In a statement read out by his solicitor, Matt Foot, Errol Campbell Jr, the son of Errol Campbell, said: “The British Transport Police knew that Detective Sergeant Derek Ridgewell was corrupt, and they let him carry on regardless with what he was doing.
“My dad always said he was innocent, and today, that’s finally been confirmed, almost 50 years later.
“He came to England in the Windrush generation and worked for years for British Rail. The conviction caused absolute misery to my dad and our family.
“I’m angry that Ridgewell is not alive for this day and that he never went to prison for all the people he fitted up. He never answered for his crimes.”
Mr Foot added that the law should be changed so that cases overseen by police officers who were later jailed for crimes were automatically reviewed for potential miscarriages of justice.
“If that had happened, that would have saved more than 45 years of misery for the Campbell family,” he said.
Mr Foot also called on BTP to name those who “harboured” Ridgewell, claiming it was “no secret” in the 1970s that the officer was “racist and corrupt”.
He added that there were “bound to be others” who were victims of miscarriages of justice.
