Police murder on Braybrook Street
Coordinates: 51 ° 31 ′ 8.6 " N , 0 ° 14 ′ 41.6" W.
In the Braybrook Street police murder (also known as the Shepherd's Bush police murder ), three police officers were killed by two armed men in London in 1966 . The act took place in the East Acton area ; Shepherd's Bush was always mentioned in media reports .
The police stopped a vehicle in the vicinity of the guard of Wormwood Scrubs ( Wormwood Scrubs prison on). During the inspection, two officers from Harry Roberts and one from John Duddy were murdered. Both were accompanied by driver Jack Witney, who fled with Roberts and Duddy after the murders.
One of the largest manhunt operations by the British police began on the three perpetrators. Roberts, Duddy and Witney were later caught and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Public sympathy with the victims ' families led to the establishment of the Police Dependants' Trust , a foundation to support the needy relatives of police officers killed on the job.
Sequence of events
On August 12, 1966, a Triumph 2000 was a civilian patrol car of the Metropolitan Police with the nickname Foxtrot 1-1 on patrol in the East Acton area. The vehicle belonged to Police Division F, which was responsible for the Hammersmith district. The triumph was occupied by the two detectives Detective Sergeant Christopher Tippett Head (30) and the Temporary Detective Constable David Bertram Wombwell (25) assigned to him for training. Both belonged to the Criminal Investigation Department , which was stationed at Shepherd's Bush Police Station. The driver of the car was the 41-year-old Police Constable Geoffrey Roger Fox. He had been active in the police station and in the district for many years and was regularly used on patrols by the criminal police because of his good local knowledge.
At around 3:15 p.m., the vehicle turned onto Braybrook Street in the township's Old Oak Council Estate . The street borders on the large green area Wormwood Scrubs and the correctional facility named after it. There the officers noticed a parked blue standard Vanguard station wagon in apparently poor technical condition. There were three men in the vehicle. Since it had happened in previous outbreaks that helpers were waiting with a getaway car, the police decided to check the vehicle. Possibly PC Fox had also identified the driver, Jack Witney, as a criminal he knew. In addition, no tax stamp ( vehicle license , tax disc ) was affixed to the vehicle.
DS Head and TDC Wombwell got out, walked over to the car, and asked Witney about the missing tax stamp. He stated that he had not yet been able to prove a roadworthiness certificate ( MOT test ), which was a prerequisite for the issuance of the tax stamp. DS Head asked for driver's license and proof of insurance; it turned out that the latter had expired at noon. Head asked Wombwell to take the details and walked around the vehicle. Witney contested that he had received a sentence for the same offense two weeks earlier and asked to be spared this time. Head became aware of a bag in the car containing overalls. Little did he know, however, that firearms were hidden underneath. During the identity check, passenger Harry Roberts suddenly shot Wombwell with a Luger and immediately killed him with a shot through the left eye. The Detective Sergeant Head ran back to the car, Roberts followed him, first missing the fugitive and then shot him in the head as well. John Duddy, who was in the back seat, also got out and fired a .38 Colt three times through the windshield of the police car at Fox while he was trying to run over Duddy and Roberts in reverse. The fatally wounded Fox's foot slipped on the accelerator and the police car drove over Head's lifeless body.
Duddy and Roberts got back into their vehicle and fled first down a side street and then towards Wulfstan Street. The license plate number PGT 726 was read from a witness with whom they had a near miss and who appeared suspicious of the fast moving vehicle near the prison .
Investigations
Based on the testimony about the license plate, Witney was identified as the vehicle owner and arrested six hours after the murders. An anonymous tip the next day made police aware of a garage in Vauxhall that had been rented from Witney. The vehicle was found in the garage. In addition to cartridges for the revolver, there were tools for theft of cars in the car. Witney initially stated that he had sold the vehicle to a man he did not know for £ 15 on the morning of the day. He got to know him in a pub. On August 14, Witney made a confession and also gave the names of his accomplices.
Duddy first fled to his hometown of Glasgow . After being informed by his brother to the police, he was arrested on August 16.
Roberts used the knowledge he had acquired as a soldier and fled to the Epping Forest . He was able to hide there for three months. A reward of £ 1,000 had been offered to him. During his escape he then moved to Thorley Wood . Ultimately, he was found sleeping in a field barn near the small town of Bishop's Stortford . Roberts knew the area because he had been evacuated there as a child during World War II .
There were many alleged sightings of Roberts throughout the manhunt, which was attended by 18,000 police officers. He used to hang out in a cafe right by the Bishop's Stortford Police Station. The landlord commented several times on the unbelievable resemblance of his guest to the fugitive. However, both he and other residents who met Roberts regularly were convinced that Roberts could not be the fugitive and therefore did not report him.
The process
The proceedings against Witney and Duddy began on November 14, 1966 in the Old Bailey Criminal Court and were extended to include him as a defendant because of the virtually simultaneous arrest of Roberts. Roberts pleaded guilty to the murders of Head and Wombwell; however, he pleaded innocent on the Fox murder charges. The other two defendants pleaded innocent on all charges.
Only Witney gave details of the matter and said that he and Duddy were afraid of Roberts.
After six days of trial, the verdict was pronounced on December 12, 1966: All three men were sentenced to life imprisonment for murder and possession of firearms for criminal purposes. Judge Glyn-Jones recommended that the responsible Home Secretary not release him until after 30 years. He called the act "the most nefarious crime that has been committed in this country for a generation or more".
The offender
Jack Witney
John Edward "Jack" Witney (* 1930; † 1999) was a well-known petty criminal with ten previous convictions for theft. He was married and lived with his wife in a basement apartment on Fernhead Road in Paddington . Witney's 1991 release was controversial because he had not yet served the recommended minimum term of 30 years. He was the first adult to be released early after a police officer murder. In August 1999, he was beaten to death by his roommate who was addicted to heroin in Horfield, Bristol. The police could not find any connection between his act and his murder.
John Duddy
John Duddy (* 1929 - 8 February 1981) came from Glasgow and was a truck driver . As a teenager he had problems with the police several times because of theft, but had not committed a criminal offense since 1948. He only met Roberts and Witney in a club shortly before the act. Shortly before the murders, he had become a heavy drinker. Duddy died in Parkhurst Prison on February 8, 1981.
Harry Roberts
Harry Maurice Roberts (* 1936) was a professional criminal. He had a criminal record for attempted break-ins, theft and robbery. He had served as a soldier in Malaysia . He killed the police officers to avoid a feared 15-year prison term for the weapons he was carrying.
In the first years of his prison sentence, he tried to escape 22 times, the last time in 1976. During his escape attempts, he received partial support from his mother. After 1976 he was exemplary, was moved to the open prison in 1999 and worked in a sanctuary. In 2001, however, the relaxation of the prison regime was revoked because he was accused of drug trafficking and smuggling of prohibited items into the prison, and a police officer observed him in contact with known criminals. After 21 years in high-security prisons, he was finally placed in a facility with the lowest security level C.
In 2009, after Roberts had spent 42 years in prison since his sentence, he was given a parole board hearing. Government officials expressed concern that his release could generate public opposition and that Roberts' safety could be jeopardized, although there was no way of stopping his release.
Roberts' supporters claimed that all previous interior ministers had prevented the release on political grounds. Metropolitan Police Federation chairman Peter Smyth said there was resentment among former and active police officers at plans to release Roberts.
In 2014 it was decided to release Roberts, according to media reports on November 11, 2014.
The mother and widow of Wombwell spoke out against the release; the widow argued that the widows and orphans were less cared for than the criminal.
Consequences of the act
The killings sparked a storm of indignation in Britain. There were calls to reinstate the newly abolished death penalty . At the same time, more and more police officers, who were usually unarmed in Great Britain, were trained in the use of weapons. Later in the year, the Metropolitan Police Firearms Wing was set up at the Metropolitan Police .
600 police officers took part in the funeral procession in Shepherd's Bush. The memorial service at Westminster Abbey was attended by thousands of police officers from all over the country, the prime minister, opposition leaders and other high-ranking politicians.
The prominent tourism entrepreneur Billy Butlin donated £ 250,000 (equivalent to around £ 4 million of today's purchasing power) for the new Police Dependents' Trust . Thanks to further donations, this sum more than quadrupled in a short period of time. The previously very low survivor's pensions were topped up by the foundation .
In 1988 a memorial stone was erected at the crime scene.
literature
- Braddon, Russell: The police murder of Shepherd's Bush , in: Schach dem Verbrechen , Verlag Das Beste, Stuttgart, 1983
Web links
- Website of the Police Dependents Trust (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.historybytheyard.co.uk/shepherds_bush.htm
- ↑ http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/i-have-served-my-time-535195.html
- ↑ Daggers in the tower . In: Der Spiegel . No. 35 , 1966, pp. 116 ( Online - Aug. 22, 1966 ).
- ↑ "the most heinous crime to have been committed in this country for a generation or more"
- ↑ 30 Years At Least For Police Killers - Times Archive
- ↑ Patrick McGowan, "Shepherd's Bush police murderer is found dead," Evening Standard , Aug. 18, 1999
- ^ "Parkhurst prisoner dies," The Times , February 9, 1981
- ↑ a b 'I have served my time' , report by The Independent of October 12, 2004
- ^ Police killer Harry Roberts to be freed after 42 years in jail - Times Online
- ↑ Carsten Volkery: Planned robbery 1966: Police murderer Harry Roberts is released after 48 years. In: Spiegel Online . October 23, 2014, accessed June 10, 2018 .
- ↑ http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-30016319.html