Category : Wales
Date : 27.04.2004
Printable version
An Assembly
Member has called on a Welsh council to come clean about the cost of
a legal case that took two years to reach court and could have cost
the taxpayer hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Tonight, 91Èȱ¬ Wales' award-winning current affairs programme Taro
Naw features exclusive interviews in which the Ceredigion men involved
in the case claim their lives have been devastated by the whole episode.
It follows the collapse of a high-profile conspiracy case, where Ceredigion
Council thought that it had uncovered a huge conspiracy to sell illegally
slaughtered and unfit meat to the public.
Ceredigion Council charged Peter Maguigan, Colin Patterson and a third
defendant who cannot be named, with conspiring to supply unfit meat
to the public following a raid on a premises near Aberystwyth in 2002.
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The local council had argued that the meat found at
Ty'n Parc had been slaughtered illegally and was unfit for human consumption.
When the case came to Swansea Crown Court two years later, in February
2004, it came to light that the council had been in possession of documents
proving that the meat had been legally slaughtered at Oriel Jones' abattoir.
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In addition, a report for the defence by Mr Stephen
Lomax, a vet who is also a barrister, declared the meat perfectly fit
for human consumption.
Peter Magugian, a senior meat hygiene inspector, remains suspended from
his work despite having his name cleared in court.
The owner of the meat, Colin Patterson, from Ffostrasol in Ceredigion,
speaks for the first time about the effect the case has had on his meat-trading
business.
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Since recording his interview for the programme he
has emigrated to Buenos Aires to work in the meat industry.
"They have affected my business because of what they've been saying
to people in London, and that's why I want to move," he says.
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"I've had enough here. I haven't got the heart
to do this business now in this country so that's why I'm going out
to work in Buenos Aires.
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"I lost a lot of business
and I lost a lot of money because I was going to London to collect the
money.
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"When I went there, they were saying, 'We're not
paying you because your meat hasn't been killed in a proper place',
all because what the police had told them."
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Former Ceredigion County Councillor Dafydd Raw-Rees,
who rented out Ty'n Parc, the premises where the meat was being stored,
also speaks to the programme.
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He was arrested as part of the investigation but never
charged.
Mr Raw-Rees tells the programme that he has suffered from depression
and faces financial ruin due to the adverse publicity created by the
investigation.
"I was being portrayed in a very bad light," he tells Taro
Naw.
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"It would be true to say that this has destroyed
the business I had... The effect on the public who bought the food was
terrible and everyone I dealt with was suspicious of what I had to sell.
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"Faith in what you eat is
all important; once that faith is rocked it's very difficult for anyone
to change their opinion. They think what they want to think, and most
people want to believe the worst."
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When the case went to Swansea Crown Court in February,
the defendants were cleared after the prosecution decided to abandon
the case.
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The council has stood by its decision to investigate,
stating that "the allegations were in connection with serious criminal
conduct which had the potential to cause significant harm to public
health and the meat industry".
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Now the Conservative Assembly Member Glyn Davies has
called on Ceredigion County Council to come clean about the cost of
the case to taxpayers, which could run into hundreds of thousands.
Taro Naw, Tuesday 27 April, 91Èȱ¬ Wales on S4C, 8.25pm
