The Pembrokeshire Murders: Catching the Bullseye Killer by Steve Wilkins

Author:Steve Wilkins [Wilkins, Steve]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Seren
Published: 2013-07-31T22:00:00+00:00

‘You Can’t Beat a Bit of Bully’

IT WAS FEBRUARY 2009 and the team assembled at Pembroke Dock Police Station. We had taken over the third floor, and the beloved snooker table had finally gone, presented to a local club. The disclosure team now comprised of six officers: Temporary Detective Sergeant Barry Kelly led the team of experienced detectives, DC Emyr Griffiths, DC Simon Lewis-Davies, DC Oliver James, DC Mark Roach and DC Fred Hunter. They had the daunting task of reviewing all of the material making up the three Ottawa investigations, as well as Huntsman. The CPS had now identified a lawyer to help with this process. Grenville Barker was a very likeable man who loved Cardiff City F.C. He was easy to work with, clear about what he needed and nothing was too much trouble for him. Our regular discussions allowed me to give clarity of purpose to the disclosure process and the team quietly got on with it.

The road ahead was now clear. I needed to present a case to the CPS and Gerard Elias QC on the basis that we would not get any forensic evidence linking Cooper to the Ottawa offences. The forensics work would continue to its natural conclusion now that Angela Gallop and her team had breathed new life into it. I was impressed by their enthusiasm and they had started to review the fibre exhibits. We knew that Cooper had been a gloved offender and his family had said that he had clothing locked away in a wardrobe in his shed which he put on before creeping out into the night. LGC now had all the various gloves recovered from the Sardis robbery and from in and around his home. The face-to-face meetings with the scientists were working well, although their view of what an examination was and mine were at times poles apart. The combination of the scientist and detective sitting at the same table discussing what they actually meant by examination was fascinating. It enabled us to identify additional avenues to pursue and helped us understand what might have been done in the past. Together with LGC we worked though each individual exhibit and its potential for development. It was a potent combination and if this didn’t work then I believed nothing would.

Meanwhile I commissioned a review of the linking matrix, by my peers. SIOs who were not connected to the case were asked for their opinion on our processes. They were very supportive, because once the key elements of Cooper’s behaviour and M.O. had been stripped out of the three Ottawa offences and overlaid with his convictions, the similarities were startling. We had compared some 1500 suspects and persons of interest, together with their offending history against the linking matrix, and none had committed serious crimes that had the same key elements that we were investigating.

One of my analysts was tasked with producing a year-by-year picture of particular types of crime that had taken place in the same geographical area as the Ottawa offences and Cooper’s convictions.

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