The Colour of Justice by Richard Norton-Taylor

Author:Richard Norton-Taylor
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oberon Books

From the evidence of John Davidson, formerly Detective Sergeant, 24 and 27 April 1998

LAWSON: Your name is John Davidson, is it not?

DAVIDSON: It is, sir.

LAWSON: On the Friday, 23rd April as you can see, there had been various bits of information being received referring in particular to the Acourts. Yes?

DAVIDSON: Yes sir.

LAWSON: One perhaps slightly inaccurately referred to as “an anonymous male” visiting the police station. That is the man who became known as James Grant?

DAVIDSON: I believe so, sir.

LAWSON: The message accuses the Acourts and David Norris of the murder. And you saw Grant on other occasions which appear to be unrecorded?

DAVIDSON: They were recorded. The record of them appears to have gone missing, sir.

LAWSON: As an experienced detective officer, you recognised that there was certainly by the weekend, if not before, more than enough information to justify arrest?

DAVIDSON: I recognised there was more than enough information to arrest them, yes sir, but I wasn’t aware that, in fact, there were surveillance units and such set up on the houses. I could only imagine that there were other reasons.

LAWSON: For deferring arrest?

DAVIDSON: For deferring arrest.

LAWSON: Were you involved in the investigation after 1993?

DAVIDSON: I was called back in, as I was in the Regional Crime Squad, and I assisted Mr Mellish in observation and eventual arrest of Norris’ father – in order to take him away from the scene and perhaps get witnesses to come forward because there was a big fear in the estate of the Norris name. This man was a very dangerous and frightening individual, sir.

LAWSON: There was a series of photographs showing Dobson and Norris together at a car immediately outside the Acourts’ house?

DAVIDSON: I have only been made aware of that within the past three weeks.

LAWSON: Does it not strike you as being absolutely extraordinary, if that is not an inadequate adjective, if the sole purpose of the surveillance operation was to gather evidence of association, no one bothered to tell you about the fact they had evidence of association?

DAVIDSON: I am very surprised. I am shocked that I never was shown the photograph and I don’t know the reason why.

LAWSON: Thank you.

MANSFIELD: Did anything strike you about the assault, about the witness statements from people who had been at the scene?

DAVIDSON: In what way, sir?

MANSFIELD: No, no, no, this is my question; did anything strike you stand out, when you read those statements?

DAVIDSON: A boy was murdered, a young lad was murdered by four or five other young lads outside a bus stop, what would strike me about that, sir?

MANSFIELD: I just wondered if it occurred to you that it was a race attack?

DAVIDSON: I do not think in my own mind this was a racist attack. I believe this was thugs attacking anyone, as they had done on previous occasions with other white lads.

MANSFIELD: During the Dobson interview you made it clear that you personally did not think this was a race attack, did you not?

DAVIDSON: By that time I didn’t, no sir.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.