In 1988, three Welshmen, Yusef Abdullahi, Steven Miller and Tony Paris became known in the media as the “Cardiff Three”. Why? Because they were wrongly convicted for the especially gruesome murder of a 20 year old woman named Lynette White, a prostitute working in Caerdydd (Cardiff).
Who Were the “Cardiff Three”?
They were found guilty on 22 November 1990 and sentenced to life in prison after Steven Miller, White’s pimp who shared an apartment with her, confessed to the murder after 307 denials. He also indicted Paris, someone with a minor history of shoplifting and a car fine but known to the police as notoriously non-violent, and Abdullahi. The manner in which this confession was obtained, however, would be questioned as it was found that detectives in the case conducted themselves oppressively in order to achieve it.
In 1992, the convictions were overturned and the Cardiff Three were free. However, the damage had been done and two years in prison for a crime they did not commit would take its toll. For example, Tony Paris lost his father a few weeks before his freedom. This time in prison could have been spent with him. Yusef Abdullahi, who passed away in 2011 aged just 49, especially struggled with life after his wrongful conviction and declared in 1996 that “we needed counselling, but no-one offered us any help. Being inside really did my head in.”
Despite the release of the Cardiff Three, the murderer would go on walking as a free man. The case would not reopen until 2000. The police would arrest the actual murderer in 2003, through the method of familial DNA searching. DNA found at the crime scene traced to a 14-year old boy who would not have been born at the time of the crime scene. This led the police to the boy’s uncle and real murderer, Jeffrey Gafoor. Though imprisoned for life, he was released last year after 21 years in prison. I’ll let you have your say on that.
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Niklas is the founder, owner, manager, editor, writer, video creator, voice over artist, and so forth, of Welsh Histories. He is passionate about the preservation of Welsh culture; the rejuvenation of the Welsh language and the promotion of Welsh history. Niklas currently resides in Pune, Maharashtra, with his beloved wife.