An Oik's Progress

by Steve Eastwood

  As soon as Benny arrived back at the Police Station he was told to go to the Chief Superintendent’s office where Mr Short wanted to know chapter and verse of the actions taken and what lines of enquiry he intended to take. Mr Short had earlier received a call from the Chief Constable’s Staff officer requesting details of the burglary. The word had got around and this was clearly becoming a political matter.

  A future liaison meeting would attest to the fact that the Military Police, Ministry of Defence Police and Special Branch all had an interest since it was not just a question of theft but of the Brigadier’s personal Security.

  One morning a few days after the burglary, Benny was sitting in the “Crow’s Nest” when he was passed a message to phone a Pc Gordon of Brighton & Hove Police. He duly made the call.

  ‘We have two prisoners in custody at Brighton who were arrested on the A23 in a Volvo which was apparently stolen on your ground in the last couple of days.’

  ‘Who are they?’ said Benny.

  ‘A Peter Ryan and Tracey Golightly.’

  ‘Are they local to you?’ said Benny.

  ‘Ryan isn’t. He’s a prison escapee. Unlawfully at large having failed to return to Prison after home leave and he’s also well wanted by West Yorkshire and Northumbria Police for Fraud. Strange bloke. A bit posh and foppish. Know what I mean? Golightly lives on us. He’s got no previous convictions. Evidently he lives in Hove with his mum.’

  Benny satisfied himself that the Volvo was indeed the vehicle belonging to the Brigadier.

  As it was the protocol for police forces to deal with offenders who had committed crime in their area Benny agreed that he would arrange to have a uniform escort sent to Brighton to collect the two prisoners and have them brought back to Lee-over-Sands for questioning.

  He also arranged for a low loader to be sent from the Force Traffic garage to collect the Volvo and bring it back for forensic analysis.

  Later that day, following their arrival at Lee-over-sands Benny walked downstairs to the Charge room to welcome Messrs Ryan and Golightly. Peter Ryan was standing in front of the Station Sergeant who was completing the Detention Sheet and listing Ryan’s personal effects.

  Tracey Golightly was seated on the bench, awaiting his turn and he was in the process of being released from handcuffs by his escort. He was a rather effete and weedy specimen of about 28 years of age.

  Ryan was around 6 feet in height and of athletic build, handsome with a mop of blonde hair. He was dressed in a blazer with an open neck shirt and cravat, Cavalry twill trousers and highly polished brown brogues.

  He regarded Benny as he entered the Charge room. Benny nodded, stood to one side, and he waited for the Sergeant to finish dealing with Ryan. The Sergeant then turned to Benny and said ‘You dealing with these two gentlemen then Benny?’

  ‘Yes Skip.’

  ‘I’ve now finished with Mr Ryan. Do you want to take him straight to interview? He doesn’t want a solicitor.’

  Benny was surprised at this and he quickly called up to the office for his colleague Jenny Freeman to join him. They then took Peter Ryan along the corridor to an interview room.

  Benny introduced himself and Jenny to Peter Ryan. He cautioned him. Ryan replied in a voice straight from the playing fields of Eton.

  ‘Dc Ben Cohen, that’s a Jewish name isn’t it? I’m pleased to meet you.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Benny ‘as you say, a Jewish name but I’m lapsed I’m afraid.’

  ‘Anyway Peter. Do you mind if I call you Peter?’

  ‘Peter is fine. If I can call you Ben.’ Said Ryan.

  ‘No problem Peter. Anyway down to business. You were arrested earlier today in a stolen Volvo car. Where did you get it from?’

  ‘A large Country house near here. I was staying at a hotel with a friend. He knows nothing about it though. I left him behind at the hotel.’

  ‘Which hotel was that?’

  ‘The Hildebrand Country House Hotel.’

  ‘Did you break into the house where you stole the Volvo?’

  ‘Yes, lovely place, belongs to a Military man and his wife I believe.’

  ‘Tell me how you got in then.’

  ‘I went to the front door but nobody answered so I broke a window in the kitchen door at the rear and I got in that way.’

  Benny was amazed at Ryan’s frankness which was as unusual as it was refreshing. Still, he reasoned, Ryan knows that he is not going anywhere so he may as well do one of two things. Say nothing or cooperate.

  Peter Ryan told him how he had gone about searching the house, what he had taken and where he had disposed of the goods. He said that he had been out of prison for several months and he’d had a good run. He explained that he had travelled the country staying at hotels with various boyfriends and that the campaign had all been financed by cash obtained with stolen cards and cheques.

  Benny had never met or dealt with a homosexual before. It was still 1978 and Gay and Lesbian people were not yet accepted as a part of Society. It mattered not to Benny. He was a pragmatist. He was also a very accomplished interviewer who always tried to find common ground with those he was interviewing and in this case he knew that he would get nowhere with Peter Ryan by being judgemental. Besides, he quite enjoyed dealing with the bloke who appeared to have a singular sense of humour.

  Benny was very intent on recovering the Regimental silver and he realised that he could achieve a satisfactory outcome by developing a relationship of trust with Peter who, without going into detail, told him about all the men he had bedded since escaping.

  Benny proposed a deal. Unless there was some compelling reason for him to charge Jeremy, Tracey or any of the other “Bits of fluff,” he would try to eliminate them from enquiries. But, he wanted something in return. He wanted Peter’s help to recover all of the property from the Brigadier’s house, particularly the silver.

  Benny left Peter overnight but before locking him up he supplied him with paper and a pen. Peter had requested this so that he could make notes at his leisure.

  Chapter 29 – A lovely boy.

  The following morning Benny took Peter out of the cell for further interview. Peter told him where he could find the silver which was at the home of another boyfriend’s mother in London. He could not recall the exact address but he agreed to show Benny where the woman lived.

  So later that morning Benny set out for East London with Peter Ryan, Terry Connor and Brian Wells. On arrival at the address, which was in an old Peabody Trust block of flats in Whitecross Street, EC1, Peter Ryan showed Benny up to a flat on the first floor. Terry and Brian covered the front and rear doors of the block to ensure that Ryan did not attempt an escape.

  Peter knocked on the front door of the flat which was opened by an attractive, but brassy, blonde woman who Benny estimated to be in her late forties, ‘Hello, Peter darling. Have you come to see Robbie?’

  ‘Yes I have. Is he in?’ said Peter.

  ‘I’m sorry but he isn’t here I’m afraid, he’s away staying at Justin’s, but do you and your friend fancy a cup of tea?’

  ‘Oh, that’s a shame,’ said Peter ‘I was hoping to see him but yes we’ll have a cup of tea. This is my friend Gavin by the way.’ Benny nodded.

  They were shown into the living room and Benny’s attention was drawn immediately to two glass fronted Schreiber wall units which were liberally packed with silverware. Benny wanted to dive in and lay claim to the loot straight away but he knew he had to be patient and that he had got across the threshold by false pretences.

  They drank their tea and made polite conversation with Robbie’s mum who introduced herself to Benny as Barbara. The conversation turned to the fact that Robbie’s latest boyfriend was treating him badly and that she would be grateful if Peter could have a word with him.

  She quite unashamedly admitted that she had been a “Working girl” when she had given birth to Robbie and that he had grown up being cared for by a succession of “Aunties” when she was otherwise eng
aged.

  She also spent much of the conversation extolling the virtues of Peter who was “Such a lovely boy.”

  Benny had to make a conscious effort not to stare at the silver and he hoped that Barbara had not suspected a hidden agenda and that it would still be in the flat when his colleagues returned with a warrant the next day.

  After leaving the flat Benny told Terry Connor what he had seen. They then called in at Shoreditch Police Station where Terry went inside to make a call to update Brian Johnson. After he had put the phone down Brian set arrangements in train to obtain three search warrants for addresses in London and the staff to execute them the following morning. Benny and his colleagues then took Peter back to Lee-over-Sands.

  At 06.00 hours the next morning Benny briefed the three teams who were to travel to London. In addition to Barbara’s flat the addresses to be searched were a second-hand shop in Arnos Grove where Peter had sold the uniforms and the medals. Also the Mitre pub in Hatton Garden where they hoped to find photographs that were contained in the solid silver frames.

  Benny was to remain at the station to continue dealing with Peter. It was still very early so he drove to the District Hospital which was the only place in the town where he knew that he could get a decent breakfast. Afterwards he returned to the station and he went to the cells to look in on Peter who was just being provided with a change of clothing having showered.

  ‘Morning Ben,’ said Peter who posed like a bodybuilder and he flexed his biceps.

  ‘I’ve been doing press ups. Look at that. Tough Poof!’

  Benny laughed, ‘Yes Peter. You’re irresistible.’

  ‘Anyway,’ said Peter ‘I’ve got something for you dear boy.’

  ‘Bet you have!’ said Benny.

  ‘No seriously. You remember you asked me to write a list of where I’ve been and the names of credit cards and golf clubs etc. Well I’ve done one for you.’ He then walked into his cell and collected several pages of A4 paper which he handed to Benny.

  ‘Blimey Peter, you’ve been busy. I’ll read this lot and see you later on.’

  Benny left Peter with the gaoler and went up to the office where he sat and perused the pages. There were four of them written in the form of an itinerary with the dates in Roman numerals and he was amazed that there was so much detail. Page five was a hand drawn map of the United Kingdom which appeared to be so accurate it might as well have been a tracing taken straight from an atlas.

  Benny then read the itinerary and one of the entries in particular made him almost fall off his chair laughing.

  “Stayed at the Cherry Blossom Hotel, Penzance, used T M Davidson Barclaycard, fucked the proprietor’s wife and left during the early hours.”

  During the morning Benny took Peter out for another formal interview to clear up his trail of fraud so that it could all be taken into consideration when the matter came to court. That way when he finally came out of Prison he would not run the risk of a gate arrest on outstanding crimes.

  He worked his way through the itinerary provided by Peter then he got to the fun bit, ‘I’ve got to ask you about this bit Peter. It’s a bit hard to believe. I thought you said that you are a Homosexual?’

  ‘Oh, but I am Ben. A fully paid up member, you might say.’ said Peter.

  ‘Well I’ll quote from the notes that you gave me last night, shall I?’

  “Stayed at the Cherry Blossom Hotel, Penzance, used T M Davidson card, fucked the proprietor’s wife and left during the early hours.”

  ‘What’s that all about Peter?’

  ‘Oh, dear boy, I stayed at this lovely little family hotel and I think that I must have been the only guest staying that night. It was run by this old guy and his young wife. The bloody woman wouldn’t leave me alone. She was serving the meal and then she was at the bar with her husband and then when he went to bed pissed she came on to me and she insisted that she wanted sex. I had to try and get her off my back somehow so I fucked her on the floor of the dining room. She was really fat and horrible and do you know Ben, if I wasn’t gay, she’d have put me off women for the rest of my life!’

  Benny laughed. This bloke was a delight to deal with.

  Later, as the day wore on, Benny started to receive calls from the search teams in London. He was particularly anxious that the silver was recovered from Barbara’s flat. If it had been moved or sold on since the previous day, he would suffer major embarrassment and would be writing reports from now until Christmas. They had taken a calculated risk and Brian Johnson took some persuading to not send Benny back to retrieve it from the flat straight away. He need not have worried. It was all still there, in the living room.

  The proprietor of the second-hand shop had bought the uniforms and medals for value and in good faith so, although he would lose on the deal he willingly produced them when faced with a warrant. He also provided a witness statement describing Peter as “A bit light on his feet,” but also that he was typical of some of the “Hooray Henry’s” who come in the shop from time to time.

  The Licensee of the Mitre pub in Hatton Garden at first denied any knowledge of Peter or having bought the items in question but when confronted with a warrant and the prospect of an embarrassing Police search during the morning opening hours, he quickly complied and gave a statement naming Peter and claiming that he was looking after the items for him as he was homeless and he had told him that he had nowhere to store them. He did not know or suspect that the items were stolen.

  Terry Connor and Jenny Freeman executed the warrant at Barbara’s flat. She quickly volunteered the fact that she had only seen Peter Ryan the previous day when he arrived on her doorstep with Gavin, his latest boyfriend. ‘Lovely looking man he is that Gavin. Tall and dark with nice eyes. Shame he’s queer. I’d have taught him a thing or two!’

  She was a “scatty” thing and strangely naive so Terry Connor felt that he was able give her the benefit of the doubt when she claimed to merely be looking after the items for Peter.

  Thus Benny was able to quietly clear up what could have been an embarrassment for the Brigadier, his wife, Fanny, and the Military who rapidly reviewed and strengthened the Brigadier’s Security arrangements.

  The Chief Constable was pleased and he congratulated Chief Superintendent Short on his leadership.

  Peter Ryan was taken back to Featherstone Prison to complete his sentence. He later appeared before the Crown Court and pleaded guilty to various offences including the Burglary. In view of his cooperation and his plea he was only given an extra six months imprisonment to run consecutively with his current sentence.

  Tracey Golightly was released from custody after a perfunctory interview and he was not charged with any offences.

  Benny was left to live down the quote from Barbara which was regularly recited by Jenny Freeman in the office if Benny got a bit chirpy, “Lovely looking man he is. Tall and dark with nice eyes. Shame he’s queer.”

  Chapter 30 – Communication.

  One of the benefits of being on the CID was the break from the shift pattern that was the lot of the Uniform patrol officer. CID hours made for a much healthier work-life balance as they were based on providing Detective coverage between 8am and 10pm. The only exception to this was that of Half-Nights which entailed the provision of a Detective to supplement the Uniform Night shift until 2am. The CID officer would be partnered with a uniform constable in the CID car and they would provide a first response to the more serious crimes reported on the Division. If the crime was of a critical nature the detective would ensure that the scene was preserved, make the necessary urgent enquiries and initiate the procedure for other more senior detectives to be called out to take over the management of the case.

  As for those more run-of-the-mill offences the detective would carry out the immediate enquiries and keep a log of events. This would be written up and left for the early turn Detective Sergeant who would then allocate the crimes for any necessary further action.

  So it happened that B
enny arrived for work one morning and during the team briefing Terry Connor passed the Night CID log book to him. The Night Duty officer had made an entry with regard to alleged sexual abuse of a child by her father. ‘Unusual one to get your teeth into Benny. Best you take a female officer with you,’ said Terry.

  Following the briefing Benny sat reading the log book entry that had been written by Dc Adrian Cooper, the Night Duty officer.

  “At 20.30 hours a report was received from Colin Bryant- Social Services, regarding a report of an assault on Bridget Donnelly 12 years of 22 Hinds Road, Greenwood Estate, Lee-over-Sands. During a PE lesson at her school Bridget was found by a teacher to have bruising at the top of her right thigh. When the teacher (Mrs Norris) asked Bridget about the bruising she said that it had happened when she slept by her father. Bridget was allowed to go home as normal after school.”

  “The Parents have not yet been contacted and this enquiry is left for further enquiries to be carried out by early turn CID.”

  Benny and his colleague recognised the name and address of the suspect straight away. Her father was Lee Donnelly who was part of a notorious family who lived on the Greenwood Estate and who had been dealt with by Benny and most of the other officers of the CID at one time or another.

  The main purpose of the investigation was to ensure the safety of Bridget and to have her examined by a Police Surgeon the extent of which would be determined by what she was in fact alleging. This could only be arranged by speaking to one or other of Bridget’s parents and securing their cooperation. In short, they were going to have to go to the home of a convicted armed robber and ask to have his daughter examined by a doctor because they suspected him of being a pervert. This would not go down well.

  Colin Bryant was assigned the task of leading the Social Services case in respect of Bridget Donnelly. In the 1970s there was, within Social Services, a general reluctance to engage with the Police in these type of cases. The Police were seen by many in Social Services as a blunt instrument of the State incapable of the empathy and subtle intervention required to support such cases and unable to treat the victim according to their needs. But as in this instance Colin did not relish the prospect of negotiating with Lee Donnelly on the doorstep, he ensured that the Police were involved from the outset. Colin was warned by his colleagues to take copious notes and to treat anything that the Police might say with caution.