Michael O'Brien, wrongly jailed for 11 years for the 1987 murder of Cardiff newsagent Phillip Saunders, says he won’t rest until the real killer is found.
Now 57, O'Brien was convicted despite no forensic evidence and later acquitted in 1999.
He still suffers from PTSD and campaigns for justice.
Following the release of Peter Sullivan after 38 years, O'Brien renewed calls for accountability and support for victims of miscarriages of justice.
Now 57, O'Brien was convicted despite no forensic evidence and later acquitted in 1999.
He still suffers from PTSD and campaigns for justice.
Following the release of Peter Sullivan after 38 years, O'Brien renewed calls for accountability and support for victims of miscarriages of justice.
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00:00My name is Michael O'Brien. I was one of the Cardiff News Agent 3. I was wrongly convicted of a
00:26murder of a Cardiff News Agent in 1987 together with my two co-cues, Ellis Sherwood and Darren
00:31Hall. We spent 11 years and 43 days in prison and we're still looking for the real killer.
00:49I was involved in petty crime. We were out trying to steal cars on a night in question. Joyriding as
00:54they called it in those days, you know. I never fitted in in school. I never fitted in anywhere else.
00:59The little skinny kid with the glasses come from a poor background and I just wanted to fit in and I
01:05went along with this and we were in the wrong place at the wrong time, I would say. We wasn't at the
01:10murder scene at the exact time but we had passed near there, you know, about half an hour before.
01:16At the time of the murder, we were three miles, actually three miles away from the murder scene
01:21and the evidence they used against us was a serious criminals who were in serious trouble with the
01:26police at the time with long criminal records who had something to gain by giving false evidence.
01:32There was never no forensic evidence linking us to the crime because we didn't do it. I didn't know
01:36him as such. Just knew him as that he was the news agent man. I realised that we was afterwards
01:41when the police brought it to my attention. My wife brought me a watch off him and that it was a
01:45£10 watch. It was for my birthday and it didn't work and I told the police this, you know what I mean,
01:52that was the only thing I can remember of this man and they tried to say that that was a motive for
01:58killing him. I was absolutely shocked, horrified. I thought they can't be serious. I thought this,
02:08what are you arresting me for? I know, I knew I was out on a lighting question, trying to steal a car,
02:12but I think murder? I thought they must be mad. You know what I mean? And I thought they've got it
02:18wrong. Well, this will be sorted out in no time, I thought. I did think a lot of the police in those
02:23days. I did think the police, you know, done their job and only guilty people went to prison. You know what
02:28I mean? I was very naive in that regard. So, you know, I had a lot of faith in the police and I thought,
02:34they just made a mistake. When a certain police officer made up a confession outside the cells saying me and my
02:40co-workers, Ellis Sherwood, actually confessed to the crime and jotted down a note on an expenses form,
02:48I knew then that the police were trying to frame me for the murder. I mean, I had to,
02:52you know, stark reality hit me and I was just so mortified. I was suicidal. I was suicidal,
03:00you know, and I went into, I remember going my first night in Cardiff prison and I just,
03:05I wasn't cut out for prison. I just couldn't deal with it. You know, it was just such a shock to my
03:10system that, you know, I've still got some scars on my arms here where I've tried to cut myself,
03:16it was a cry for help. You know what I mean? I didn't know what to do. I didn't know where to turn to.
03:22It was, it was just, it's your worst nightmare being wrongly accused of something you haven't done.
03:26I thought, I thought, I thought there was a possibility we would get found not guilty because
03:30I knew we hadn't done it. I knew my co-workers, dad and all had done it. He was with us on the 19
03:35question. So I know he couldn't have done the murder and I couldn't work out why he was saying
03:39he was part of it when he couldn't have. It was impossible.
03:4720th of July 1988, I'll never forget that day as long as I live,
03:52the jury came back and said, you know, the judge asked, was it unanimous or a majority? And they
04:00said it was a majority of 10 to 2. So two jury members believed we didn't do it, even though
04:04Darren Hall said he'd done it, which is extraordinary when you think about it. They must have believed
04:09that what we were saying was true. But nevertheless, we got found guilty. I remember Sir Michael Davis,
04:16the judge at the time saying, you've had every opportunity through your lawyers and through the
04:21courts to present your case. In my view, you've been found guilty, rightly so in my view.
04:27I remember the priest coming over to me saying, you've got a special visit. I think you'd better
04:41sit down or my solicitor come in. I said, what's going on? You know you had a bad feeling in your
04:46stomach. I had a bad feeling that something was about to occur and I didn't know what it was.
04:51I was hoping it was new evidence to clear our names. You know, that was the first thing I
04:54got on my mind. And when I seen the tone of my lawyer, the way he qualked and said,
04:58I think you'd better sit down. I knew it was bad. And he said, listen, I've got to tell you this.
05:04And he said, I don't know what to tell you, but your baby daughter died this morning.
05:08I just went white and I just started crying. I just, what is happening to me? You know,
05:13I'm in prison for something I haven't done. My child has died. A couple of weeks later,
05:19my wife walks out on me. I'd lost everything.
05:34The fight back began. I started studying law and oh my god, I took to her like a duck to water.
05:41Prison authorities knew I was having visits from journalists and they banned the journalists
05:46from coming to see me. So I looked through the law books and said, well, what about article 10,
05:52the right to free speech? Prisoners maintain all their civil rights in prison unless parliament
05:56have expressly taken them away from them. Raymond versus Honey in 1983. So I started quoting them
06:02the governors, the law, but they were going, no, no, no, no, no. You can't have journalists.
06:06I took them all the way to the House of Lords and the House of Lords said I was right. I made legal history.
06:10I knew Jeremy Bamber more than what I knew Charlie Bronson. One of the prison officers tried to bully me
06:16was treating me really badly and Charlie overheard him and he said, if you've got a problem with me,
06:22then you've got a problem with me as well. And he stuck up for me and you know, the prison officer
06:27backed down. I was told by probation because I was protesting my innocence that I was going to die in
06:33prison. And I said, well, so be it. I'm not interested in parole. And I wrote to the newspapers at the time,
06:39saying, I don't want parole. I want justice. About 92, there was a new government which come in.
06:43I think it was John Major. There was a Royal Commission which was set up to look at miscarriages
06:48of justices in the wake of the Birmingham Six case. In 91, when they got out, the National
06:54Association of Basin Officers done a report on 50 cases they believed warranted further investigation.
07:00Mine was in there. We coordinated the hunger striking in the prison where there was 20 people in
07:05Long Larton on Ungerstride protesting their innocence. There was 15 in Gartree. There was 12 in Cardiff.
07:10There was a number, you know, and it went all around the country. It's the first time it's ever
07:13been coordinated. And we managed to get quite a lot of publicity on Radio 4. There was journalists
07:18writing to us and they done a couple of documentaries. They investigated the case. But the big breakthrough
07:24came in 95 when BBC, week in, week out, got in touch after I wrote them a letter. All the witnesses
07:31retracted their evidence and admitted the police. The police put them up to doing it. They were in
07:36serious trouble with the police. Their charges dropped and they explained all that as well.
07:40Darren Hall then went on national television on BBC Two's Homeground series apologising to me and Ellis
07:47Sherwood for what he did, his role in getting us wrongly convicted. We found out the police officer
07:53who made up the confession outside the cells has done it in numerous cases before. It was a year later that the
07:59the criminal cases review commission was set up to look at miscarriages of justices and everything
08:04I had said about what the police had done, they proved it. And they said that we were innocent.
08:12It was then I knew we were going home.
08:16I can remember the case being referred back to the Court of Appeal on October the 28th.
08:20We got bailed three days before Christmas, 1998. Even when you come out, you know, it's not a bed
08:27of roses, you know. We suffer a lot of psychological damage, you know. I'm still suffering a lot of
08:32psychological damage now. I'm still seeing a psychiatrist, you know, 25 years since I've been
08:38released. The real killers are still out there. I want the real killer court. There is evidence out there.
08:43There is a suspect out there. I want to know who done this to them, but I also want to know who done this to me.
08:49Was there any positives which kind of my wrongful imprisonment? Yes, there was. There was.
08:58One, I wouldn't have educated myself. Two, I wouldn't have learned to read the mic properly. I
09:03certainly wouldn't have changed it all six or seven times like I have done. I wouldn't have gone to
09:07college. I wouldn't have got my A-levels in law. And I certainly wouldn't have wrote two award-winning
09:11books. So I've got to take that as some sort of comfort for what's happened to me. But I can't take
09:18no comfort in the fact that I've got nobody responsible for the murder of Philip Saunders
09:24and for the victim's family. There is no comfort for them.
09:34people alone.
09:36Ensure that being experienced.
09:44is
09:48a