Murder of Bedminster shop owner Roy Page 1985
"HOW TV HELPED TO CATCH A KILLER"
Crime scene: A shop in St John's Lane Victim: Roy Page
It was because of an appeal on BBC TV's Crimewatch in the summer of 1985 that 35-year-old bogus gasman Clive Richards was eventually tracked down and arrested for the brutal murder of 61-year-old Bedminster shop owner Roy Page. Sixty police officers had taken some 1,000 statements and followed up 1,700 lines of inquiry, but it was TV and its powerful message that would eventually lead to the murderer's arrest. Sue Cook, Crimewatch presenter for some 11 years until she left in 1995, said she was convinced that the programme - which she considered one of her proudest achievements - had saved someone's life.
She said that Mr Page's murder stood out from among the very many violent crimes that the programme helped solve because of its dramatic conclusion. The victim, a widower, had been battered with great force about the head, and then died after choking on a wad of cloth forced down his throat. All that the police had to go on were witness reports of a Welsh-sounding gasman, wearing blue overalls, claiming that he was looking for leaks in the area. But the gas board said that no such official existed.
When the case came to court it was said that Mr Page's body had been discovered after some schoolchildren from nearby Victoria Park School had found his sweet shop, normally open until 8.30pm each day, closed. Paul Chadd, for the prosecution, said: 'A door was forced and those entering were confronted with a scene of horror. An effort had been made by the killer to push the body into a cupboard.' Doors and carpets were spattered with blood, there had been a struggle and £2,000 was missing from a safe.
On that fateful day, July 18, 1985, Roy Page had been standing at the door of his shop planning a little treat for his grand- daughter Louise's seventh birthday when he spotted a man wandering around the area in overalls. As he was wearing an earphone and said that he was looking for a gas leak the shopkeeper allowed him into the back of the St John's Lane premises. There he was quickly overpowered by 20-stone Richards and battered close to death. His body was found when police, accompanied by his son Gordon, broke into the shop. It was only after a reconstruction was shown on TV's Crimewatch that Richards, who denied the murder, was arrested in Portsmouth seven weeks later.
He was carrying a metal bar and a dagger, suggesting that he may have been getting ready to kill again. Sue Cook added: 'There's no doubt in my mind that we saved someone's life that day.' Police admitted that, without the programme, they would have stood little chance of catching Richards, who had no criminal record and who was highly respected in his home town of Port Talbot. But after an appeal had gone out they were soon following up some 200 calls from the public. It was five of these that led them to their man. Two Portsmouth men, Stephen Harfield and Colin Weaver, who had seen the programme, remembered the likeness and then, separately, saw a man matching that description in the city.
After alerting the police and then taking them to him, Richards was arrested. The two men were later given Waley- Cohen awards ' in support of law and order'. The jury at Bristol Crown Court was told that Richards - who had pleaded not guilty - had turned to crime after his fruit and veg business had failed. He had got into debt and invented a cock and bull story - that he been awarded an honorary professorship in 'nenetics' and offered a well-paid job, worth some £52,000 a year, with a Japanese company in Canada - to tell his parents.
The 'loner', who spent hours reading in his bedroom, was to later tell the jury that he was research director of a secretive scientific 'fellowship', the Mary Elizabeth Trust, at the time of the murder. All a complete tissue of lies, Richards also described himself as 'Professor' on his driving licence and passport and stated his profession as 'scientific consultant'. After convincing his parents about the authenticity of his new job, Richards began to spend weeks away from home. He claimed that he was undertaking a time and motion study for a charitable fund, but in reality he had embarked on a scheme - dressed as a gas inspector - to extract money from little corner shops all over the South.
On May 8, 1986, Clive Richards began a life sentence after being convicted - by the jury's unanimous decision - of murdering Roy Page. It transpired that two fingerprints matching those of the accused had been found on a paper bag near the body. Broadmoor psychiatrist, Dr Harvey Gordon, who gave evidence during the trial, said that Richard's fantasies about his work for the 'Trust' were the result of mental illness. He told the Post: 'On balance, I think he is suffering from severe mental illness, normally known as chronic schizophrenia.' DS Lew Clark added: 'He lived in a land of make believe.
He was deceiving his family, his friends and his business contacts.' His son Gordon, who gave up his electrician's job to take over the St John's Lane tobacco and sweet shop after his father's death, told the Bristol Post: 'Without that TV programme I do not think the police would have caught this man in 20 years.' Gordon, who, together with his brother Brian, had offered a £5,000 reward for any clues that would lead to their father's killer, later sold up.
His last case before retirement, DS Clark said: 'This was a classic example of police working with the media to get a message over to the public. It is a lesson to all of us that the detection of a crime is a responsibility for us all and not just for the police.'
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