It became Britain’s longest running murder trial and sparked a freedom campaign that went around the world. Now the wrongful conviction of three innocent Welsh men and the true story of how the real killer was caught is the basis for a landmark documentary series from BBC Cymru Wales and BBC Two.
Diving deep into the Lynette White murder investigation, A Killing in Tiger Bay examines the wrongful arrest and trial of the so-called ‘Cardiff Five’ which would eventually lead to the UK’s biggest ever police corruption case and will broadcast in Spring 2021.
When 20-year-old Lynette White was brutally murdered in Cardiff’s docklands – the once world-famous Tiger Bay – on Valentine’s Day in 1988, it rocked the capital to its core. Eye witnesses placed a white man covered in blood at the crime scene. Ten months later, five young black men were arrested and charged. They were innocent.
A Killing in Tiger Bay shines a light on the 30-year scandal, the countless lives it ruined, the DNA breakthrough which exposed the real killer and the bitter fight for justice and accountability that has now lasted three decades.
From the team that bought you the popular podcast series Shreds: Murder in the Dock, the new series will tell the tale like never before. With a wealth of archive footage, the exclusive testimony to the three surviving members of the Cardiff Five, plus interviews with justice campaigners, legal teams, witnesses and police, the three-part series lays bare the dizzying twists and turns of one of the most unbelievable cases the UK has ever seen.
BBC Cymru Wales Head of Commissioning Nick Andrews said: “This is a hugely significant story not just for Wales but for the UK as a whole. In three decades the events and aftermath of that appalling night have never been properly told or explored in full and this series represents a huge opportunity to finally do just that. It’s a testament to the team behind it that so many of those involved in this incredible and shocking story have trusted us to tell it in this way”.
