Authors: Roger Forsdyke
The Perfect Crime (33 page)
By the time Neilson was arrested, two hundred thousand people had been interviewed. At Kidsgrove alone, there were two million, five hundred thousand cards in the incident room index system. Thirty thousand telephone calls logged, over thirty thousand statements taken, plus around seventy thousand house to house enquiry pro formas, not including the many thousands of Bob Booth’s disastrous Bathpool Park construction personnel enquiries.
Not one mentioned Donald Neilson, nor was any one of them ever likely to have led to him.
Now, they may have found out all they needed to know about the man, but there was still a crown court trial – or two – to contend with and as Groat knew well, trials are always potentially slippery slopes. Slopes cunningly strewn with hazardous concealed crevasses. He had seen cases where he had considered the evidence extremely thin and would have bet good money on an acquittal, only to be dumbfounded with a verdict of guilty. And only a fool would take it for granted that what appeared to be a one hundred percent rock solid, racing certainty, sewn up to the eyeballs case would result in the defendant going down. He had witnessed too many walk, for him to take anything as read.
Neilson engaged Leeds solicitor, Barrington Black for his defence. A veritable Pit Bull of a man, he earned a reputation as a particularly able and forthright defence advocate. Black instructed Gilbert Gray QC, a polished, forceful barrister with a keen sense of humour.
They immediately argued that holding the trial at Stafford Crown Court would significantly prejudice their client’s right to a fair trial. Gray told the judge, Mr Justice May that the protracted police enquiries meant that a large number of people in Staffordshire had been directly or indirectly affected. In turn, this meant that prospects of a fair trial were diminished, by saturation coverage of publicity hostile to the defendant. He went on to say, “If thirty thousand people have made statements, the probabilities are that a very great number of them will be from the catchment area for the jury, or that they are friends or relatives. Mr Justice May ruled that whilst he rejected the assertion of public hostility – it having been sixteen months since Lesley disappeared – because of the number of statements taken, the case should not be heard at Stafford. Two days later, the new venue was fixed as Oxford Crown Court and the first trial, beginning on 14th June 1976 would deal with the Lesley Whittle matters. A second trial, to follow immediately the first was concluded, would deal with the remaining charges.
At Oxford, the defence team once again went on the offensive. They knew that no jury could give unbiased consideration to the charge of murdering Lesley Whittle if they were also aware that he was accused of attempting to murder Gerald Smith and PC Mackenzie. So Gilbert Gray QC applied for the three Whittle allegations, kidnapping Lesley, murdering her and blackmailing her mother, to be heard separately from the shooting incidents at Dudley and Mansfield, arguing that the explosive ‘quality of act’ at those locations bore no similarity to the prosecution’s contention of painstaking preparation in connection with Lesley.
The leading Crown counsel argued that, whilst the prosecution was anxious that there should be a fair trial, the motive for killing Lesley had been to eliminate her as a witness and that the intention at Dudley and Mansfield had been the same.
The judge, Mr Justice Mars-Jones ruled in favour of the defence.
Groat groaned.
The charges that the judge would allow, were read to the court:
Kidnap – ‘On or about the fourteenth of January 1975, at Highley in the county of Stafford, stealing and unlawfully carrying away Lesley Whittle against her will.’
Blackmail – ‘On or about the fourteenth of January 1975, with a view to gain, made an unwarranted demand for £50,000 to Dorothy Whittle with menaces, namely a threat to kill Lesley Whittle.’
Murder – ‘On a date unknown between January the thirteenth and the seventh of March 1975, at Kidsgrove in the County of Stafford, did murder Lesley Whittle, contrary to common law.’
Until this point, Neilson indicated that he would fight all charges, every inch of the way, but when asked, “How do you plead, Guilty or Not Guilty?”
To gasps of amazement from the public gallery, he pleaded guilty to the kidnapping and blackmail charges, but not guilty to the charge of murder.
The trial would be significantly shortened by this development. The prosecution and the defence would go through the evidence and unless there were any major arguments or discrepancies, most of the evidence could be read – to the court and jury, rather than many witnesses to be called, examined then cross-examined.
Groat was surprised that the Crown were pressing ahead with a murder charge. Neilson had always strenuously denied playing an active part in Lesley’s death and as there were no witnesses, he did not see how they could adduce the requisite degree of proof. All in all, he thought that manslaughter would be far more appropriate and easier to prove – and involve far less of a struggle in court. There was no contest – Lesley was dead and she would not have been, if he had not put her down that drain and put a noose round her neck. He may not have done it on purpose, but he was the instrument of her death. QED. They’d never get a murder charge home. The evidence simply wasn’t there.
The defence were fighting well, until the barrister for the Crown, Philip Cox QC stood up to cross examine. Their line of questioning was – as they had intimated from the start – that Neilson needed to silence Lesley, as he had sought to silence Gerald Smith and PC Mackenzie. They were handicapped in that they could not talk about either of the latter, but Cox was a skilled operator and knew how best to get the results he wanted. He would press the motive that Neilson simply could not afford the allow Lesley to live, because she would be a constant threat to his freedom, able to identify him at any time. Gilbert Gray prepared Neilson as best he could for his ordeal, a seemingly endless series of questions in which his client repeatedly denied that Lesley had any opportunity to glimpse his face – and his detailed precautions to prevent such a situation occurring. This was the key issue in the trial and Neilson stood his ground, answering the salvo of questions, but cracks were starting to appear. Irritated by a question from the judge – yet another about Lesley being able to see his face – he snapped, “Is it necessary, my Lord, for me to keep saying…? I would like to make it clear there was no way she could see my face at any time.” He quickly recovered his composure, but had given both the judge and the jury a revealing flash of fiery temper.
It was his first slip.
Neilson went on to describe how he next went to take her supplies. He had a fright as he descended the shaft, as instead of seeing the sleeping bag, there was a sheet of plastic. In fact, Lesley had pulled it over herself to deflect dirt and rust dislodged by his descent. He thought there might have been a police officer laying in wait for him.
“I was surprised and worried about what I was going to find.”
“Did you say anything to indicate your alarm?”
“There must have been something in my face, in my expression.”
The judge emphasised that the fundamental consideration for the jury was whether Lesley fell accidentally, or was pushed.
He said to them, “There are only two people who can tell you what happened down there, sixty feet underground – whether Neilson was wearing a hood all or only part of the time. One of these persons is dead. In the circumstances it calls for you to examine the evidence of the survivor with some care. He is in a position to say what he likes without fear of any contradiction. But there is another side to that coin. If this man is innocent, he has been deprived of the best witness he could possibly have to support his case – the person who could say that he did not push her and wore a mask the whole time underground and never saw a glimpse of his face. There is no direct evidence that Neilson pushed her over the side. There is a lot of evidence that tends to show that he did not, otherwise you would have expected certain results which do not appear. He has always denied any such action and has done so emphatically and consistently from the beginning. The prosecution case depends largely on circumstantial evidence.”
Groat considered that the summing up was definitely biased towards a manslaughter verdict, rather than murder.
Special arrangements were made for the jury to hear Lesley’s recorded ransom message during their retirement to consider a verdict. They also asked to see exhibits including the dark blue hood, the wire tether, surgical tape, Lesley’s dressing gown and the sawn off Smithson. It took them just one hundred minutes to make up their minds.
Fifteen minutes after that, the foreman stood to announce their unanimous verdict.
Guilty.
Guilty of murder.
*
Groat, of course, was skiving. There was no real reason for him to be at the trial. Had he been asked, of course, he would have waffled on about having been present when Nielsen was interviewed by Detective Chief Superintendent Readwin, but that was purely to do with evidence of identification, a matter that was no longer in question and unlikely to be brought up in court. He would also have mentioned the fact that Neilson had been traced, largely by using the infant science of offender profiling, and that he and his team needed to be on hand should any queries about that process needed to be answered. In truth, had that been the case, they would have wanted the expert evidence of the organ grinder, Dee Taylor, not one of the monkeys. His continued presence at Oxford Crown Court was actually one of those happy Groat contrivances. His gaffers at Leman Street were given authority to release him, so that he could assist Nottinghamshire with – well, whatever it was he was assisting them with. Not only that, but they were secure in the knowledge that it had been authorised from on high, viz DAC Van Lesseps, so no skin off their collective nose. The fact that he was in Oxford, now, rather than Nottinghamshire simply didn’t enter into the equation.
Ted was pleased to have his friend around and Commander Morrison was content to have another Met officer on his team. DAC Van Lesseps was their authorising officer and there were no urgent return to base instructions, or cut off date.
Good result all round then.
One issue niggled away at him and would need some extraordinarily detailed planning and footwork. How to deal – in a proper, successful and final manner – with the package under his shed floor, at home, in Loughton.
Groat pondered and worried, schemed and planned what he would do with the fifteen thousand pounds. He could, of course, return it to the Bishop, but had no immediate way of contacting him. He was also concerned about the possible consequences of any contact with that individual, or the likelihood of the cash going astray and ending up in the hands of someone even less entitled to it than he was.
He could always try to find some way of getting it to Olivia, of course, as some sort of recompense to her, or sop to his conscience. But he baulked increasingly at that, as he thought about the circumstances and who actually had done what, to whom. His reluctance also increased as time passed and he started thinking more with what passed for a brain, rather than with other extremities of his anatomy.
One thing was certain. There was no way he could ever do anything with it officially – in a police sense – so he was reduced to the one simple aim of minimising the risk to himself and his career and, if possible coming out of the whole scenario with some advantage. Now, what was his advice to Olivia? ‘Open several bank and building society accounts… in different names – and… slowly pay in reasonable amounts…’
And what was he engaged in presently? Travelling far and wide with no checks on where he was at any particular time…
*
Monday 5th July 1976 dawned clear and bright and the temperature – as it had done all Summer – inexorably climbed up into the eighties. In Oxford, the heat wave rendered the court room as hot as any furnace.
Gilbert Gray QC came out, guns blazing, as if to raise the temperature even further. First he argued that a further trial was unnecessary – “an act of odious super vilification” – was his opinion.
Judge Justice Mars-Jones said, “I suspect that the members of the families concerned would not share your view.”
Philip Cox, QC for the prosecution said that there was much disquiet about the crimes and added, “The public interest requires matters raised in this second indictment to be tried and they should not be allowed to lie on the file.”
The judge said, “There is another very important consideration – the power I have vested in me to determine the length of time I can recommend that a person may stay in custody.”
He dismissed the application.
Gilbert Gray was not easily derailed and moved to propose that the Dudley Freightliner shooting and two burglary charges would weigh unfairly and oppressively on the accused. Mr Justice Mars-Jones decided the freightliner shooting should be allowed to lie on the file.
Next, the defence counsel began disputing the composition of the jury.
Groat thought,
Doesn’t
he
ever
give
up
?
Eventually the trial was underway, with an all male panel. Neilson pleaded not guilty to all nine charges against him. There were two of burglary, where he stole the firearms he was later to use to such devastating effect, three charges of murder and two of attempt murder, the latter having alternative charges of causing grievous bodily harm, in case the evidence was not strong enough to prove the more serious offence.
Over the next twelve days, the court – and the public at large – heard the Panther’s side of events. It was a rare window into a warped world, where he gave justification for every aspect of every deed he had committed. Psychologists and criminologists would have a field day dissecting the revelations, the lies and semi truths. How, each time he shot someone, it was that person’s fault, not his. And even after he had killed, he kept on committing crime, even if that meant going out and shooting someone else. How taking the cash from the post offices didn’t hurt anyone, as it was government money and all they had to do was to print more…
With all the evidence recounted, cross examined and re-examined, Philip Cox QC, in his final speech, dismissed Neilson’s contention that the three shooting deaths were accidental as stretching credulity to breaking point. He asked the jury, “Do you think a man of his cunning, of his care and planning, was so careless and so inept in the handling of firearms that they discharged accidentally in the way he maintains? In my submission that is nonsense. You may think he was waging some sort of war on society. It was not an integral part of his plan ‘The Plan’ when he set out to raid a post office, to kill. The essential part was to get the money and get away, but he lost control of the situation. The one thing he could not risk was identification and arrest.”
In his final speech for the defence, Gilbert Gray suggested that verdicts of manslaughter were inevitable. He told the jury that Neilson had regarded himself as being to crime what Sherlock Holmes was to detection – thorough, painstaking and logical – but he went wrong and instead of being an intellectual giant he was simply a jobbing joiner, failed. He maintained that there was no intention to harm the police officer at Mansfield, or inflict any serious harm at Langley.
Summing up, Mr Justice Mars-Jones warned jurors about prejudice, “Rarely has a man faced such a formidable list of grave crimes. Do not let the multiplicity of charges affect your judgement. Donald Neilson is entitled to a fair consideration of his case. This is not an open and shut case, members of the jury, as I think you would agree.”
After five hours and five minutes, at three p.m., the jury returned. The foreman announced unanimous verdicts of guilty to the three murder charges. They considered him not guilty to the attempt murder of Mrs Grayland and PC Mackenzie, but guilty of the lesser charges.
As the court fell silent, Mr Justice Mars-Jones addressed the impassive prisoner, “Donald Neilson. The evidence against you is quite overwhelming on all the counts on which you have been convicted. The enormity of your crimes puts you in a class apart from almost all convicted murderers in recent years. From early 1974 to the end of 1975, your activities struck terror into the hearts of postmasters, sub postmasters and members of their families over a large part of this country. You were never without a loaded shotgun or other weapons when you went out on your criminal expeditions. And you never hesitated to kill whenever you thought you were in danger of arrest or detection. You showed no mercy whatsoever. You decided to embark on the ultimate in villainy when you kidnapped a young girl of seventeen and blackmailed her mother.”
The judge paused, “So far as the sentences of life are concerned I am empowered by Parliament to recommend the minimum period which should elapse before you are considered for release. As I understand the law, I cannot formally recommend that you should never be released. But in my judgement, such is the gravity and the number of offences and the danger to the public when you are at large, that no minimum period of years would be suitable.”
He continued, “In your case, life must mean life. If you are ever released, it can only be on account of great age or infirmity.”
He then handed down five sentences of life imprisonment.
For kidnapping Lesley and blackmailing her mother, the judge imposed sentences of twenty one years and ten years respectively. Three further sentences of ten years were imposed for the two burglaries and for possessing the sawn off Smithson and ammunition with intent to endanger life.
Neilson turned and in a sprightly manner, ran down the dock steps to the cells below. There was a general hubbub in the court as the jury were allowed out and discharged. Gradually, the public gallery emptied and the legal teams gathered up their sheaves of papers. The judge re-emerged to lean over and speak to the clerk to the court, who turned to the still assembled personnel.
“Ladies and gentlemen.” He possessed an authority rich, sonorous voice that commanded immediate attention. The courtroom swiftly became trial hushed again. “Mr Justice Mars-Jones.”
The judge surveyed the court. “Is Detective Chief Inspector Groat in the building?”
Groat, who, throughout the trial had been sitting with Commander Morrison and Ted Pearson, was chatting with those officers and preparing to make a somewhat reluctant exit and return to the real world.
Now
what
?”
He turned to face the court. “My lord?”
“Will you approach the bench.” It was not a question.
Not for the first time in his career, or even in recent events, Groat took conscious control over his anal sphincter.
Steady
boy
.
They
can’t
have
found
out
about
the
money
.
Surely
it’s
not
that
he’s
found
out
I
really
shouldn’t
have
been
here
all
this
time
?
What
?
He stood in the well of the court, with burgeoning guilty conscience, feeling small, looking up at the judge, waiting.
“Mr Groat. I understand we – all of us – owe you a great debt of gratitude.”
Now
what
?
“I am reliably informed that – and I hope they will forgive me, as so much police work and effort has gone into tracking down and dealing with this man – were it not for you, we could still be looking for him. Is that not correct?”
“It is possibly so, my lord.” He frowned.
“Because of your initiative, your actions, your intelligence, Neilson was apprehended in Rainworth on the eleventh of December...”
“Yes, my lord, but with all due respect, can I stop you there. It may well have been my team, Detective Sergeant Pearson and Miss Taylor, our research, briefing, intelligence, whatever, that led to initially identifying the man, but it was the outstanding bravery of PC White and PC Mackenzie that actually got him arrested. He tried to kill them, you know. They tackled him, they overcame him. He was armed to the teeth. They were armed only with their wits and quick thinking. They are the bravest men it has ever been my privilege to shake hands with.”
Commander Morrison and Ted looked on. Ted was actually starting to get a lump in his throat.
“I understand that.” The judge continued, “and it is not my intention in any way to denigrate, or minimise what those brave officers did, but what
I
need to do now, at this moment, is recognise the part
you
have played in this investigation.”
Groat remained silent.
“The most I can do, is to commend you – give you a judge’s commendation. If you were a member of the public, I could award you a sum from the public purse, but you are a police officer, so I cannot even do that. However, I trust that my comments will be conveyed to your most senior officers, as I am of the opinion that your contribution should be recognised at a higher and more permanent level.”
Whatever
that
means
.
I
wondered
what
on
earth
was
coming
there
,
for
a
minute
.
That’s
what
a
guilty
conscience
does
for
you
.
“Yes, my lord. Thank you.”
“No. Thank you, Mr Groat.”
