TIMELINE: KEY EVENTS IN THE LYNETTE WHITE CASE

1988 9pm, February 14, 1988: A friend of Lynette White goes to a police station in Cardiff expressing concern for the 20-year-old’s safety. Early hours of February 15: Police officers search prostitute Ms White’s flat in James Street, Butetown, and find her badly mutilated body in a bedroom. A major murder investigation is launched. December 7: Police arrest six men. December 9: Two more local men arrested. All nine suspects are interviewed at length by detectives. December 11: Police charge five men with Ms White’s murder – her boyfriend and pimp, Stephen Miller, Tony Paris, Yusef Abdullahi, John Actie and Ronald Actie. Following more than 19 interviews over 13 hours, Mr Miller “confesses” to police he had killed Ms White. It later transpires that Mr Miller has a mental age of 11. Police are also told that Mr Abdullahi was onboard a boat called the Coral Sea the weekend when Ms White was murdered. DNA is found at the scene – pathologists confirm it belongs to a man, but cannot say whom.

1989 October: Murder trial begins at Swansea Crown Court. However, the case is halted when the trial judge, Mr Justice McNeil, dies from a heart attack overnight.

1990 April: Second trial takes place. Jury returns guilty verdicts on Mr Miller, Mr Paris and Mr Abdullahi – who later become known as The Cardiff Three. The trio maintain their innocence and launch an appeal. John and Ronald Actie are cleared of murder.

1992 December: Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) quashes the convictions of The Cardiff Three.

1996 Mr Abdullahi gives an interview to the South Wales Echo saying that he was treated for post-traumatic stress disorder following his release from prison. He tells the newspaper: “Until it happens to you, no-one can have any idea what it’s like to be convicted for a murder you didn’t commit. We’ve been really messed up by what we’ve been through.”

1999 June: An independent review of the murder investigation is launched. It is led by two retired detectives with no links to South Wales Police.

2000 August: South Wales Police re-open Lynette White case – codenamed Operation Mistral. DNA samples from an unknown male found at the crime scene are re-examined. No match on the UK crime database is found.

2002 January: Advances in forensic science leads to the development of the Second Generation Multiplex Plus test. Police are finally able to obtain a reliable DNA profile with a match on the DNA database. It turns out the match belongs to a youth known to officers, who had not been born at the time of the murder. However, dogged police work later brings former security guard Jeffrey Gafoor to the attention of police.

2003 February 28: Gafoor, the uncle of the youth whose DNA profile was found, is arrested by police. He tries to kill himself and tells officers after his overdose: “I did kill Lynette White. I’ve been waiting for this for 15 years. Whatever happens to me I deserve. I sincerely hope I die.” March: Gafoor is charged with Ms White’s murder. July: Gafoor pleads guilty to Ms White’s murder. A number of officers who worked on the original investigation are arrested and interviewed. Police call the investigation Operation Rubicon. A judge later says “no doubt, that name was chosen quite deliberately since there would indeed be a ‘crossing of the Rubicon’ once police suspects were arrested”.

2009 March: The Special Crime Division of the Crown Prosecution Service charges three then-serving officers and 10 former officers involved in the original investigation with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. Two civilian witnesses who featured in the original trial are also charged with perjury. All deny the charges against them.

2011 January: Mr Abdullahi dies aged 49. July: Corruption trial begins at Swansea Crown Court. It features eight of the 13 officers charged, as the courtroom is not big enough to house all defendants and legal teams. The remaining five are scheduled to be tried the following year. December: Trial and connected legal proceedings are aborted after key documents go missing amid fears they had been destroyed. Crown admits the defendants could no longer have “confidence in the disclosure process”. It emerges the case has cost the taxpayer around £30 million. The missing files are later found in a storage facility, but by that time the case is over.

2015 February: Home Secretary Theresa May announces there will be a QC-led review into the collapse of the officers’ trial. October: Civil action case by 15 former police detectives arrested into the corruption case gets under way at Cardiff Civil Justice Centre. The case is overheard by one of Wales’ most senior and experienced judges, Mr Justice Wyn Williams. Their claims include a host of allegations including wrongful arrest and misfeasance in public office.

2016 June: Eight detectives who were cleared of attempting to pervert the course of justice in the original murder investigation see their civil case dismissed by Mr Justice Williams. Other claims are dismissed against seven other former police officers.

2017 July: Richard Horwell QC’s review into the collapse of the police officers’ trial is published and finds it fell apart “because of human errors by the police and Crown Prosecution Service rather than a deliberate attempt to cover up any crime”. His report makes 17 recommendations – 14 for the police and three for the CPS – to improve the process of disclosure of evidence.