The family of a man wrongly convicted of murder have received a police apology for the “terrible suffering” the miscarriage of justice caused, 70 years after he was executed in a British prison.
Mahmood Mattan, a British Somali father of three, was hanged aged 28 in September 1952 after being convicted of murdering Lily Volpert in her clothes shop in Cardiff. He protested his innocence to the end.
However, in 1998 after a tireless campaign by his family, his conviction was the first referral by the Criminal Cases Review Commission to be overturned at the appeal court.
South Wales Police Chief Constable Jeremy Vaughan said: “This is a case most of its time – racism, prejudice and prejudice would have been prevalent throughout society, including the criminal justice system.
“There is no doubt that Mahmood Mattan was the victim of a miscarriage of justice as a result of a flawed prosecution, of which the police were clearly a part.”
Detectives from Cardiff City Police, now part of South Wales Police, investigated the murder of Volpert, 41, who had his throat slashed in the local shop of the docks in March 1952.
Vaughan said that while the investigation “predates the formation of South Wales Police”, he added: “It is right and proper that an apology be made on behalf of the police for what went so wrong in this case 70 years ago and for the terrible suffering of Mr. Mattan’s family and all those affected by this tragedy for many years.
“Even to this day, we continue to work hard to ensure that racism and prejudice are eradicated from society and the police.”
Mattan’s wife Laura and three sons David, Omar and Mervyn, also known as Eddie, campaigned for 46 years to have his name cleared, but all have since died.
Tanya Mattan, a granddaughter of Mattan, told the BBC that the apology was “too late for the people directly affected as they are no longer with us and yet we still haven’t heard the words that I am/ We are sorry”.
Mattan, a former sailor originally from Hargeisa in what was then known as British Somaliland, was arrested a few hours after Volpert’s murder.
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He was charged and convicted by an all-white jury in a three-day trial in Swansea.
This was despite the fact that there was no forensic evidence and Mattan had his alibi backed up by witnesses.
Mattan spoke very little English and during the trial his own defense lawyer described him as a “semi-civilized savage”.
The Mattan family received compensation from the Home Office in 2001, but have so far received no apology from the police.