Lynette witness 'admitted murder'

29 July 2011 Last updated at 16:49 GMT Lynette White had been stabbed more than 50 times A man whose evidence helped wrongly convict three men for murder once confessed to police that he was the killer, Swansea Crown Court has heard.

Paul Atkins, 56, had said he wrestled prostitute Lynette White to the floor before stabbing her, but now denies any knowledge of the crime.

The men known as the Cardiff Three were later cleared of the killing.

Eight ex-police officers deny conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. Two other people deny perjury.

Ms White, 20, was found stabbed 50 times at her flat in Butetown, Cardiff, in 1988.

The trial follows a new investigation into how the Cardiff Three - Stephen Miller, Yusef Abdullahi and Tony Paris - were prosecuted in 1990 for her death.

They were released by the Court of Appeal two years later, although Mr Abdullahi has since died.

The eight former police officers have been accused of manufacturing a case against the three innocent men.

The court has heard Mr Atkins, who twice gave evidence against the Cardiff Three, was babysitting at a nearby house on the night Ms White was murdered.

He had told the jury that he signed a statement saying he had heard her screams only after a police officer threatened to charge him with the crime.

Continue reading the main story GRAHAM MOUNCHER (retired chief inspector) THOMAS PAGE (retired chief inspector) RICHARD POWELL (retired supt)JOHN SEAFORD (retired det con)MICHAEL DANIELS (retired det con)PETER GREENWOOD (retired det con)PAUL JENNINGS (retired det con)PAUL STEPHEN (retired sergeant)All the above deny conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. Mr Mouncher also denies two counts of perjuryVIOLET PERRIAM and IAN MASSEY deny two counts of perjury.Varying accounts Giving more evidence on Friday, Mr Atkins said that he had even confessed to the killing but he could not remember telling then Det Chief Inspector John Ludlow about the details.

DCI Ludlow had logged Mr Atkins as saying he had met Miss White in the Custom House pub, in the then docks area of Cardiff and that it was agreed he would have sex with her.

Mr Atkins told the court that he was gay and had not said anything in his 1988 police interview about having sex with her.

Nor did he say to the detective that after killing Miss White he had cut both her wrists and her throat, the jury heard.

"He's making that up," said Mr Atkins.

Mr Atkins agreed he had told police several different versions about what happened at Flat 1, 7 James Street during the early hours of February 14, 1988.

Neighbour with knife

But he denied that, before he "confessed," he had told DCI Ludlow that Mark Grommek, a friend of his and the occupier of Flat 2, had murdered Ms White.

DCI Ludlow had recorded Mr Atkins as saying that Mr Grommek had gone to Flat 1 to have sex with Ms White.

The court heard his police statement claimed that, after hearing a scream, Mr Atkins went downstairs to see Mr Grommek emerging from the flat covered in blood and carrying a blood stained knife.

Mr Atkins told the jury that he could not remember accusing Mr Grommek although he said, "but I might have said it".

Mr Atkins went on to provide more accounts of what he had seen on February 14 and, in the following two years, twice gave evidence at Swansea Crown Court.

In 2003 advances in DNA technology led police to Jeffrey Gafoor, who had not been questioned in 1988.

Gafoor, now 46, admitted murder and was jailed for life.

The eight police officers and two other people have all pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.

The trial continues.

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Man tells jury 'I killed Lynette'

13 July 2011 Last updated at 16:20 GMT Jeffrey Gafoor was jailed for life for the murder in 2003 The man convicted of murdering Cardiff prostitute Lynette White has told a jury he killed her alone.

Jeffrey Gafoor, 46, a client of Ms White, who was jailed for life in 2003 for her 1988 murder, is a prosecution witness in a Swansea Crown Court trial.

Eight ex-police officers deny conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. Two other people deny perjury.

Three men, who became known as the Cardiff Three, were wrongly convicted of the docklands murder.

The prosecution claim that the former South Wales Police officers manufactured evidence that led to the convictions of Ms White's boyfriend and pimp Stephen Miller, Yusef Abdullahi - who has since died - and Tony Paris.

'Miscarriage of justice'

Continue reading the main story GRAHAM MOUNCHER (retired chief inspector) THOMAS PAGE (retired chief inspector) RICHARD POWELL (retired supt)JOHN SEAFORD (retired det con)MICHAEL DANIELS (retired det con)PETER GREENWOOD (retired det con)PAUL JENNINGS (retired det con)PAUL STEPHEN (retired sergeant)All the above deny conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. Mr Mouncher also denies two counts of perjuryVIOLET PERRIAM and IAN MASSEY deny two counts of perjury.The men, who became known as the Cardiff Three, were convicted in 1990 of the murder but released from jail two years later by the Court of Appeal.

Taking to the stand in Swansea, Gafoor was asked by the prosecution if he had pleaded guilty in 2003 to Ms White's murder.

"Yes I did," he replied.

He denied knowing any of the three men who were convicted of the murder in 1990.

"I now feel that it was a miscarriage of justice," he said. "Their problems stemmed from my actions and I feel terrible about it.

"I know that they did not have anything to do with it and that they were completely innocent because I was the one who killed Lynette White.

"All the injuries she had she received from me. There was no cover-up of the killing."

"Grasped for knife"

Gafoor, who worked as a security guard, described stabbing the 20-year-old in the flat where her body was found after an argument over money.

Gafoor said the last time he saw Lynette White she was lying face down on the floor

"I met Lynette White for her services as a prostitute but I changed my mind and asked for my money back," he said.

"We argued and I grasped for a knife to threaten her to get my money back.

"We both had the knife. In the course of an argument I stabbed her and she was killed.

"I remember stabbing but it is all a bit vague. I mean fuzzy. I don't want to say dreamlike but it is a lot like that.

"It seemed to go on a long time. I was shouting and she was shouting back at me."

He was asked if anyone else was in the flat at the time and he replied: "No, I was the only person in the flat.

"When I last saw her she was in the flat face down on the floor."

The court has heard that after her death seven months of police investigation failed to get any result so officers allegedly began to "fit up" the innocent men for the murder.

They invented a fictional scenario which was "almost entirely a fabrication and was largely the product of the imagination," the court has heard.

Questioned by William Coker QC, the barrister representing former Chief Insp Graham Mouncher, Gafoor denied being pressured into taking full and sole responsibility for the crime.

He agreed that after he had been jailed for life - but before he had been told the minimum number of years he would serve before being released on parole - he was interviewed by detectives probing the original police investigation.

'Technically blackmail'

In 2004 he again met police who by then had turned the interview into a statement and asked him to check it and sign, if he agreed it was all true and accurate, the court heard.

Gafoor was reluctant to sign because the declaration included the statement that he was willing to appear in court if the investigation led to a prosecution.

Mr Coker asked him if he could remember asking a police officer what could be the consequences of not signing, and was told: "It could affect your release date."

To that, Gafoor allegedly replied: "So it's technically blackmail."

Mr Gafoor said he could not, now, remember those words.

Mr Coker also said there was a connection between Gafoor and the men originally jailed for her murder.

The court was told Gafoor's aunt, Marjory Gafoor, had been a prostitute working close to the murder scene at the time.

Mr Coker said her son, Tony Dickman, had a girlfriend who was the best friend of Leanne Vilday, who led police to the body.

He added that Gafoor had previously been represented in court by a barrister and solicitor who also represented men who had been earlier tried for the murder.

The former officers are accused of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice by agreeing to "mould, manipulate, influence and fabricate evidence".

The accused all deny the charges.

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Lynette police 'aggressive' claim

8 July 2011 Last updated at 15:30 GMT Eight former South Wales Police officers deny conspiracy to pervert the course of justice Detectives put pressure on a man being interviewed over the murder of prostitute Lynette White and "put words in his mouth," a jury has heard.

Three men, including her pimp, were wrongly convicted of the 1988 murder in Cardiff. One of Ms White's clients was eventually convicted.

It was claimed an officer in the murder hunt was "aggressive" to a key alibi of a suspect who was later wrongly jailed.

Eight ex-officers deny conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

Violet Perriam and Ian Massey deny two counts of perjury

Two others deny perjury at Swansea Crown Court.

The prosecution alleges the officers fabricated the case against three men who were wrongly convicted of the murder because, months later, they had still not found the killer.

Ms White's boyfriend and pimp Stephen Miller, Yusef Abdullahi - who has since died - and Tony Paris were convicted in 1990 of the murder, and became known as the Cardiff Three.

Graphic image

Nick Dean QC, prosecuting, told the court the officers began "breaking down" the alibi for Mr Abdullahi - that he was working on a ship, Coral Sea, then berthed in Barry Docks, which was backed up by John Hulse, among others.

Mr Hulse confirmed Mr Abdullahi had been aboard the ship but that "did not suit the prosecution's case at all," said Mr Dean.

Early in 1989, a small team led by then Detective Inspector Graham Mouncher asked Mr Hulse to look at some photographs, but he did not look beyond the first because it showed a graphic image from the crime scene of the extent of Ms White's injuries.

The court heard that by the end of the interview, Mr Hulse made a statement saying he was now "positive" that Mr Abdullahi had not worked continually through the night of 14 February 1988, when Lynette was stabbed to death in the early hours at a flat in James Street, Cardiff.

Mr Dean said Peter McCarthy had also provided an alibi for Mr Abdullahi by saying they had both been working on the ship at the time.

Continue reading the main story GRAHAM MOUNCHER (retired chief inspector) THOMAS PAGE (retired chief inspector) RICHARD POWELL (retired supt)JOHN SEAFORD (retired det con)MICHAEL DANIELS (retired det con)PETER GREENWOOD (retired det con)PAUL JENNINGS (retired det con)PAUL STEPHEN (retired sergeant)All the above deny conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. Mr Mouncher also denies two counts of perjuryVIOLET PERRIAM and IAN MASSEY deny two counts of perjury.The police team called Mr McCarthy to Butetown Police Station on December 8, 1988, the day after Mr Abdullahi had been arrested.

Mr McCarthy was interviewed by the Det Con Thomas Page, who tried to persuade him that he was wrong about the evening of February 13 and the early hours of the following day, the court heard.

Mr McCarthy stuck to his account but part way through the interview Det Con Page received a telephone call.

"After Page put the telephone down he told Mr McCarthy that Abdullahi had just admitted murder," said Mr Dean.

But Mr Abdullahi, although by then in police custody, was not interviewed until "significantly later that day" and then said only that he had not killed Lynette and had been working on the Coral Sea.

"Thomas Page's attempt to trick Mr McCarthy failed," added Mr Dean.

'Put words in his mouth'

He added: "As it was intended to, the trip by Graham Mouncher and other officers succeeded in strengthing the prosecution's hand when it came to Abdullahi's alibi.

"But that was achieved by methods that were designed to achieve that outcome rather than obtain any genuine clarification from the men."

After his arrest on a charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice, Det Con Page confirmed the timing of the interview with Mr McCarthy but "categorically" denied putting him under pressure or telling him that he must be wrong because Mr Abdullahi had confessed.

In 2003 a client of Lynette White - Jeffrey Gafoor - admitted her murder

Mr Dean said another attempt to discredit Mr Abdullahi took place in early 1989. The efforts were led, he claimed, by then Det Ins Graham Mouncher, who the prosecution say became emotionally involved in the investigation.

Mr McCarthy was again interviewed at Butetown police station. This time a detective "was agressive, shouting at him, suggesting he knew more than he was saying.

"Attempts were made to put words in his mouth," added Mr Dean.

In 2003 Jeffrey Gafoor, a client of Ms White, pleaded guilty to her murder and is now serving a life sentence.

Three of the men before the court are retired senior officers - Chief Insp Thomas Page, Chief Insp Graham Mouncher and Supt Richard Powell.

The five other retired police officers are Michael Daniels, Peter Greenwood and John Seaford, while Paul Jennings and Paul Stephen were serving officers at the time of arrest.

They are all jointly accused of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

Violet Perriam and Ian Massey, with Mr Mouncher, are also each accused of two counts of perjury, which they deny.

The trial continues.

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