CCRC refers Jenny Wiltshire client Ronald De Souza’s conviction to Court of Appeal
3 Feb 2025
The Criminal Cases Review Commission has referred the conviction of Ronald De Souza – the final member of so-called “Stockwell Six” miscarriage of justice cases – to the Court of Appeal.
Mr De Souza, along with four other black men, was convicted of attempted robbery in 1972 on the evidence of corrupt police officer DS Derek Ridgwell, who was himself criminally convicted in 1980. The Court of Appeal has quashed all convictions in the “Stockwell Six” cases it has previously been referred.
Jenny Wiltshire has represented all five of the convicted “Stockwell Six” members in their appeals. She said that while the latest CCRC referral is good news, “it is a tragedy that is has taken over 50 years for the miscarriage of justice he suffered to start to be rectified.”
Jenny told the BBC, Guardian and others that DS Ridgewell’s employer, British Transport Police, should have reviewed every criminal investigation in the corrupt policeman was involved immediately after his criminal conviction in 1980.
“But it didn’t,” Jenny said. “As a result it has taken half a century for the individual people victimised by him to come forward and fight to clear their names.“
As well helping win the quashing of their criminal convictions, Hickman & Rose represents many of DS Ridgewell’s victims in their claims against the state for compensation.
