46 years ago on this
day, 3 British policemen, Detective Sergeant Chris Head, Temporary Detective
Constable David Wombwell and PC Geoff Fox were gunned down in Braybrook Street,
Shepherds Bush, London. In memory of the 3 policemen, I would post from Wikipedia
and at the end of the article, I will explain how the death penalty could have
save the policemen from being killed.
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Harry Roberts' victims: Chris
Head, David Wombwell and Geoff Fox were gunned down in Braybrook Street,
Shepherds Bush in August 1966
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The Shepherd's Bush murders, also known as
the Massacre of Braybrook Street,
was the murder of three police officers in London by Harry Roberts and two
others in 1966.
The officers had
stopped to question the three occupants of a car waiting near Wormwood Scrubs
prison; Roberts shot dead Temporary Detective Constable David Wombwell and
Detective Sergeant Christopher Head, and John Duddy, another occupant in the
vehicle, shot dead Police Constable Geoffrey Fox.
The three suspects
went on the run, initiating a large-scale manhunt. All three were eventually
arrested and later sentenced to life imprisonment. Public sympathy for the
families of the victims resulted in the establishment of the Police Dependants'
Trust to assist the welfare of families of British police officers who have
died in the line of duty.
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The crime scene,
featuring the Q-car and body of DS Christopher Head lying in the road.
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Murders:
On 12 August 1966, a
Metropolitan Police crew of an unmarked Triumph 2000 Q-car, registration number
GGW 87C and call sign Foxtrot One One, was patrolling East Acton
(although the incident was always reported by the media as occurring in
Shepherd's Bush) in west London. Detective Sergeant Christopher Tippett Head,
aged 30, and 25-year-old Temporary Detective Constable David Bertram Wombwell
were both members of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) based at
Shepherd's Bush police station in F Division. Their driver was Police
Constable Geoffrey Roger Fox, aged 41, a beat constable who had served for many
years in F Division (which covered the Metropolitan Borough of
Hammersmith) and frequently acted as a Q-car driver due to his vast local
knowledge. All three officers were in plain clothes.
At about 3:15 pm the
car turned into Braybrook Street, a residential road on the Old Oak Council
Estate bordering Wormwood Scrubs and Wormwood Scrubs prison. The officers
spotted a battered blue Standard Vanguard estate van parked in the street with
three men sitting inside it. Since escapes were sometimes attempted from the
prison with the assistance of getaway vehicles driven by accomplices, the
officers decided to question the occupants. It is possible that PC Fox
recognised the van's driver, Jack Witney, as a known criminal. The vehicle also
had no tax disc, legally required for driving in the United Kingdom.
DS Head and DC
Wombwell got out of their car and walked over to the van, where they questioned
Witney about the lack of a tax disc. He replied that he had not yet obtained his
MOT test certificate, which is required before a tax disc can be issued. DS
Head asked Witney for his driving licence and vehicle insurance certificate;
noticing that the latter had expired at midday, he told DC Wombwell to write
down Witney's details and walked around to the other side of the van. Witney
protested that he had been caught for the same offence two weeks before and
pleaded to be given a break. However, as he did so his front seat passenger,
Harry Roberts, produced a Luger pistol and shot DC Wombwell through the left
eye, killing him instantly. DS Head ran back towards his Q-car, but Roberts
chased and, after missing with the next shot, shot him in the head. John Duddy,
the back seat passenger, also got out, grabbing a .38 Webley Service Revolver
from the bag next to him (which also contained a third gun). He ran over to the
Q-car and shot PC Fox three times through the window as he tried to reverse
towards him and Roberts, who also fired several shots. As he died, Fox's foot
jerked down on the accelerator and the car lurched forward over the prone body
of DS Head, who was already dying of his wounds.
Manhunt:
Duddy and Roberts got
back into the van and Witney reversed rapidly down a side street and pulled out
onto Wulfstan Street before driving away at speed. However, a passer-by,
suspicious of a car driving so fast near the prison, had written down the
registration plate, PGT 726. Witney, the van's owner, was arrested at
his home six hours after the shootings. Following a tip-off, the van was
discovered the next day in a lock-up garage rented by Witney under a railway
arch in Vauxhall. It contained some spent .38 cartridges and equipment that
could be used for stealing cars. Initially Witney pretended that he had sold
the van for £15 to an unknown man in a pub earlier in the day, but confessed on
14 August, admitting what had happened, and naming his accomplices.
Duddy had fled to his
native Glasgow, but was arrested on 17 August using information obtained from
his brother.
Roberts hid out in
Epping Forest to avoid the huge manhunt. He used his military training (he had
served as a soldier during the Malayan Emergency) to avoid police capture for
three months. A £1,000 reward was offered for information leading to his
arrest. He was finally captured on 15 November whilst sleeping in a barn at
Blount's Farm near Bishop's Stortford after hiding in the adjacent Thorley
Wood. Roberts was familiar with the area as he had often visited it as a child
with his mother.
Suspects:
The three suspects were
John Edward 'Jack' Witney, John Duddy and Harry Maurice Roberts. Witney (born
1930) was a known petty criminal with ten convictions for theft. He lived with
his wife in a basement flat in Fernhead Road, Paddington. John Duddy (born
1929), originally from Glasgow, was a long-distance lorry driver. He had been
in trouble for theft several times when he was younger, but had been straight
since 1948. Immediately prior to the offence he had started to drink heavily
and had met Roberts and Witney in a club. Harry Maurice Roberts (born 1936) was
a career criminal with convictions for attempted store-breaking, larceny and
robbery with violence. He was a former soldier who had served in Malaya. He
almost certainly opened fire because he thought that the officers were about to
search the van and believed he could be sentenced to 15 years imprisonment if
he was caught with a firearm.
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Mourning: The funeral of the
three police officers
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Trial:
The trial of Witney
and Duddy began at the Old Bailey on 14 November, but was almost immediately
adjourned after Roberts's capture so the three men could be tried together.
Roberts pleaded guilty to the murders of DS Head and DC Wombwell (but not that
of PC Fox), but the other two defendants denied all charges. Only Witney
testified in his defence, and he said that he and Duddy were terrified of
Roberts. On 12 December 1966, after a trial lasting only six days, the three
men were convicted of murder and possession of firearms and sentenced to life
imprisonment. The jury took only 30 minutes to reach the verdict. The judge,
Mr. Justice Glyn-Jones, recommended that they serve at least thirty years
before becoming eligible for parole. He commented that the murders were
"the most heinous crime to have been committed in this country for a
generation or more".
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The memorial on
Braybrook Street to DS Head, DC Wombwell and PC Fox
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Reactions:
The murders caused
outrage in the United Kingdom. There were calls for the recently abolished
death penalty to be reintroduced and increasing numbers of police officers,
usually unarmed, were trained to use firearms. The Metropolitan Police Firearms
Wing, now known as CO19, was established soon after the incident.
Six hundred
Metropolitan Police officers lined the route of the three victims' funeral
procession in Shepherd's Bush and a memorial service in Westminster Abbey was
attended by Prime Minister Harold Wilson, Leader of the Opposition Edward Heath
and many other dignitaries, as well as thousands of police officers from all
over the country. More than one thousand members of the public stood in
mourning outside the Abbey. Holiday camp owner Billy Butlin donated £250,000 to
a new Police Dependants' Trust, and it had soon raised more than £1 million.
In 1988 the Police
Memorial Trust established a stone memorial to the three officers at the site
of the incident in Braybrook Street.
Post-conviction:
John Duddy died in
Parkhurst prison on 8 February 1981.
Witney was released
in 1991, causing some controversy as he had not served the full thirty years
recommended by the judge, and was thought to be the first adult to be released
early on licence after killing a police officer. He was beaten to death with a
hammer by his flatmate, a heroin addict, in August 1999 at his home in
Horfield, Bristol. Police ruled out any connection between his murder and the
events of 1966.
It was reported in
February 2009 that Harry Roberts hoped to be freed from prison within months.
After serving 42 years, and having already completed the first stage of a
parole board hearing, he believed that his release was imminent. Roberts hoped
a final hearing would find that, at 72, he was no longer a risk to the public.
By this time, he had already served 12 years more than the minimum tariff
recommended by his trial judge, who at the time of sentencing told Roberts that
it was unlikely that any future Home Secretary would "ever think fit to show
mercy by releasing you on licence... This is one of those cases in which the
sentence of imprisonment for 'life' may well be treated as meaning exactly what
it says." In July 2009, the parole board determined that Roberts still
posed a public risk and should continue to serve time at Littlehey prison in
Cambridgeshire. The decision followed newspaper reports that Roberts had
orchestrated a five-year campaign of intimidation against an elderly woman who
complained about his behaviour when he worked at the same animal sanctuary she
did while he was on day release.
My
comments:
John Duddy and John Witney are long
since dead, one died in prison and the other was murdered after his release
respectively. I feel it is a little sense of justice. However, Harry Roberts is
still alive. Having exceeded by far his minimum term of 30 years
imprisonment, Roberts remains one of the United Kingdom's longest-serving
prisoners.
I agree that a life sentence is not justice and it is meaningless. Immanuel Kant, Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, Sir James Fitzjames Stephen, Alex Kozinski, Chalerm Ubumrung and Lech Aleksander Kaczyński will definitely argue
that a life sentence is not appropriate for the worst killers. Even Ex-Police Commissioner,
John Stevens switched from being an opponent to a supporter of the death penalty.
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Harry Roberts
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I got more information from Wikipedia about Harry Roberts from the date
he was sentenced until today:
Roberts
was convicted of all three murders and sentenced to life imprisonment with a
recommended minimum term of 30 years. The murders occurred just eight months
after the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965 suspended the death
penalty in England, Wales and Scotland and substituted a mandatory sentence of
life imprisonment. While in prison, Roberts made several attempts to escape. He
continues to serve time, despite the expiry of his recommended minimum term in
1996.
In 2001,
he was moved to an open prison. However, Roberts was returned to a closed
prison within months after allegations that he was involved in drug dealing and
contraband smuggling. Author Kate Kray, who interviewed Roberts for her book
Natural Born Killers, said that he has no remorse for his victims and recreates
the murders in art and pastry decorations, making apple pies and decorating
them with pastry cut-outs of policemen being shot. Kray said that he also
produces "precisely drawn and coloured" paintings depicting someone
shooting a policeman.
In
2005 his appeal to the House of Lords over the use of secret evidence to keep
him in jail failed. The evidence had been obtained by tapping private phone
calls between Roberts and his solicitor. The material was then introduced as
evidence at his parole hearings.
In
September 2006, 70-year-old Roberts applied for a judicial review over apparent
delays by the parole board in reaching a decision to free him by the end of the
year. In December 2006, he was again turned down for parole. On 29 June 2007,
he was given leave to seek a High Court judicial review over his failed parole
bid, with the judge saying his case, "was of great public interest."
It
was reported in February 2009 that Harry Roberts hoped to be freed from prison
within months, having served 42 years in jail having already completed the
first stage of a parole board hearing, he believed this would pave the way for
his release. Roberts hoped a final hearing would find that at the age of 72 he
was no longer a risk to the public and that the parole board would order his
immediate release. At this time he had already served 12 years more than the
minimum term recommended by his trial judge who at the time of sentencing told
Roberts that it was unlikely that any future Home Secretary would "ever
think fit to show mercy by releasing you on licence... This is one of those
cases in which the sentence of imprisonment for 'life' may well be treated as
meaning exactly what it says." It was recognised that government ministers
were concerned that any decision on the matter would provoke public fury and
that Roberts personal safety might be put at risk, but would nonetheless be
powerless to halt the release.
Supporters
of Roberts had previously claimed that successive Home Secretaries have blocked
his release for political reasons because of fears of a public backlash.
However Peter Smyth, chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, said that
there would be widespread anger among serving and former officers. Legal
sources said they believed that the parole board was likely to recommend that
he was eligible for an open prison as a way of preparing him for his eventual
release. Jack Straw, the former Justice Secretary, retained the power to reject
a parole board recommendation that Roberts be moved to an open prison. However,
he could not block a decision by the board to order his release.
In
April 2009 it was alleged that while working at an animal sanctuary on day
release, Roberts made violent threats to the owners.
In
July 2009, the parole board determined that Roberts still posed a risk to the
public and should continue to serve time at Little hey prison in Cambridgeshire
where he works in the library.
Roberts'
murder of the police officers made him a hero to anarchists and football
hooligans. His name has been used for
many years to antagonise the police, with chants like "Harry Roberts is
our friend, is our friend, is our friend. Harry Roberts is our friend, he kills
coppers. Let him out to kill some more, kill some more, kill some more, let him
out to kill some more, Harry Roberts" as well as "He shot three down
in Shepherd's Bush, Shepherd's Bush, Shepherd's Bush. He shot three down in
Shepherd's Bush, our mate Harry" (to the tune of "London Bridge Is
Falling Down"), which originated with groups of young people outside Shepherd's
Bush police station after Roberts had been arrested.
His
folk-hero status among these sub-cultures has led to various artistic
representations of Roberts. The character of Billy Porter in the 2001 novel He
Kills Coppers by Jake Arnott, and the 2008 TV adaptation, is based on Harry
Roberts, and he features in the lyrics of several songs by the band
Chumbawamba, including one in which his name is chanted repeatedly ("Harry
Roberts, Harry Roberts, Roberts Roberts, Harry Harry") in parody of the
Hare Krishna mantra "Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare".
I strongly
disagree with Geoffrey Robertson QC when he argue that it is "much worse
for an individual to spend the rest of their life in prison than to be executed
immediately". Please refer to Erich Maria Remarque. If death is not an answer, I do not think life imprisonment
is either. Harry Roberts is not only a violent lifer who not only tries to
escape and threaten other in prison but he is also making a mockery of justice
with his sadistic artwork. He is also an encouragement to those criminal rights
activists.
From a British newspaper on 16
December 1966:
MR. ROY
JENKINS, the Home Secretary, went a long way to dispel a deep-rooted
misconception about life sentences when he spoke at Cambridge last Saturday.
Among those serving such terms, he said, were some ruthless and savage killers."Let me make it clear that these dangerous men can have no expectation of release after a time like nine years.
"They will have to stay in prison for a good deal longer. And there may even be some who are likely always to be a menace to society and whom it may never be possible to release. For these a life sentence will mean exactly what it says."
Two days after the Home Secretary had spoken Harry Roberts, John Duddy and John Witney were each given life imprisonment for their part in killing three London policemen. Mr. Justice Glyn-Jones, passing sentence, stated that in his view they must, in any case, whatever the views of future Home Secretaries, serve at least 30 years. All will be in their 60's if they stay in prison for this length of time.
Few will quarrel with the sentiments expressed by Mr. Jenkins or Mr. Justice Glyn-Jones. The murders in which Roberts, Duddy and Witney were implicated were of a particularly brutish and cold-blooded nature. No-one with any compassion relishes the thought of any man, no matter how revolting his crime, spending 30 years behind bars, but in this instance the severity of sentence is surely just.
Now that the death penalty has been abolished for capital murder the necessity for sentences to act as a deterrent is stronger than ever. Many criminals and potential gunmen will be shaken by the outcome of this murder trial and think twice before setting out on any armed adventure that could end in killing.
There are no statistics to support this, but the logic of fear needs no figures to prove its case. Most of us are cowards when the price of either heroism or crime is high.
The late
Roy Jenkins was to share most of the blame for refusing to reinstate the death
penalty after the 3 policemen were murdered. It is because of him, more
innocent people including police officers were brutally murdered. The death
penalty could have prevented the 3 cops from being slain. Chief Justice Rayner Goddard, James M. Reams and Officer are able
to give testimonies that the death penalty does saved the lives of the police.
The last cop killer
to be executed in the United Kingdom is Guenther Podola. I am glad that his
execution was carried out and it honored that slain cop.
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Guenther Podola
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