Murder in the Graveyard by Don Hale

Author:Don Hale
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2019-05-08T11:25:13+00:00

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There were so many fascinating aspects to this murder that I found difficult to comprehend. I wondered if Wendy’s fingernail scrapings had ever been taken. If not, why not? What forensic data still existed? Was third-party blood found on the murder weapon?

Initial information given verbally by one of my police informants claimed that medical reports highlighted the fact that Wendy had suffered a broken shoulder during the attack, so it now seemed clear that she had put up a tremendous struggle to try to defend herself.

This vital information was not mentioned at trial, and again it would have contradicted Downing’s alleged confession. It therefore seemed highly probable that her assailant would have been covered in blood, and I thought that with modern DNA techniques the police could match some to her real killer.

The police, though, constantly rejected any help or information, and quite incredibly constantly maintained that all the scene of crime exhibits, the paperwork and even the murder weapon had been ‘burnt, lost and destroyed’.

My friendly police informants repeatedly claimed that this was all absolute rubbish, and confirmed the pips were lying again and just wanted to fob me off.

When I challenged the police about the victim’s fingernail scrapings, I was quite bluntly told that they were never taken. One senior officer implied it was probably because her nails were too short. It turned out to be another lie.

My relationship with Derbyshire police throughout my many years of campaigning was frosty to say the least. And yet I remained determined to keep the boys in blue – and the Home Office – informed of my progress. With hindsight, however, this would prove to be a huge mistake, as I discovered that a few rotten apples in a barrel could easily contaminate the others.

I relied on a handful of loyal contacts, who like me believed in fair play and justice. Regrettably, I knew that some officers were working to a very different and opposing agenda. Keen to earn brownie points by proving their loyalty to police HQ, they constantly tried to discredit my efforts.

I feel that initially there was probably a feeling of embarrassment when I first started to make enquiries about this case, and some unease that I might expose a potentially deliberate police cover-up. I am sure that alarm bells started to ring loud and clear when I published some previously unknown facts and started interviewing key witnesses.

My first attempts to glean new information from the public proved a huge success, and I was overwhelmed by the response. It was as if the flood gates had suddenly opened, with people waiting for decades to tell their stories about this incident. Many people had simply lost faith with the local police force.

When I first arrived in Matlock in 1985, Derbyshire police were considered something of a joke locally. Just two years previously Chief Constable Alf Parrish was suspended following a county council investigation into police finances and the ‘unauthorised’ spending of thousands of pounds on the refurbishment of his private office at HQ.

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