• DNA
• Ballistics including shotguns and ammunition
• Rope / Knot analysis
• Forensic Locksmith
• Fibres
• Handwriting Analysis
• Fingerprints
• Pathology
The description of the exhibit is preceded by its police reference number:
SCOVESTON
BM/64 – Anal swab from Richard Thomas
BM/12A – Rope from Helen’s body
BM/1 to 5 – Clothing of Richard Thomas
BM/14 – Watch taken from Helen Thomas
LC/35 – Button from outhouse
OGW/4 , LC/92 , MJR/2 – Shot gun wadding
DIXONS
JAW/106 – Rope used to bind Peter Dixon
JAW/15 – Bra belonging to Gwenda Dixon
JAW/2 to 5,16 to18 – Tape lifts from Dixons’ clothing
JAW 7 to 8, 102 to 104, 112 – Clothing of Dixons
LHD/12 and 17 and – Clothing and boots of Dixons
GWJC/9 – Boots of Dixons
GWJC/3 – Handkerchief from Peter Dixon
JAW/100 to 101 – Tape lifts from bodies of Dixons
JAW/113,114,116 – Shot gun wadding
BK/9 and 10 – Shot gun wadding
LHD/1 – Nat West bank slip found at scene
LHD/21 and WDGJ/23 – pornographic magazines found on coastal path
HUNTSMAN
AJM/216 /6 to 8 – Shotgun cartridges and boxes recovered from under duck run
AJM/158/176/177 – Parts of a firearm found at 34, St Marys Park.
AJM/165 – Green shorts found in bedroom of John Cooper
JR/19 and MDS/1 – shotgun cartridges discarded at Sardis robbery
PH/2/2A – Shotgun and lanyard discarded at Sardis robbery
MTJ/5/7 – Gloves discarded at Sardis robbery
HPC/7 /11 – Tape lifts from Milford Haven rape victim (XXXX1)
BKG/9/10 – Tape lifts from Milford Haven rape victim (XXXX2)
PAS/1/2 – Shotgun and cartridge belt found in Freystrop (after rape)
Large quantity of ropes found at 34, St Marys Park Jordanston.
Several other exhibits were the subject of the initial assessment, but following advice from scientists they were set aside for future consideration, if necessary.
As far as the exhibits were concerned we needed to gather expert opinion on what we had. The original inquiries had identified the specific makes of shotgun cartridges used in the murders. At Scoveston Park wadding found in the bodies pointed to an Eley type cartridge. In the case of the Dixons they were identified as being of Italian origin. There was a potential link with the cartridges found under the duck run at Cooper’s home in 1998. Ammunition expert Graham Morris had significant knowledge of the Eley cartridge company after a thirty-three year career with them which saw him finishing as managing director. As far as the Italian-manufactured cartridges were concerned, Brian Carter from Worcestershire was identified as someone who used to work for a company called Mediterranean Shooting Supplies in the 70s and 80s that imported the Italian cartridges into the United Kingdom. Both these experts were invaluable in establishing the potential connectivity between certain cartridges and the two murder investigations. A local contact was Mr Neville Pryce Jones from County Sports shop in Haverfordwest. He had been spoken to during the original investigations because he was one of the main suppliers of ballistics in the county of Pembrokeshire. His wealth of knowledge again proved to be invaluable to the Ottawa team.
Research indicated that there were a number of unidentified fingerprint marks available from the Ottawa cases. The original documentation was held at the Fingerprint Bureau at Police Headquarters in Carmarthen. At the time of the murders the Western Criminal Records Office (WCRO) existed in Cardiff and all examinations relating to fingerprints were carried out there or at the Serious Crime Fingerprint Unit within the Metropolitan Police Force. When the WCRO closed in 1992 local forces created their own Fingerprint Bureaus and all existing documentation was transferred back to the local areas. Over subsequent years, various staff within Dyfed Powys Police Scientific Support Unit carried out analysis on outstanding fingerprints using the techniques available to them. These included Automated Fingerprint Recognition (AFR 1992) and the National Automated Fingerprint Identification Service (NAFIS). The latter was re-named as IDENT 1 in 2005. In addition, NAFIS saw the introduction of the Serious Crimes Cache that holds the unidentified marks gathered from a number of serious crime scenes in the UK. Certain marks from the Scoveston and Dixons scenes were stored within this cache and automatically searched against any new fingerprints taken across the whole of the UK. As part of the Operation Ottawa review, the services of Mrs Esther Neate of Neate Imaging Services in Chippenham were used in March 2007. Using the new technique of ‘digital cleaning of fingerprints’, she was able to enhance certain marks but disappointingly no formal identifications were made; another door had been closed on us.
But as the saying goes, just as one door closes another one opens. We had engaged the services of handwriting expert Hilary Pritchard, from Llangrannog in West Wales. We wanted her to examine the writing on two ammunition boxes recovered from under Cooper’s duck run. One was a Baikal ammunition cardboard box (AJM/216/6). The other was a Max 5s box with ‘Maximum 5s’ written on it in biro to indicate that a different type of cartridge had been added to the box. Research into the FSS case notes from Scoveston indicated that Richard and Helen Thomas owned similar shotgun cartridge boxes, which had writing on, as well as owning a Baikal ammunition box. The suggestion was that Cooper might have stolen the ammunition boxes on the night of the murders and later hidden them under his duck run. Unfortunately the actual boxes from Scoveston had been destroyed but we still had the examination notes of the handwriting. It was decided to use samples of Helen Thomas’ handwriting that had been preserved from Scoveston, together with the forensic notes, to see if there was a connection. Samples of Cooper’s writing were also used. The evidence, provided by Hilary Pritchard, was that the hand writing on the cartridge boxes recovered from Cooper’s duck run could not have been written by John William Cooper or Richard Thomas, but could have been written by Helen Thomas. The evidence was interesting but not conclusive as the comparison samples were too brief to provide further evidence.
During Operation Huntsman a number of keys had been recovered from Cooper’s cesspit but in 1998 they were unable to say whether any of them were connected to the missing keys from Richard Thomas’ Rover car. One witness, a Mr Edward O’Brien, was revisited in 1998 and he confirmed that the bunch of keys referred to as GAL/96/1 were similar in all respect to keys used by Richard Thomas. We decided to look at this again with the help of forensic locksmith Ron Cliffe. Unfortunately, without the car itself and with Rover and British Leyland long gone, there were few manufacturing records left and he was unable to prove a link between the keys and Richard’s car. I did consider a media appeal to find the car but decided against it.
The original pathologists back in the 1980s were Dr Owen Glynn Williams on Scoveston and Professor Bernard Knight on the Dixons. They were both living legends with decades of experience and we needed to talk to them. Bernard Knight was still an active man who had taken up writing in retirement and was a published author. The passing of time had diluted his memory somewhat but I was confident following my visit that he would be able to give evidence if required, as long as he could have access to his original notes. Doctor Williams, affectionately known as O.G., was considerably older and lived alone on the outskirts of Swansea. I visited him with Lynne Harries. O.G. greeted us at the kitchen door wearing his dressing gown and slippers, we introduced ourselves and he invited us in. As he shook hands with Lynne he said, “I have been thinking, that fracture to Richard Thomas skull could have been as a result of a sharp blow to the head rather than caused by the shotgun blast”. This was unsolicited and struck a chord with both Lynne and myself. Gwenda Dixon h
ad been struck to the head, probably rendering her unconscious. The victims of the Milford Haven robbery and rape had also been struck about the heads with the butt of a shotgun; of course we knew that during his robberies Cooper had used the butt of his gun to strike his victims. We spent a couple of hours with O.G. and he was a fascinating, lovely man full of memories, but I thought that he was too frail to give evidence in court.
Regular Gold Group meetings chaired by DCC Andy Edwards received updates from myself and decided on logistical support and finance. This was all well and good but we were now in the summer of 2007 and had nothing to show on the forensic front. There was also a storm building. I had been notified that Cooper had applied for parole and September 2007 was a possible release date. The pressure was on for the interview team to be ready before this date. His possible release and future management in the community would need a so-called multi-agency approach between the Probation Service and the local police. The forum for managing dangerous offenders is called Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA). In accordance with MAPPA guidance Cooper was identified as a Level Three Offender, the highest risk.
The local police together with all the relevant agencies had done all the groundwork in readiness for Cooper’s release. Superintendent Euros Lewis was in charge of the process and for me this was great news. Euros was a living legend and one of the very best cops I had ever known. I loved working with him, as he was great fun. I recall one instance during a murder investigation when he wanted to bug a location where a suspect was going to be and possibly give away vital conversations. I was in charge of the Force surveillance unit and responsible for producing the detailed applications for such activity for consideration by the Chief Constable. Euros was the SIO and phoned me to say, “Wilkie, get your arse down here boy, I want you to do the application so I can brief the Deputy Chief Constable.” I hotfooted it down to Pembroke Dock and wrote the application. Euros said, “Right Wilkie boy, sit there and I will put the phone on loudspeaker, if the DCC asks a difficult question I will repeat it out loud and you give me the answer.” “OK Lew, it sounds a good plan,” I replied. Moments later the phone rang, it was DCC Keith Turner and Euros launched into his briefing. Every now and again he would look at me and nod, or shake his head. I responded by mirroring his actions. At the end of the conversation he put the phone down rubbed his hands excitedly and said, “Wilkie boy, job sorted.” I looked at him and said, “I haven’t got a clue Lew boy, I am a scouser and you have been speaking Welsh for the last twenty minutes.” We rolled about laughing as we did many times working together. The other side of Lew was a dedicated, thorough and highly professional police officer, who I believe did not get the recognition he so deserved. I knew that if he represented us at MAPPA we could not have a better person.
Also at the forefront of our minds was the fact that we might soon have to interview Cooper. Over the years the public have seen many television programmes, from The Sweeney to Life on Mars, showing detectives quizzing suspects. All too often the detective is sometimes depicted as a bumbling, ill-prepared fool. I can promise you that a good interviewer is a highly skilled and professional individual. My team were well prepared with detailed and comprehensive strategies and it was time for them to start the build-up for the most important and challenging interviews of their career. The plan also included interviewing Cooper’s family about his background. The question was, after all this time would they be willing to speak?
Before the interviews with Cooper I wanted to unlock his family secrets. There was a feeling amongst the Huntsman and Ottawa teams that his family had knowledge and information that would help us understand the man and his habits. The view of the Huntsman team was that the family would come so far in disclosing information but feared him more than the police. They had made certain disclosures in 1998 but had not been able to see them through in court. It was important that the team gave every opportunity to the family to reveal any information or suspicions regarding the murders. With this in mind the interview team came together and started to prepare to face Cooper.
By now the process of submitting exhibits for examination was pretty slick, but the examinations themselves were revealing precious little. One Friday evening I spoke with Lynne and Glyn at Fishguard Port Office and each of us presented a persuasive argument as to what we believed had happened at each scene. Lynne was becoming increasingly more concerned that the scientific work lacked innovation. Invariably, he explained, it was the Ottawa team suggesting ideas to the forensic scientists about examining exhibits rather than the other way round. In particular two exhibits vexed us: surely if the rope used to secure the hands of Peter Dixon belonged to Cooper then there would be some DNA trace evidence? Low copy number DNA was now so sensitive it was difficult to imagine not getting something. It was at this point that Lynne started to talk about “twenty eight and thirty four cycle DNA processes.” I had only just got my head around the cartridge manufacturers! The rope was crucial, as was one of the cartridges found under the duck run at Cooper’s home. It was a pre-war cartridge with a cardboard finish casing and identical to cartridges found in the larder at Scoveston Park. It had a dirty brown stain on the casing, which had given an indication of blood; could it be the blood of one of the victims?
It was at this time that LGC informed us that a new process called Mini Filer was available but had not been validated in the UK. It was designed to develop degraded DNA. The problem we had was the time gap between the recovery of the exhibits and their examination: over time DNA degrades and can potentially be lost. Mini Filer therefore presented us with a fantastic opportunity. Previous tests on the cartridge had proved negative for blood but could the new process provide another chance?
It was at this stage that we had our first significant lead from the forensic tests. We were certain that the rope used to tie the hands of Peter Dixon (JAW/106) had been brought to the scene by the killer. This meant that at some stage he must have handled it in such a way that we could recover DNA evidence. LGC Forensics had worked hard on this item and tried every avenue open to them. They had raised a partial profile and some mixed profiles. Some DNA elements matched the profile of Cooper but the discriminating value was low, less than one in every three hundred of the population would have the same elements. It was interesting but not enough for us to get excited about. LGC were suggesting that the new Mini Filer process might enhance the profile and could also be used on the shotgun cartridge shell that had at one stage tested positive for blood. Good news in one sense but we were six months off the process being validated and being admissible in our courts. I desperately wanted to interview Cooper before he was released into the community but by now his parole application was looming; the problem for us was that other than the circumstantial evidence we had precious little.
The Prison Service too was doing little to ease my concerns. Due to an administrative mix up Cooper had been moved to an open prison. Superintendent Euros Lewis, yet again, saved the day when he noticed the error. This oversight was very quickly resolved and we were informed that Cooper had failed in his parole application. His next chance wasn’t until September 2008; the pressure was off us for a little while at least.
Then followed some long discussions with DCS Steve Mears and DCC Andy Edwards at which we agreed that the interview would be postponed whilst we awaited the validation of Mini Filer and the results from LGC on key exhibits. I could not believe that with all the hard work it would not break in our favour. I had had a good feeling about Ottawa from day one and I needed to ensure that the team could see that I had not lost faith. I informed the team of our decision to delay the interviews and continue the forensic submissions and assessments. The interview team was stood down and we were again working hard on trying to find what I described as the ‘golden nugget’ of forensic evidence. By the autumn of 2007 it was becoming increasingly difficult to protect the confidentiality of the investigation but I did not want it leaked into the public domain. Lynne
Harries and Glyn Johnson were my confidants and I trusted their judgement. We therefore agreed that now was the right time to go public. It would clearly make headline news both in Wales and around the UK so we wanted to observe how Cooper would react. Having kept his side of the bargain and sat on the story, I knew that I had to keep our part of the deal with ITV Wales. I called Jonathan Hill who had maintained the news blackout we needed, and told him we were ready to go live. Clearly the Force wanted the maximum publicity but ITV Wales had gone the extra mile in keeping up the contact over the months since our first meeting.
Trust is at the heart of any relationship and I was now beginning to trust Jonathan, he was someone I could do business with. We arranged to meet again to plan how were could get the maximum coverage. It was October and the country was gripped by speculation that Gordon Brown would take advantage of his lead in the polls and call a general election. Jonathan advised me that we should avoid the potential election date of November 8. In the end the Prime Minister decided against an early election and we therefore decided to go for November 7. The date was set and we filmed a series of special reports for the evening news programme. ITV said they would devote the bulk of their programme to the story, and we agreed that they would break the news. It was obvious that once the story was out there a feeding frenzy would follow. The Ottawa team and the local Police Commander would hold a news conference at Haverfordwest police station the morning after the news broadcast, to make sure that everyone got the story and we got the best possible coverage.
On the night of 7 November I met Jonathan on the coastal path just yards from where the Dixons had been murdered. It was wet and blustery and the narrow path was no place for the fainthearted. Our location had been lit and we were preparing to go live when out of the gloom came a distressed old lady who asked if we had seen her dog. I could hear the producer counting down, forty-five seconds. “Willy where are you?” came a shrill voice from the darkness. I could see the look of sheer horror on Jonathan’s face. Oh shit, I thought, this is not what we planned, and who the hell would be walking along a coastal path in winter with an undetected double murderer still at large? With thirty seconds to air I was now slightly unnerved, but no sooner had she come around the corner of the path than the old lady disappeared back into the sea mist. At exactly six o’clock we went live and Jonathan broke the news to Wales. The programme carried a very emotional interview with Keith Dixon, the brother of Peter. I couldn’t help thinking that he had been murdered in cold blood just yards from where we were standing. It was a very moving moment but I was keen to get the message across to the public and to Cooper who I believed would be watching from his prison cell. “We believe the answer to what happened all those year ago lies in this community,” I told the audience. It was a statement directed at Cooper but we did not know how he would react. I was careful not to formally link the Dixons’ murder with the Scoveston case but I emphasised that the murders were being investigated side by side. The inference was clear, we believed the murders were connected and that the killer was a local man. The main thing I wanted to get across was that I felt forensic science would have a significant influence on the investigation. As we closed the broadcast I was desperate to know if we had received any calls and how the news had been received in the local community. Above all I wanted to know if Cooper had seen it but I would have to wait until 2008 when he was finally interviewed to discover his extraordinary reaction.
The Pembrokeshire Murders: Catching the Bullseye Killer Page 10