De Souza, Ronald

Ronald De Souza was convicted on 22 September 1972 at the Central Criminal Court of attempted robbery and received a sentence of six months’ detention. Mr De Souza and his four convicted co-defendants appealed their convictions and sentences. On 2 March 1973, leave to appeal conviction and sentence was refused. 

Mr De Souza was one of a group of young black men arrested by DS Derek Ridgewell of the British Transport Police anti-mugging squad after boarding a train at Stockwell Underground station on 18 February 1972. The CCRC carried out a range of investigations into the historical racist and corrupt practices of DS Ridgewell, who fabricated evidence that led to convictions that lasted long after his death in 1982. 

The CCRC began its review of the Stockwell Six cases after it referred two other cases involving DS Ridgewell: Stephen Simmons and the Oval Four. The Court of Appeal quashed the convictions in both of these cases.   

Following CCRC referrals, the convictions of Mr De Souza’s co-defendants (Mr Paul Green, Mr Courtney Harriott, Mr Cleveland Davison and Mr Texo Johnson) were overturned by the Court of Appeal in 2021. Mr Everet Mullins, the sixth co-defendant, was found not guilty at trial. 

The convictions were overturned on the basis of new information rendering the evidence of DS Ridgewell and his colleagues unreliable.  

The CCRC had previously appealed for Mr De Souza to come forward. An application for a review of Mr De Souza’s conviction was received in December 2024. Following this, the CCRC decided to refer the conviction to the Court of Appeal. 

The referral was made on the same basis as those of Mr De Souza’s co-defendants, namely new evidence relating to DS Ridgewell’s conviction in 1980 for conspiracy to steal goods in transit. 

The CCRC relied on the two judgments of the Court of Appeal in 2021 which led to the quashing of the convictions of Mr De Souza’s co-defendants (R v Green et al [2021] EWCA Crim 1026 and R v Johnson [2021] EWCA Crim 1837).  

The CCRC concluded that the Court of Appeal was likely to take the same approach to Mr De Souza’s conviction as it did for his co-defendant Mr Johnson, his case also being ‘materially indistinguishable’ from those of his co-defendants and other related convictions overturned by the Court of Appeal.   

Therefore, there was a real possibility the Court of Appeal would quash Mr De Souza’s conviction. 

The CCRC referred the conviction in January 2025.