Central Park Five’s story laid bare in When They See Us on Netflix

The four-part Netflix series Whey They See Us looks at the real life story of the Central Park Five — the five boys arrested, charged and imprisoned over the savage attack and rape of a female jogger. Years later it was discovered they didn’t do it.

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I wasn’t yet a teenager when this horrific crime took place, but I still remember hearing about it, an ocean away, such was the frenzy that surrounded it.

It wasn’t a mass shooting or a terror attack (at least not in the way that we relate to this term these days), but it was a savage attack. But it’s not known so much for the victim in this case — her name you sadly might not remember — or even for the brutality she endured. It is known for the five boys who were arrested, charged and imprisoned for the crime.

You will almost certainly have heard of their collective name: The Central Park Five.

Marquis Rodriguez as a young Raymond Santana in a scene from When They See Us. Picture: Atsushi Nishijima/Netflix

Trisha Meili, a 28-year-old investment banker, was beaten and raped while jogging through the park one evening in 1989. She was found close to death and doctors initially thought she wouldn’t pull through so severe were her injuries.

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Five young black and Latino teenagers were rounded up and interrogated by overzealous detectives and a prosecutor on the war path.

Four eventually gave confessions believing it was their only way of getting out of the nightmare they found themselves in.

The teenagers — Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana Jr and Korey Wise — were all tried for the crime and found guilty.

Asante Blackk as young Kevin Richardson in When They See Us. Picture: Atsushi Nishijima/Netflix

There was no matching blood or fingerprint and the only physical “evidence” the prosecution had was an expert testifying that a hair found at the scene was “similar” to one of the boys.

Still, they were sentenced to between five and 15 years in jail for the violent crime.

It wasn’t until 2002 that the Central Park Five were exonerated when a convicted killer and rapist, Matias Reyes, confessed to the crime — and to committing it alone. By this time DNA evidence was a thing and it matched.

Vera Farmiga as Elizabeth Lederer, left, and Alex Breaux as Tim Clements in When They See Us. Picture: Atsushi Nishijima/Netflix

Renowned director Ava DuVernay, who received Academy Award nominations for Selma (2014) and documentary 13th (2016), explores the Central Park Five case in When They See Us, a drama based on those events on 1989 and in the years that followed.

It is a powerful look at how the five men came up against a system that was against them from the beginning and continued to be for years afterwards.

This is a compelling series, told in four parts, but it is also a mind-blowingly frustrating story that will have you pulling your hair out and shouting at everyone in front of you.

You’d like to think things have changed since 1989, but have they really?

* When They See Us is streaming on Netflix