases considered, and some have been promoted to senior levels in the force. Many are now retired and are no longer subject to police disciplinary procedures. How, asks O’Brien, could so many important cases have resulted in unsafe conviction, and what can be done to improve procedures in future? As part of the answer, he calls for a judicial enquiry into these cases.

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9781781726129

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Author Information

Michael O’Brien was born and raised in Ely, Cardiff. He is the author of three books on the subject of false imprisonment, and the prison system in the UK, including his autobiography Death of Justice (2008), and Prisons Exposed (2013). O’Brien received the largest payout ever by the police to anyone wrongly convicted. After his release he set up MOJO (the Miscarriage of Justice Organisation) with Paddy Joe Hill (one of the Birmingham Six) and has worked extensively with Liberty. He has appeared regularly on national television and radio, and has been featured in The Observer, The Times; Sunday People; Daily Telegraph; New Statesman, and Daily Express. He will be appearing on Sky and Netflix in 2021 on the subject of miscarriages of justice. O’Brien has studied law and acts for young people as an appropriate adult in police stations. He also helps those who cannot get legal representation in the family courts as a Mackenzie Friend.

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