APPEAL and the University of York Launch Trew's Law

APPEAL and the University of York Launch Trew's Law: The Case for Automatic Reviews of Imprisoned Police Officers' Files for Miscarriages of Justice 

10 September 2026 

APPEAL, in partnership with York Law School and the Centre for Applied Human Rights at the University of York, today launched a new policy report, Trew’s Law: The Case for Automatic Reviews of Imprisoned Police Officers' Files for Miscarriages of Justice, calling for the introduction of automatic reviews of cases involving police officers later found to have engaged in serious misconduct. 

The proposed reform, Trew's Law, is named after Winston Trew, one of the Oval Four, who spent nearly 50 years fighting to clear his name after being wrongfully convicted on the evidence of corrupt British Transport Police officer Derek Ridgewell. 

Ridgewell was a detective sergeant with the British Transport Police whose evidence contributed to the wrongful convictions of numerous people, many of them young Black men, during the 1970s. In 1980, he was convicted and sentenced to seven years' imprisonment for conspiracy to steal goods in transit after participating in large-scale theft from railway freight depots. Despite his conviction and imprisonment, no automatic review of his previous cases took place, leaving many of those wrongfully convicted to uncover the truth and fight for justice themselves. 

The report, authored by Dr Joanna Gilmore (University of York), Mya Imadojemun (APPEAL/University of York), and Dr Mattia Pinto (University of York), shows that 13 people have had convictions linked to Ridgewell quashed since 2018. Collectively, they spent 623 years living under wrongful convictions. Despite Ridgewell's imprisonment in 1980, no systematic review of the cases in which he played a central role was ever carried out.  

The findings suggest that this is not simply a historical problem. Between 2023 and 2026, at least 64 serving or former police officers were imprisoned for offences including corruption and dishonesty, physical and sexual violence, and abuse of position. Yet there remains no statutory duty requiring authorities to review convictions linked to those officers. 

Freedom of Information requests conducted for the report further revealed that there is no central system for recording when police officers are imprisoned, whether their previous cases are reviewed, or what the outcomes of those reviews are. As a result, people affected by police misconduct are often left to identify potential miscarriages of justice themselves, frequently decades after the original conviction. 

Trew's Law would close this gap by introducing a mandatory, automatic and independent triage and review of an imprisoned officer's past casework, ensuring that responsibility for identifying potentially unsafe convictions lies with the state rather than those affected. 

The report proposes 5 key recommendations: 

• A statutory trigger 

Require an automatic review when a serving or former police officer receives an immediate custodial sentence. 

• Identification and triage 

Require police forces and the CPS to identify all finalised cases in which the imprisoned officer played a material role, including giving witness evidence or handling disclosure. 

• Independent oversight 

Establish independent oversight for all decisions regarding risk, disclosure, and notification to mitigate institutional bias. 

• Proactive notification and disclosure 

Require affected individuals to be notified and given disclosure where a material risk to conviction safety is identified, enabling timely access to legal advice. 

• Transparency 

Require annual Home Office reporting on the number of officers imprisoned, cases reviewed, and notifications issued. 

 

"When my convictions were finally quashed in 2019, it came after nearly fifty years of fighting to clear my name. No one should have to spend decades uncovering the truth about police wrongdoing. Justice shouldn't depend on luck, or on victims fighting for years to expose miscarriages of justice. Trew's Law would place responsibility where it belongs: with the state." 

Winston Trew, member of the Oval Four 

"The British Transport Police have acknowledged that failing to review Ridgewell’s casework on his imprisonment was ‘simply inexcusable’, however when we began researching this issue, we were struck by how little exists in law today to prevent history from repeating itself. 

In many of the cases we examined, judges noted in sentencing remarks how officers had used their police position to facilitate serious offending - and yet, the decision to review their past cases remains discretionary, opaque, and unpredictable.

The burden of uncovering state wrongdoing should fall on the state, not on victims, who often lack the funds, legal resources, or access to investigate these cases themselves. A statutory duty would replace the existing discretionary system with mandatory post-conviction triage and review." 

Dr Joanna Gilmore, University of York 

"The Oval Four happened more than 50 years ago, yet even today it is far too common for the lives of innocent people to be completely ruined by convictions based on unchecked evidence from corrupt officers. What's more, the legal system lacks a process to review these convictions even when the police officers involved are themselves imprisoned. 

The UK's human rights obligations require moving beyond ad hoc, reactive appeals driven by victims. They demand proactive, institutional safeguards that identify and rectify miscarriages of justice automatically, ensuring scandals like the Ridgewell cases never happen again. The state must not only acknowledge past injustice; it must establish institutional safeguards to ensure non-repetition." 

Dr Mattia Pinto, University of York 

"The criminal justice system takes far too long to correct miscarriages of justice. In the case of the victims of Detective Sergeant Ridgewell and his squads, it has taken an eternity. I believe there are many more victims out there still. It's high time for Trew's Law so that officers that are doing harm who are imprisoned have their files investigated immediately to stop delay for those that have suffered enough". 

Matt Foot, APPEAL (Centre for Criminal Appeals) 

The report argues that public confidence in the criminal justice system depends on effective mechanisms to identify and correct wrongful convictions when serious police misconduct comes to light. Automatic reviews would provide a practical safeguard, ensuring that potential miscarriages of justice are identified promptly, independently and consistently. 

 

Read the Report and Support the Campaign 

Read the full report and learn more about Trew's Law: www.appeal.org.uk/trews-law 

Support the call for reform by signing the petition: https://you.38degrees.org.uk/p/trews-law 

Media Enquiries 

APPEAL
mail@appeal.org.uk 

Research Enquiries 

University of York 

Shelley.hughes@york.ac.uk  

Notes to Editors 

• APPEAL is a charity working to challenge wrongful convictions and create a fairer criminal justice system. 

• The report was produced by APPEAL in partnership with York Law School and the Centre for Applied Human Rights at the University of York. 

• The report’s authors were Dr Joanna Gilmore (University of York), Mya Imadojemun (APPEAL/University of York), and Dr Mattia Pinto (University of York). 

• Trew's Law calls for mandatory, automatic and independent reviews of cases involving police officers who are later imprisoned for serious offences, including corruption, dishonesty, abuse of position, violence and other misconduct capable of undermining the safety of convictions.