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Gary Mills and Tony Poole

Fighting Police Corruption

Gary Mills and Tony Poole, two Gloucester men, were fighting their third appeal last week. Since 1989 they have been campaigning to force the justice system to admit that they were wrongly convicted of the murder of Hensley Wiltshire, a black man who died in Gloucester police custody.

Chris Moore

This case, a combination of a wrongful conviction and a death in custody, was always going to be a hard struggle because police officers never face murder or even manslaughter charges for deaths in custody.

But if Gary and Tony didn't kill Hensley, what happened in the police cells that caused his death? A statement from a prisoner in the cells was hidden from the defence team for six years. He heard a struggle with racist abuse. Police claim 'his head gently tapped against the cell wall'; photos later revealed blood everywhere.

Earlier Hensley had attacked Gary with a knife and was injured with his own weapon. The hospital described the wounds as 'superficial'. He left hospital into police custody. He died the next day with 60% more injuries, including a broken leg, three broken ribs and numerous gashes. Tony took no part in the fight. He was charged because he wouldn't lie to convict Gary.

A leading officer, DI Gladding, was also taped threatening another witness with murder charges if he gave evidence; he later lost a libel case with the TV programme Trial and Error.

A previous appeal found that police had falsified statements, lied and encouraged witnesses to lie but then concluded that this would not have affected the decision of the original jury. However, the Lord Chief Justice has now been forced to admit that a jury would have been 'deeply influenced'.

Corruption is everywhere in this case. The only evidence left is that of one witness. She changed her statements several times, had fraud and drug charges overlooked, was involved with Fred and Rose West and was paid money on the orders of a police officer. He was later officially honoured for his police work.

As Gary says: "This is another case that shows the police are not accountable. The authorities knew we were innocent from day one. Our conviction was there to cover up the criminal behaviour of the police."

This case, like thousands of others, shows the police must be under the democratic control of the community, accountable to those they are supposed to serve. Corrupt officers must be prosecuted, and any inquiry into police corruption must be truly independent.

Write to Gary Mills (WM 0469) at HMP Springhill, Grendon Underwood, Aylesbury, Bucks

And Tony Poole (WM 1030), HMP Shepton Mallet, Cornhill, Shepton Mallet, Somerset BA4 5LU.

Student Protesters Charged

"It's difficult to put into words how horrified I was by what I saw in Catford that Thursday. I've always felt safer on seeing a police officer but I doubt I'll ever feel like that again. Now seeing a riot van speeding past I worry about what mayhem they are going to cause and violence they are going to inflict on the very people they are supposedly meant to protect. On that bus I saw more violence than I've ever seen in my life. Violence, in my opinion, entirely and needlessly caused by the police", said eyewitness Jo Sachs-Eldridge.

An ISR member

On Day X, the day the war in Iraq started, Jo Sachs-Eldridge was one of more than 30 school students held hostage on a 185 bus outside Catford town hall by the police.

The students were making their way to Parliament Square to join thousands of other young people protesting against the war in Iraq.

The police stopped the bus and started to take the details of every student at the same time as they started to ask other passengers to leave the bus and obstructed school students who wanted to do the same.

When we questioned the police they seemed very concerned about the truancy laws and had decided that would be the best way to prevent further anti-war action by youth. We waited patiently for this harassment to stop and for the bus to take us to Parliament Square.

After 30 minutes riot vans arrived; more police entered the bus and physically attacked everyone who didn't look like a school student. Shouting that the students needed their parents' permission to be out of school, they violently arrested two parents, leaving their son alone on a bus surrounded by police.

In total six people were arrested that day, three were taken into the police station and were held for up to 12 hours before being released.

The official police story is that the anti-war protesters had started intimidating police and had organised a riot.

The police are charging Ren, Marcella and Karl, the international co-ordinator of International Socialist Resistance (ISR).

Charges include 'assault resisting arrest', affray and 'ABH resisting arrest'. ISR is mounting a defence campaign against these charges, against police harassment and violence and will continue to fight for the right of school students and students to strike.