25 March 2020
All of the Oval Four have now had their names cleared after they were convicted following arrest by a corrupt police officer.
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"A black man who was jailed for a crime he did not commit has had his conviction quashed almost 50 years after being arrested by a corrupt police officer.
Omar Boucher is the last member of the Oval Four to be formally cleared of trying to steal handbags, amid calls for a review of other cases led by the same officer.
They were arrested at Oval underground station in London in 1972 by an undercover police unit who accused them of stealing handbags.
The unit was run by Detective Sergeant Derek Ridgewell, who had previously served in the South Rhodesian (now Zimbabwean) police force, and was involved in a number of high-profile and controversial cases in the early 1970s."
UK: Oval Four: Black man framed by corrupt police officer at London Tube station cleared 48 years later (The Independent, link)
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