racist police officer may have framed 100 innocent people

DS Derek Ridgewell died in prison after framing 13 innocent victims and may have fixed up dozens more (Picture: Mirrorpix)

A police officer known to have framed at least 13 Londoners may have set up more than 100 innocent victims.

DS Derek Ridgewell targeted mostly black people in the 1970s,who he falsely accused of robbery and beat up if they tried to resist arrest,before fabricating a semi-confession and lying on oath so they would be convicted.

The corrupt British Transport Police officer died aged 37 in jail in 1982.

However detectives believe dozens more innocent people may have been subject to abuse by the prolific offender,with up to 18 more officers potentially implicated.

Graham Satchwell,a former detective said it was ‘most probable’ that more than 100 of Ridgewell’s victims were still awaiting justice.

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Start your day informed with Metro's News Updates newsletter or get Breaking News alerts the moment it happens.The author of Rot at the Core,which investigates the Ridgewell scandal,told the Mirror that victims and their family members should now be able to speak confidentially about their ordeal.Co-writer Winston Trew,who managed to clear his name at the Court of Appeal in 2019,said Ridgewell had ‘done untold damage’,ruining victims’ lives and tearing apart families.‘People should come forward to expose this man’,he added.Paul Green and Cleveland Davidson,who were both part of the Stockwell Six falsely accused of robbery by Ridgewell by Stockwell Station (Picture: PA)Mr Trew was arrested by Ridgewell along with the ‘Oval four’ underground station in South London in 1972.The quartet was beaten by officers and served eight months in jail for assaulting an officer.Their convictions were only overturned 47 years later.Despite a 1973 BBC Nationwide film showing Ridgewell as a corrupt officer who deliberately supplied false testimony to get his victims convicted,he was given a job investigating across the nation at head office,where he continued to frame innocent people for another five years.Mr Satchwell’s book reveals that Ridgewell was even commended by senior officers for his work,including after he detained 77 people,mostly Turkish and Nigerian nationals at the Bricklayers Arms Goods Depot in Southwark.Errol Campbell Jr (left),the son of Ridgewell victim Errol Campbell Sr,with solicitor Matt Foot outside the Royal Courts of Justice (Picture: PA)Ridgewell,DC Douglas Ellis and DC Alan Keeling all admitted to stealing from the building while setting up staff.Other groups targeted by Ridgewell became known as the Stockwell Six,the Tottenham Court Road Two and the Waterloo Four.A total of 13 have had their fabricated crimes written off in court.Ridgewell was eventually handed a seven-year jail sentence after being convicted of stealing £1million of goods.He was found to have split earnings from stolen mail bags with criminal groups.Matt Foot,a lawyer from the charity Appeal said Ridgewell ‘set off a nationwide moral panic’ in which he branded innocent black men as muggers.