Police Accountability

Matt Foot - APPEAL's Co-Director - stands outside the Court of Appeal with the families of Mehmet and Peterkin. Photo Credit: Jess Hurd

Many wrongful convictions involve serious police malpractice - and some police corruption.

The police are rarely held to account for such failings. We are not aware of a single police officer ever going to prison for wrongdoing that led to a miscarriage of justice. Rarely does a police officer lose their job or face serious repercussions.

This can leave the police free to do what they like, without concern for the consequences. In turn this leads to a culture where serious failings and malpractice are tolerated, and allowed to continue.

APPEAL has worked on a number of wrongful conviction cases where police malpractice was a key problem. In each case we work hard to uncover the truth and use it as fresh evidence before the Court of Appeal. We also spot patterns and advocate for systemic change.

When police wrongdoing goes unchecked

The consequences of police misconduct can last for decades.

The cases of Saliah Mehmet, Basil Peterkin, Errol Campbell and others have exposed the devastating impact of corrupt and racist policing by former British Transport Police officer Derek Ridgewell. Ridgewell was imprisoned for serious dishonesty in 1980, but there was no automatic review of the cases in which he had been involved.

Since 2018, 13 convictions linked to Ridgewell have been quashed. Collectively, those affected spent 623 years living under wrongful convictions.

These cases raise a fundamental question: when a police officer is imprisoned for serious wrongdoing, shouldn't their previous cases be reviewed?

Trew's Law

APPEAL is campaigning for a new safeguard to make sure potential miscarriages of justice are identified when serious police misconduct comes to light.

Trew's Law would introduce an automatic, independent review of cases linked to police officers who are imprisoned for serious offences.

New research by APPEAL, York Law School and the Centre for Applied Human Rights at the University of York found that at least 64 serving or former police officers were imprisoned between 2023 and 2026 for offences including corruption, dishonesty, abuse of position, violence and sexual offences. Yet there is currently no legal requirement for authorities to review convictions connected to those officers.

The research also found no central system recording when police officers are imprisoned, whether their previous cases are reviewed, or what those reviews uncover.

Trew's Law would change this. It would require cases involving imprisoned officers to be identified and assessed, with independent oversight and notification where there is a material concern about the safety of a conviction.

The principle is simple: the responsibility for identifying potential miscarriages of justice should rest with the state, not with victims and their families.

Find out more about Trew's Law

Trew's Law is named after Winston Trew, one of the Oval Four, who spent almost 50 years fighting to clear his name after being wrongfully convicted on evidence from corrupt police officer Derek Ridgewell.

Find out more about Trew's Law and APPEAL's campaign for automatic reviews of cases linked to imprisoned police officers.

In the Media:

> The Guardian, Oct 2025
> The Mirror, Jun 2026