From Dunkirk to Disaster

An inquest into the disaster returned a verdict of unlawful killing, but in July 1996 the Crown Prosecution Service said there was insufficient evidence to justify any further criminal proceedings. Also a number of families were unsuccessful in their bid to bring a private prosecution for corporate manslaughter against the owners of the vessels. On the 7 April 1995 a Coroner’s inquest found the victims had been unlawfully killed.

In 2001 an inquiry by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency into the competence and behaviour of Captain Henderson concluded that he should be allowed to keep his master's certificate. However, they "strongly deprecated" his conduct in drinking five pints of beer in the afternoon prior to the accident - and for his own admission that he had forged some signatures on certificates and testimonials to obtain his master mariner certificate of competency in 1988. Lord Justice Clarke reached the same conclusion as the 1991 report following a public inquiry. His summing up was that fault was due to poor visibility from each ship’s wheelhouses and a lack of clear instructions to the look-out on the bow of the Bowbelle.  "He should have broadcast a May Day and he should have deployed both the life boats on the Bowbelle and her life raft" said Lord Clarke of Captain Henderson. Lord Clarke made 30 recommendations to improve river safety to include far stricter alcohol regulations on the waterways and for very significant improvement of search and rescue services on rivers.

"I didn’t get this feeling of loss because you want to keep your hopes up you know, you think any minute now she’ll walk through that door”

The police decide they either need to implicate or eliminate Cannan as a suspect. “There was massive circumstantial evidence that we uncovered in the reinvestigation that pointed to Cannan.” Detective Chief Inspector Jim Dickie With advances in technology the police set to work computerising the 26,000 card-index system that was created in 1986. This allows them to cross-check data and they make a shocking discovery. It becomes clear that other estate agents in the Fulham area were also visited by a Mr Kipper. Was Mr Kipper the alter-ego of John Cannan? A witness comes forward to say that a man matching Cannan’s description turned up at a house for sale in Fulham uninvited and without an estate agent. He chats to the lady owner and gains entry to the house. Clearly he thinks they’re alone. He starts acting strangely, and it’s only when the husband appears, that the man makes a very swift exit. The police also can’t ignore that Cannan resembles the photofit of the man seen by two different witnesses. Have the police found the elusive Mr Kipper?

Surprisingly, it transpires that Kipper was Cannan’s nickname in prison. A jogger remembers seeing a man and woman arguing in a black or dark-blue BMW. Their descriptions match those of Suzy and Cannan. Unusually, the jogger remembers that the car was a left-hand drive. Police are able to prove that Cannan had access to a black BMW as he had used it for crime with a criminal associate, who also happened to be staying at the prison hostel next to Wormwood Scrubs. When the police start looking into his character, they find a man who thinks he’s a modern cssanova. He’s very attracted to women, and appears to have very old-fashioned methods when chatting women up. He uses all the tricks in the book -  chocolates, flowers and champagne. “He comes across as very smooth, very affable, and appears to be a successful businessman. Which he certainly wasn’t. He appears to have a rather nice romantic streak, although there’s something in the background you won’t like, certainly if you’re a woman.” Stewart Trendler The problem is, he’s a casanova with a very violent streak. When interviewing Cannan’s previous girlfriends it becomes apparent that he doesn’t like rejection.

There is a pattern with former girlfriends where when he feels rejected by them he resorts to violence

The police believe they have found their man, and release his name to the media in November 2002. Unfortunately there is not enough evidence to bring him to justice. “I have come across people like Cannan, who I believe is a psychopath -clear and simple.  My view is if he ever was released, he would still be a danger to the female population of this country.” Jim Dickie, Detective Chief Inspector

On Friday 9th July, seven days after maiming the mother of his child and killing her lover, Moat emerged from the woods surrounding the town of Rothbury holding his sawn off shotgun. Police surrounded him. By this time, a search of Moat’s house had revealed he’d written six suicide notes to friends, associates and social services. One of the notes was to Samantha. It read: “Sam, I can’t go on without you. I love you so much and miss you very, very much...maybe now you’ll see just how much.” There was even a noose in the loft.

The police were determined to stop him ending his life by making one of their officers shoot, a technique known as 'suicide by cop'. An experimental non-approved Taser shotgun, the X12, was authorised for use. It was hoped that it would disable Moat before he could either shoot himself or others.

When police challenged him on the riverside, Moat dropped to the ground and began alternating between holding the gun to his throat and head. He believed it was the end, that that moment was almost inevitable and that most are indifferent to his demise. Moat had never known his father. But in those final hours, his real father made himself known to the police. Peter Blake, 68, said he would talk, for the first time, to his son. But in the following six hours, after making a careful risk assessment, the police decided not to bring him forward. They feared Moat would not believe Peter to be his real father, but someone sent to talk him down. Moat asked to see Samantha Stobbart. This similarly was considered too risky.

In another bizarre element to the story, former international football star and recovering alcoholic Paul Gascoigne came  forward to try and talk to Moat: “I’ve brought him a fishing rod, some chicken and a six-pack and got in the back of a taxi with it all...I guarantee Moaty won’t shoot me. I am good friends with him.” At 10:22pm, police stopped Gascoigne at the cordon. He later said he was unaware of the severity of Moat’s crimes and that he wasn't sure if he did know Moat after all.

At 11:30pm food and water were brought to the killer. Just after 1am, rain started to fall. For the armed officers, there was respite as exhausted police were replaced by a fresh rotation. For Moat, there was no such relief. His statements to police become increasingly fatalistic: “It ends in this field tonight.”

On Saturday, after a six-hour standoff, at about 1.15am, Moat raised his shotgun from under his chin to the right side of his head. Police interpreted this as an attempt to commit suicide. They fired two of the experimental Taser guns. One hit him on the arm but the other missed. Moat was not incapacitated and repositioned the gun to the side of his head.

“He heard a long bang and saw a red cloud exit the side of Raoul Moat’s head. He saw him fall backwards into the long grass.” PC Worgan witness statement to Independent Police Complaints Commission

Guilt

“O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams”Hamlet, William ShakespeareIn prison, Ronald Jebson has a recurring dream.There is a little slim blonde girl, Nicola, laughing and clapping on a swing.He is beside this ‘precious little China doll’. He puts his arm round her and asks if she wants to come with him. “No” she says.Next thing he knows, they’re walking down a “lovely floral path”. They come to a house in a paradise.It is paradise because it is the perfect child in the perfect location.And when it comes to bedtime, there is no resistance. The child wants the sex.And so Jebson is able to perform. And afterwards, the child’s face becomes like a galaxy of stars.The face of the child is his last murder victim, Rosemary Papper.“...one of the most common things that a predatory paedophile will say to me is that actually the child came onto him, as opposed to the other way around. That the child was interested in sex, not the predatory paedophile. These are called techniques of neutralisation. These are ways in which the paedophile can explain away his sexual interest in a child by actually saying, it wasn’t him that was interested sexually, but the child that was interested.”David Wilson, Criminologist 

‘MONSTER’It’s May 1996. In Wakefield High Security Prison, 58-year-old Jebson is serving a life sentence with a minimum term of 20 years for the murder of eight-year-old Rosemary Papper.Jebson, a paedophile killer, confides to a prison officer that he knows the identity of another child killer.He accuses Robert and Maureen Papper, the parents of the girl Jebson had killed, of being the murderers of the ‘Babes in the Woods’ children, Susan Blatchford and Gary Hanlon.Jebson had used the Papper family as an alibi for the killings of Susan and Gary; he had killed their Rosemary; and now Jebson hoped to torture them further.Detective Inspector Declan Donnelly’s assigned to the case.For the next two and a half years, he’ll investigate the sex crimes of man who calls himself a ‘monster’.Detectives soon realise Jebson is after his own twisted revenge. Jebson states that Bob and Maureen had used his car to commit the double murder. He says that after 22 years his conscience got the better of him and he needs to tell the truth.The detectives had to bring in the still grieving father. They had to interview Robert Papper under caution and DNA test him. They then told him the name of his accuser:“Jebson killed my daughter: Destroyed my first marriage; destroyed my second marriage; accused me of murder of the ‘Babes in the Wood.’ He couldn’t make that stick. So, he went back to allegations about me interfering with my other two daughters...what he’s done to my life, you can’t put words to.”Robert PapperSo the police interview Robert’s family from his first marriage, his friends and old neighbours. Not one person supports Jebson’s accusation of Robert being a child abuser.The police return to their prime suspect.