Nobbut Laiking, by Ross Brewster
The Detective and the Hangman. It would make a cracking title for a book or film.
Ray Huddart, who was head of Cumbria CID, once told me about a police retirement function where his fellow diners included the Duke of Westminster and the famous — notorious if you prefer — executioner Albert Pierrepoint.
Pierrepoint executed between 400 and 600 people in a career that ended in 1956. The pipe smoking Lancashire publican took great pride in the efficient manner in which he despatched his clients.
Then, as now, the debate over capital punishment arose from time to time, with public opinion fairly well divided.
The recently appointed deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, Lee Anderson, re-ignited the old argument with his blindingly obvious statement that “nobody has ever committed a crime after being executed”.
I have no moral issue with the death sentence for crimes such as the sadistic killing of young children.
But given Lee Anderson’s logic, a number of innocent people would have been hanged including the Bridgewater Four, whose sentences were subsequently quashed, and the Birmingham Six who served lengthy prison sentences before their convictions were declared unsafe.
In this day and age you would never find a jury willing to convict when the likelihood of a death sentence coloured a case in which they were sitting in judgment. Attitudes have changed since the 1950s and 60s when hangings took place regularly. It’s just not in our make-up any more.
Oh yes, Lee Anderson will have his supporters. But revenge is not a good reason for hanging. Who said that? Why, Albert Pierrepoint himself. He admitted in his autobiography that the hundreds of executions he carried out in no way acted as a deterrent against future murders.
By the late 1950s, following a series of controversial executions, public opinion was swaying towards the anti-hanging campaign.
Even when a jury recommended compassion, the judge in one Cumbrian murder rejected their plea and a man was hanged in Durham Prison in February, 1959.
In fact Cumberland has its own place in the black museum because it was at 8am on 13th August, 1964, that the last hangings took place in Britain, the final chapter in a story that began with the murder of a 57 year old laundry lorry driver at his home in the west of the county.
Peter Allen and Gwynne Evans made unhappy history when they met their fate at prisons in Manchester and Liverpool. Both had appealed without success for their sentences to be commuted to life in prison.
The pair had been seeking money to pay a court debt. One of them left his jacket in the dead man’s house which soon put the police on their trail.
I wonder if Ray Huddart discussed the case with Pierrepoint at dinner. “It isn’t often that one has the pleasure of dining with a Duke and a Hangman, two very unlikely bedfellows,” he said later.
The last YouGov poll showed that support for capital punishment had fallen from 51 per cent in 2010 to 45 per cent.
Perhaps when Lee Anderson made his comment he had wind of Keir Starmer’s bid to seize the “tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime” mantra, a relic of the Blair era.
But even if there was a ready queue for the hangman’s job, I doubt we’ll see the judge’s black cap again in this country, albeit it remains a moral maze where being civilised is not always comfortable.
Football teams should be docked points for crowding the ref
Wasn’t there some kind of edict a couple of seasons ago forbidding footballers from crowding round referees in an intimidating manner?
Well, if there was it’s been forgotten this season. Particularly when it comes to certain teams in the Premier League. You know the ones, if you watch games on TV regularly. Usually the ones with hyper-active managers and coaches whipping up aggravation against officials.
Bad behaviour towards referees is apparently a relatively minor issue in our local leagues. But it’s spreading to grass roots football to such an extent that an experiment with body-cams is being trialled in four leagues.
Officials will wear them for use in disciplinary action. Out of 900 officials who took part in a survey, 293 reported being physically and verbally abused by players, managers and spectators.
It’s got to be stopped at the top level. Recently clubs have been fined up to £50,000 for failing to control their players. Small change. There’s only one thing they will take seriously; dock them points.
Let us decide what’s offensive
So they really were waiting for you, Mister Bond. The sensitivity police finally caught up with the hero of Ian Fleming’s 14 novels.
They’ve started re-writing popular books, it can only be a matter of time before they set about the theatre and old movies. Can’t we make up our own minds whether we find books like Bond and the BFG offensive?
Old TV programmes are now prefaced with apologetic warnings about being “of their time”.
I bet a few other books and plays are in line for a re-write. That’s no earth tremor in Stratford-upon-Avon. It’s Shakespeare turning in his grave.
