Disordered Minds

*26*

25 MULLIN STREET, HIGHDOWN, BOURNEMOUTH

FRIDAY, MAY 30, 2003, 2:30 P.M.

Duncan Bartholomew, a lean, gray-haired man in his fifties, reached forward to switch off the tape recorder as Sasha's voice called out, "Mrs. Fletcher! For God's sake, stop! You're killing him." "We lost sound a few seconds later, but you get an idea of Louise's mood in the lead-up to the attack. Not quite the reasonable individual that she presented at Poole police station when she made her statement."

"I do find that odd," said George. "Why did she want Sasha listening in?"

"So that we'd know the allegations against Trent," said Bartholomew. "I imagine she wanted us to do exactly what we have done. Report them to Mr. and Mrs. Trevelyan and, with their permission, repeat them to you and William Burton. The police are unlikely to mount an investigation unless there's considerable pressure put on them. At the moment it's just Louise's word against Trent's."

"Have the police heard the tape?" asked Jonathan.

Sasha, who was sitting beside her boss on the sofa, shook her head. "They're wary of compromising a prosecution-illicit gathering of information," she explained. "But I made it clear in my statement that I thought Louise was stringing me along until Roy arrived. I'm sure she'd have given me twenty anecdotes of her visits to the Trevelyan house if she hadn't heard the back door open. I certainly heard it."

"So what was it all in aid of?" asked George. "Why didn't she tell you straight out what she told the police?"

It was Duncan Bartholomew who answered. "If you believe Mrs. Fletcher, then it was because Roy Trent was listening and she was too afraid to stray from the version he'd taught her. If you take Sasha's view that she was playing a game, then she wanted to engineer a confrontation that would involve the police being called. She said afterward that she'd expected Sasha to dial 999 immediately instead of weighing into the fight." He folded his hands in his lap. "Her statement is very convincing."

"I know," said George with sigh, "and you can understand how reluctant she might have been to make it without some strong guarantees that it was taken seriously. Talking to a private detective agency, or a couple of amateurs like me and Jon, wouldn't have got her anywhere. Even talking to the police without support from people like you would have been a gamble."

Bartholomew nodded. "Trent denies it, of course."

"He sent George a copy of his statement," said Jonathan. "Did he send you one?"

"Yes."

"It's a spinning war. You pays your money and you takes your choice. Roy makes a good point at the end when he questions why Howard never mentioned Cill in his defense. I checked it with Howard's solicitor. He was astonished to discover that two schoolgirls were regularly truanting in Grace's house. He said that if they'd known there was a disturbed adolescent in the house on the Saturday, they'd have concentrated their efforts on her. According to him, Cill was the reasonable doubt that might have swung the jury in Howard's favor."

"Assuming he didn't kill her," said Bartholomew dryly.

"Oh dear!" sighed George. "It's so depressing. Fred Lovatt says it's stalemate. He pointed to the fact that Louise's hearsay evidence came from a dead heroin addict with a history of criminal behavior who probably fantasized his life to make himself more interesting. He says the GPS will drop it for lack of evidence and Howard will go down in the annals of crime as a serial killer." She pulled a comical face. "Which is the exact opposite of what Jon and I set out to do when we first embarked on this wretched story."

Jonathan stood up and walked to the kitchen area to plug in the kettle. "Is there anything going for Howard?" he asked.

Sasha took out her notepad. "There's one small discrepancy," she said. "Louise authorized Nicholas Hurst's consultant to give me whatever information I requested. He vouched for his patient's brain damage, catastrophic amnesia and unpredictable aggression. He also paid tribute to Mrs. Fletcher for her care of a man who's greatly disabled." She looked up. "That's why she wanted me to talk to him. He couldn't praise her enough ... said that if she hadn't stayed with him, Nicholas would have died a year ago. As far as the consultant's concerned, whatever she inherits is cheap at the price."

Bartholomew's thin face broke into a smile. "He was very insistent about it, apparently ... says he's known grizzly bears with more charm. He's never understood how Louise put up with it."

"She didn't have to," said George cynically, propping her chin on her clasped hands. "She watched him on the monitor at the Crown and Feathers."

Sasha moved to the next point on her pad. "The consultant also confirmed some old knife-wound scars on Hurst's right arm. The scars healed well, so he clearly received treatment for them, which I believe is what Roy Trent told you."

George nodded. "They took him to hospital."

"I also checked with David Trevelyan about Wynne Stamp's drinking. That's true, I'm afraid-apparently she was quite notorious-so the alibi she gave Howard for the Monday night isn't reliable."

"Does he know what happened to her?" asked Jonathan, spooning tea leaves into the teapot.

"He said her drinking spiraled out of control in the lead-up to Howard's trial, so Brackham & Wright's paid her off and she was rehoused somewhere along the south coast-possibly Weymouth. We've made inquiries there, but we haven't found a Wynne Stamp or a Wynne Jefferies."

"It's the name that's the problem," Bartholomew put in. "If she changed it, we've virtually no hope of locating her. We've tried the Public Record Office at Kew to see if she registered a new one, but they have no record of anyone called Stamp changing his or her name between 1963 and 1983. It doesn't mean she didn't do it, of course-it's not compulsory to place it on public record. Her most likely course was to do it free by adopting a new one through usage ... but that makes tracing her impossible."

"Is that legal?"

"Perfectly legal. You can't alter your birth certificate, but you're entitled to call yourself anything you like. You can change your name every other day if you want to. Louise Burton's been doing it for years. That's why she remained hidden for so long."

Sasha moved down her pad. "I've tried the Dorset crematoria in case Wynne died," she said, "but I've had no success there either. No Wynne Stamps or Jefferies have been cremated in the time frame we're looking at. I wondered if the housing department might have kept her details."

George shook her head. "They were the first people I went to when my neighbor told me Grace's story, but they'd shredded their files from the 1970s long before I arrived."

"If you really want to find her, then the best course is to advertise in the local newspapers," said Bartholomew, "but I wouldn't pin your hopes on her coming forward."

Jonathan nodded. "What about Robert Burton?" he asked. "Did he agree to see you?"

The man nodded. "He did ... heavily chaperoned by his wife. Very strange characters, both of them. We don't have a tape because they refused to be recorded, but they were in bullish denial for half an hour." He gave an abrupt laugh. "How dare we believe anything their drug-addicted daughter said about her wholesome, upright father? How dare we suggest that a good Christian woman like Eileen would lie to the police?" He jerked his head at the tape recorder. "When we got bored, we played them that interview with Louise."

"And?"

"Robert went to pieces," said Sasha, "but Eileen continued to deny everything. It was interesting. She's a tough woman-there's no way she's going to take responsibility for anything her husband did. She described Louise as a compulsive liar and was adamant they never knew Cill was with Grace." She turned to George. "She latched onto your point immediately: why would they have sent Louise to school on the Monday if they'd known where Cill was? She says Louise could never have kept the secret because all the children were firing questions at her about the fight on the Friday."

"So why did they take her out from the Wednesday?" Jonathan asked.

"For the reasons that Louise and William gave. She kept throwing fits. Her father called a doctor, who diagnosed delayed shock and put her on sedatives. The idea was to wean her back to school gently but, what with Grace's murder and Cill's continued disappearance, the doctor's advice was to start again somewhere else. He even helped them by putting a recommendation for a move to the housing department." Sasha shrugged. "I asked Mrs. Burton about the hair dyeing and the name change and she said they were done to give Louise courage. She dyed her own hair to make the child comfortable. She was completely immovable on the subject of abuse. As far as she's concerned, it never happened ... Louise invented it to excuse her prostitution and drug addiction."

"What did Mr. Burton say to that?"

"Very little," said Bartholomew. "I don't know if he realized she was hanging him out to dry if Louise makes the abuse allegations public ... but he managed to pull himself together enough to bluster a bit. It wasn't very convincing. He went white as a sheet when Sasha repeated what William had said about his visits to Louise's bedroom. He obviously thought he'd kept it secret from his son."

"The chances are he'd react the same if he were innocent," George said fairly. "It's a terrible accusation ... and very frightening if both your children are making it."

"The abuse isn't in question," said Bartholomew. "He had no answers for anything ... couldn't explain why he visited her bedroom and not Billy's ... why he wanted her in provocative clothes and makeup ... why he encouraged her to bring her friends home so that he could sit them on his lap. If we'd had him on his own he'd have given us chapter and verse, but Sasha's right-Eileen's a different kettle of fish entirely."

"Was she telling the truth?" asked George.

"About what?"

"Anything."

"I'd say she was being truthful about what she knew at the time," said Duncan. "Whether she's worked out since that things were happening behind her back-and has chosen to close her mind to it-I don't know."

"Then Louise lied about telling her Cill was at Grace's?"

"We think so."

"What about Robert?"

"He denied it very strongly. It's the only time we believed him."

"Then there's only Louise's word that Cill was ever there?"

"I'm afraid so."

"And that's not enough to convict Roy Trent?"

"No. He can draw on the evidence from the time that the only fingerprints found were Grace Jefferies's and Howard Stamp's."

There was a short silence.

"So what's this small discrepancy?" asked Jonathan.

"The scars on Nicholas Hurst's arm," said Sasha. "He's right-handed and they're on his right forearm-on the ventral surface-and there's some muscle wastage and loss of mobility in his hand. He can't touch his fifth finger with his thumb. This is characteristic of median nerve damage and it takes a long time to repair, apparently. Sometimes, as in Hurst's case, minor losses of function can become permanent."

Jonathan was ahead of her. "And it can't be attributed to the brain damage?"

"Unlikely. The arm's not paralyzed or semi-paralyzed. It's just the hand that's affected. One thing the consultant was very clear about was that anyone with the sort of scars Hurst presents would have been in considerable pain at the beginning and his hand would have been seriously-and visibly-disabled for months." She smiled. "William Burton didn't notice anything wrong on the day of the rape, he even says Hurst had charge of the vodka bottle. Yet, according to what Roy Trent told you about the fight with Howard, his hand should have been a useless claw."

Jonathan gave a small whistle. "I'm surprised Roy forgot that."

"How does it help us?" asked George. "He'll just say he made a mistake on the dates."

"Except the details are in Hurst's medical records," said Sasha with a grin, "and when I asked the consultant when the damage occurred, he told me the treatment was dated 1972-the year after Howard was convicted."

Extracts from a report compiled by Sasha Spencer, on the instructions of Mr. and Mrs. Trevelyan, requesting that Priscilla Trevelyan's disappearance on Saturday, May 30,1970 be reopened as a murder inquiry.

WCH INVESTIGATIONS REPORT

SUBJECT: Priscilla "Cill" Trevelyan, aged 13

INCIDENT: Went missing from her parents' home in Lacey Street, Highdown, Bournemouth on the night of May 29/30,1970

PRESENT WHEREABOUTS: Believed buried under the Colliton Way industrial estate

CIRCUMSTANCES: Murdered by Roy Trent, Nicholas Hurst and Michael Hopkinson (deceased) on the night of Saturday/Sunday May 30/31, 1970

The full details of WCH Investigations' examination of Cill Trevelyan's disappearance are available on request. Much of the evidence is circumstantial. However, WCH Investigations is confident that if the case is reopened as a murder inquiry, further proof will be found. It is outside of the scope of WCH Investigations to carry out searches, trace witnesses who have left the area, fully substantiate medical evidence or locate police files from 1970. Nevertheless, the case for murder is a compelling one.

(Attachments include transcripts of interviews and statements made by: Louise Burton, William Burton, Robert Burton, Eileen Burton and Roy Trent, and additional material supplied by Councillor George Gardener and Dr. Jonathan Hughes.)

IN CONCLUSION

It is clear that Roy Trent and Louise Burton have conspired for many years:

1. to suppress any connection between Cill Trevelyan's disappearance and the murder of Grace Jefferies;

2. to protect Trent, Hurst and Hopkinson from accusations of rape;

3. to maintain the fiction that Cill Trevelyan ran away and vanished;

4. to throw blame for that onto David and Jean Trevelyan;

5. when that failed, to involve Howard Stamp by painting him as a "pervert."

The remit of this investigation was to "find the present whereabouts of Priscilla 'Cill' Trevelyan." As demonstrated, we believe her body is buried in or around the Colliton Way industrial estate. However, questions have been raised about the murder of Grace Jefferies and the conviction of her grandson, Howard Stamp. While we have no evidence to dispute the jury's verdict, we believe the following facts should be considered:

1. At Stamp's trial the prosecution convinced the court that Grace Jefferies's murder happened on Wednesday, June 3.

2. The time of death was disputed by the defense.

3. Louise Burton claims to have visited Grace's house on Tuesday, June 2, 1970, and seen blood on the windows.

4. Robert Burton, Eileen Burton, William Burton and Louise herself all testify that she had a fit on the morning of Wednesday, June 3, and refused to go to school. William Burton has testified that his sister threw fits, curled into the fetal position or became catatonic whenever she was frightened. Her GP was called and she was prescribed sedatives. This record, giving the date, may have survived.

5. Grace Jefferies was fond of Cill Trevelyan, and regularly harbored her and Louise Burton. If either of them came to her door late at night, she would have admitted them. Roy Trent, Nicholas Hurst and Michael Hopkinson knew this, and might have used one or both girls as a means of entry to Grace's house.

6. Councillor George Gardener has a signed and notarized statement from Grace Jefferies's neighbor (now deceased) that Howard Stamp did not arrive at Grace's house on Wednesday, June 3, 1970, until 2:00 p.m.-allowing only half an hour for him to commit a vicious murder and take the bath that condemned him.

It is the contention of WCH Investigations that Stamp's conviction was unsafe and should be re-examined.

At Stamp's trial he failed to give a convincing explanation for why he chose to visit his grandmother on Wednesday, June 3, 1970, instead of following up on a job at the local dairy (Jannerway & Co.). There was a suggestion that he became angry when she took him to task for shirking work. We believe a more likely explanation is that he made a detour via Grace Jefferies's house on his way to Jannerways in order to ask her if she knew what had happened to Cill Trevelyan. This suggests he was ignorant of her fate. Finding Grace dead, he was too shocked to do anything other than run home.

The transcript of Roy Trent's interview makes much of the fact that Stamp did not cite his friendship with Cill Trevelyan in his defense. Yet, despite their questioning by the police, Trent, Hurst, Hopkinson and Burton never mentioned it either. Stamp's excuse is that he was never asked about the missing girl.

There is no such excuse for Trent, Hurst, Hopkinson and Burton, whose questioning related only to Cill Trevelyan.

Bournemouth Evening News, Friday, June 27, 2003

NEW EVIDENCE IN 33-YEAR-OLD MYSTERIES

Police announced today that they have reopened the investigation into the disappearance of Priscilla Trevelyan who vanished from her parents' home in Highdown in 1970. "New evidence has come to light," said Deputy Sergeant Wyatt, the officer in charge of the case, "and we now believe Priscilla was murdered."

No one has been arrested for the crime but three Bournemouth residents who were teenagers in 1970 are thought to be implicated. "We've been given a possible site where Priscilla's body was buried," said DS Wyatt, "and we hope to excavate it within the next few weeks." He refused to say where the site was, although he agreed it was somewhere in the Highdown area.

Mr. David Trevelyan, father of the missing girl, said, "My wife and I have lived with this tragedy for over 30 years. It will be a relief to have closure at last." He thanked Councillor George Gardener of Highdown for her efforts in bringing the case to public attention. "Without her persistence, Priscilla would have remained a statistic."

Councillor Gardener came across the story while she was researching a book on Howard Stamp. Stamp was charged with the murder of his grandmother nine days after Priscilla Trevelyan went missing, and the police now believe the two cases may have been linked.

Councillor Gardener described Stamp's conviction as a terrible miscarriage of justice which couldn't happen with today's DNA testing. "I am optimistic of clearing his name," she said, "even though he isn't alive to see it happen." Tragically, Howard Stamp committed suicide in prison in 1973.

The police are asking for witnesses from the time to come forward. "We are keen to talk to anyone who was living in Colliton Way during the first half of 1970," said Deputy Sergeant Wyatt. "They may have information that will lead to an arrest.

From: Dr. Jonathan Hughes [jon.hughes@london.ac.uk]

Sent: Tues. 7/15/03 19:23

To: Andrew@spicerandhardy.co.uk

Subject: George

Dear A, This is a P.S. to the previous email which I'm not copying to George. The bad news is she's developed secondary cancer of the bone-in the ribs. The good news is it doesn't seem to have spread anywhere else. She's on some hefty hormone therapy and starts a course of radiation next week to deal with the pain. I've invited myself to stay with her for the duration of the summer vacation in order to act as chauffeur and get the book written. She seems happy about it. There shouldn't be a problem with the meeting next week as her radiation appointments are in the mornings, but she'll certainly be tired. She's a remarkable lady, refuses to give in to anything, although I've finally managed to persuade her to take some sick leave from the nursing home. I shall tell her I've told you, but I suggest you don't dwell on the sympathy too much. She's willing to talk about it, but won't tolerate pity!

Best, Jon