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 police officers had stopped to question the three occupants of a car waiting near Wormwood Scrubs Prison; Roberts shot two of the officers dead, and John Duddy, another occupant in the car, shot dead the third officer. The three offenders went on the run, initiating a large manhunt. All three were eventually caught and sentenced to life imprisonment. Public sympathy for the families of the victims resulted in the Police Dependents' Trust being set up as a charity to assist the welfare of the families of British police officers who have died while on duty.[1]
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On 12 August 1966, the crew of unmarked Metropolitan Police Triumph 2000 Q-car 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, 30, and Temporary Detective Constable David Bertram Wombwell, 25, were both members of F Division Criminal Investigation Department (CID) based at Shepherd's Bush police station. Their driver was Police Constable Geoffrey Roger Fox, 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 p.m. 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 Britain.
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 certificate, which is required before a tax disc can be issued. DS Head asked for his driving licence and 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 the police car, but Roberts ran after him and, after missing him with the next shot, shot him in the head. John Duddy, the back seat passenger, also got out, grabbing a .38 Colt 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.[2]
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 passerby, suspicious of a car driving so fast near the prison, had written down the registration number, PGT 726. Witney, the van's owner, was arrested at his home six hours after the killings. 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 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 16 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 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 been sent there as a child evacuee earlier in his life. At this time, there were lots of sightings of Roberts, who had actually been eating regularly in a cafe right next to Bishops Stortford police station. Its proprietors commented several times on their guest's uncanny likeness to Roberts. However they and other locals who had seen him around concluded that he couldn't possibly be the same man the police were hunting, and consequently he evaded capture for several months.
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 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 judge, Mr Justice Glyn-Jones, recommended that they serve at least thirty years before becoming eligible for parole. He commented that the killings were "the most heinous crime to have been committed in this country for a generation or more".[3]
The three offenders were John Edward 'Jack' Witney, John Duddy and Harry Maurice Roberts.
John Edward 'Jack' 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. 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 policeman. He was beaten to death with a hammer by his flatmate, a heroin addict, in August 1999 at his home in Horfield, Bristol.[2] Police ruled out any connection between his murder and the events of 1966.[4]
John Duddy (born 1929), originally from Glasgow in Scotland, was a long-distance lorry driver. He had been in trouble for theft several times when he was younger, but had been going straight since 1948. Immediately prior to the offence he had started to drink heavily and had met Roberts and Witney in a club.
John Duddy died in Parkhurst Prison on 8 February 1981.[5]
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 policemen were about to search the van and believed he would get fifteen years if he was caught with a firearm.
The killings caused outrage in Britain. There were calls for the recently abolished death penalty to be reintroduced and increasing numbers of police officers, usually unarmed in Britain, were trained to use firearms. The Metropolitan Police Firearms Wing, now CO19, was established later the same year.
Six hundred 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.
Harry Roberts murder of the policemen made him a hero in some anarchist circles, and anarchists and football fans since the murders have chanted his name to antagonise the police. 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" (to the tune of "London Bridge Is Falling Down"),[6][7][8][9] a chant which originated with groups of young people outside of Shepherd's Bush police station after Roberts had been arrested.[10] His folk-hero status amongst 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,[8] and he features in the lyrics of several songs by the band Chumbawamba, including one in which is 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".
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 twelve 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”.
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 Justice Secretary, still retains the power to reject a Parole Board recommendation that Roberts be moved to an open prison though he cannot block a decision by the board to order his release.[11]
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