Cleared too late: tragic pair fitted up by Britain's most bent cop 46yrs ago

TWO rail workers fitted up by Britain's most corrupt police officer over a robbery 46 years ago were finally cleared yesterday.

- DAN WARBURTON

The families of Basil Peterkin and Saliah Mehmet wept as the Court of Appeal quashed their convictions.

They were jailed for nine months in 1977 for a £30,000 rail depot robbery on the evidence of British Transport Police Det Sgt Derek Ridgewell. The bent officer's lies put at least 11 innocent men behind bars, the Criminal Case FAI Review Commission said.

Relatives Saliah and Basil went to their graves as guilty men but their families said: "Finally we have justice.