I
will post information about Harry Roberts the Cop Killer who was involved
directly in the death of 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 from
Wikipedia and other links. I was not surprise that he would be released one
day, that is why LWOP is not honest at all.
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Harry Roberts
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Born
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21 July 1936
Wanstead, Essex, England |
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Other names
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Ronald Ernest Hall
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Occupation
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Carpenter
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Criminal
penalty
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Life sentence with a recommended minimum term of 30
years
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Criminal
status
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Released
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Parent(s)
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Harry Roberts
Dorothy Roberts |
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Conviction(s)
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Murder
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Harry Maurice Roberts (born 21 July 1936) is an English career criminal who in
1966 instigated the Shepherd's Bush murders, in which three police officers
were shot dead. The killings happened after the plain-clothes officers
approached the van in which Roberts and two other men were sitting in Braybrook
Street, near Wormwood Scrubs prison in London. Roberts opened fire on the
officers when he feared they would discover the firearms his gang were planning
to use in an armed robbery. He shot dead two of the officers, while one of his
accomplices fatally shot the third.
After
Roberts had spent nearly 48 years in jail, in 2014 the Parole Board for England
and Wales approved his release, at the age of 78. Having exceeded by far his
minimum term of 30 years imprisonment, Roberts was one of the United Kingdom's
longest-serving prisoners, remaining in custody from 1966 until his 2014
release.
Early
life
Roberts
was born in Wanstead, Essex, on 21 July 1936 where his
parents ran the George public
house. As a child he became involved in crime by helping his mother sell stolen
goods on the black market.
Roberts later described how the family owned a café in north London where his
mother was "...selling on mostly food—tea and sugar—and sometimes ration
books. Anything she could get her hands on".
In
his late teens, he was sentenced to detention after using an iron bar to attack
a shopkeeper during a robbery. Roberts served a 19-month sentence inside Gaynes Hall
borstal, and was released in January 1956.
One
week after leaving the borstal, Roberts was called up for national
service and joined the Rifle
Brigade (Prince Consort's Own), with whom he saw action during the Mau Mau Uprising and Malayan Emergency. Of his service in the
jungle he said that this was where he learned to kill and that he had
"personally killed at least four". Roberts has claimed that he
reached the rank of Sergeant while in the
Army although others have given his rank as Lance Corporal.
Journalist and former armed robber John McVicar has said that Roberts
"gloated" about his killings while in prison, and had "acquired
a taste for killing prisoners [of war] on the orders of his officers" in
the Army.
After
leaving the Army, Roberts returned to his criminal activities, and in
partnership with Jack Witney carried out "dozens" of armed robberies,
targeting bookmakers, post offices and banks. He
said, "The most I earned was £1,000 from a single job. Witney was the
eldest, the boss: he knew the best places to rob. [John] Duddy joined us
later." In 1959 Roberts and an accomplice posed as tax inspectors to gain
entry into the home of an elderly man. The man was bound, robbed, and beaten
about the head with a glass decanter. Roberts was
arrested, and at his trial the judge, Mr. Justice Maude,
said, "You are a brutal thug. You came very near the rope this time. It is to be hoped you do not
appear before us again." Roberts received a sentence of seven
years, and the victim, who never recovered from his injuries, died one year and
three days after the attack. Had the victim died two days earlier, Roberts
could have been tried for his murder under the year and a day rule.
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Unarmed victims
(from left): PC Geoffrey Fox, DC David Wombwell and DS Christopher Head were
all shot dead
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Shepherd's
Bush murders
Main
article: Shepherd's Bush murders
Following
the shootings of 41-year-old Police Constable Geoffrey Fox, Detective Sergeant
Christopher Head, aged 30, and 25-year-old Temporary Detective Constable David
Wombwell, Roberts hid in Thorley Wood near Bishops
Stortford to avoid capture. He was familiar with the area from visits there
as a child. A £1,000 reward was offered for information leading to his arrest.
Roberts used his military training to evade capture for ninety-six days, but
was finally caught by police while sleeping rough in a barn at Blount's Farm
near Bishop's Stortford.
Trial
and imprisonment
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.
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 (1999, ISBN
1857823826), 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.
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Harry Roberts
(right), pictured in 2009 with a prison guard in Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire
before his release
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Appeals
In
2005 he failed in his appeal to the House
of Lords over the use of secret evidence to keep him in jail. 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 already served 42 years in jail and completing 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 the parole board 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 public risk
and should continue to serve time at Littlehey prison in Cambridgeshire where
he worked in the library. 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.
In
October 2014 the Parole Board for England and Wales approved his release at an
unspecified later date. Roberts was released on 11 November 2014 after serving
48 years in prison (from 15 November 1966).
Cultural
impact
Roberts'
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.
There
have been 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.
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