"After 11 Years Wrongfully Imprisoned for Murder, I’m Still Searching for the True Culprit 40 Years Later"

A DAD who spent 11 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit in one of Britain’s worst miscarriages of justice is urging cops to re-open the case and find the real killer.

Michael O’Brien was just 19 when cops arrested him and pals Ellis Sherwood and Darren Hall after newsagent Phillip Saunders was battered to death with a shovel in 1987.

Dad-of-four Michael O’Brien, jailed for 11 years in a major miscarriage of justice, spoke to The Sun this weekCredit: Athena Cardiff newsagent Phillip Saunders was murdered in 1987 – and his killer never caughtCredit: PA:Press Association The Cardiff Newsagent Three – Ellis Sherwood (left), Michael (centre) and Darren HallCredit: Alamy

All three men were jailed for life – but then 11 years later in 1999 they were exonerated, becoming known as the “Cardiff Newsagent Three”.

The original convictions were based on a false confession from Hall.

The Court of Appeal quashed their convictions, and Michael was later given an out-of-court settlement of £300,000 by South Wales Police.

It was the biggest pay out by an English or Welsh police force.

But now – nearly 40 years on from the original murder, dad-of-four Michael is calling for the case to be reopened.

Mr Saunders’ true killer has never been caught, despite an “extensive” reinvestigation by police.

The 58-year-old who ran multiple kiosks, including at Cardiff Central bus station, was attacked in his back garden on the night of October 12 1987 – and died five days later in hospital.

On the evening of the fatal attack, Mr Saunders collected the £500 kiosk takings, went for a pint, then headed home.

He was then fatally attacked with a shovel.

Michael, now 58, told The Sun: “My primary objective is getting the people who did this in prison.

“The true victims in all of this are Phillip Saunders and his family – let’s not lose sight of that.

“Of course, I want to find out who ruined my life, but I’m a secondary victim.”

Michael even had the chance to meet Mr Saunders’ sister Phoebe and nephew David in a café in Cardiff as his campaign ramps up.

And he now even keeps a picture of them by his front door to remind him of the what is at stake in the case – justice for the Saunders family.

“It was amazing, very emotional,” he said. “There’s not a day goes by that I don’t think about them.

“I always wanted to meet them and tell them I didn’t do this. It was a very important and emotional moment.

“Looking into their eyes, you could see the pain they were going through.”

Michael with a photo of Phoebe and David he has by his front doorCredit: Athena Michael celebrating his release from prison in 1998Credit: SWNS Michael with his mum and son Kyle on his first Christmas after being released from prisonCredit: SWNS

Michael, as well as Darren and Ellis, were convicted largely based on Darren’s confession, in which he claimed he had acted as a lookout for the others during a “robbery that went wrong”.

However, when the Criminal Cases Review Commission ordered an appeal, the unreliability of the confession was emphasised.

Darren was suffering from antisocial personality disorder and had later retracted the statement – and there was never any forensic evidence tying the three friends to the scene.

Instead, they three young men had been out stealing a white Cortina at the time, and were three miles away when the attack occurred just before 11.20pm.

Michael was bewildered as he was hauled down to the station after his arrest on the morning of November 1 1987.

They’d smashed into his house while he was asleep on a makeshift bed with his wife and baby son Kyle and told he was suspected of the murder – to which he responded: “Who the f***ing hell is Phillip Saunders?”

He said part of his downfall was how honest he was with the police, admitting he’d bought a watch from the victim a couple of years before which the newsagent had refused to refund.

Michael explained: “Because the interaction was a bad one, that was apparently a motivation for murder. What, over a £10 watch – are you serious?”

Sue O’Brien, Michael’s sister, led the Cardiff Newsagent Three campaignCredit: Alamy Michael with his oldest son Kyle, who was a baby when he was jailedCredit: SWNS Family of the Three – Jenny Sherwood, Marlene O’Brien and Dennis HallCredit: Alamy

While he was waiting for trial, Michael’s baby daughter Kylie had been born and died aged just three months.

“I went to the in handcuffs – I was treated like Reggie Kray,” he said.

The trio were then convicted and jailed for life in 1988.

Describing his time inside, Michael said: “I didn’t have it easy.

“There’s a lot of drugs in prison, I went down them roads.”

He even began making his own “prison hooch”, adding: “I didn’t care if I lived or died at that time, I couldn’t cope with it.”

However, he eventually pulled himself “out of the mire”, teaching himself to read and write properly, before studying law.

Michael said: “The only person who was going to get me out of prison was me.”

He would write 70 letters a week to MPs and journalists “without fail”.

Michael would go on to change the law seven times, including a landmark 1999 House of Lords judgement which established that a prisoner has a right to oral interviews with journalists to investigate a potential miscarriage of justice.

Michael is campaigning for the police to re-open the murder caseCredit: SWNS Ellis, pictured around the time he was arrestedCredit: SWNS Michael celebrates as he arrives back home in Cardiff after being released from prison on bailCredit: Alamy

The Criminal Cases Review Commission would eventually order a review of South Wales Police in relation to Mr Saunders’ death.

Conducted by Thames Valley Police, the 1998 review was a turning point for Michael, Ellis and Darren, uncovering over 100 breaches of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act by the force during the Cardiff Newsagent Three murder .

The report was so “damning”, the trio were all released on bail two days before that same year.

On December 17 1999 the officially quashed the three men’s convictions – and in October 2006 Michael was given £300,000 in an out of court settlement.

He had got divorced from his first wife during his time in prison – but said the support of his late mum Marlene and sister Sue was “my beacon of hope”.

He would later remarry and sadly suffered further heartbreak when his son Dylan died from a genetic condition in 2012, aged two – and it put irreparable strain on the .

He currently lives with son Dainton, 14, while eldest son, Kyle, just a baby when he was arrested, is now 39.

Michael said: “I have learned to live with what happened to me but you never get over it. There’s been too much.”

A spokesperson for South Wales Police said an “extensive” re-investigation took place in 2003 but found “no further evidence” that implicated anyone to the murder.

They added that in 2020, the Chief Constable reinforced the constabulary’s position that Michael “was the subject of a wrongful conviction, arising from a miscarriage of justice”.

For Michael’s petition see here.

Do you know more? Email ryan.merrifield@thesun.co.uk

Michael outside the High Court in London before he was officially exoneratedCredit: Alamy Michael still suffers from the trauma of what he experienced – but considers himself a secondary victimCredit: Athena