Timothy Evans
Encyclopedia
Timothy John Evans was a Welshman
accused of murdering his wife and daughter at their residence in Notting Hill
, London in November 1949. In January 1950 Evans was tried and convicted of the murder of his daughter, and he was sentenced to death by hanging. During his trial, Evans had accused his neighbour, John Christie
, of being responsible for the murders. Three years after Evans's trial, Christie was found to be a serial killer
who had murdered a number of women at his property, including his wife, and this cast serious doubt on the safety of Evans's conviction. An official inquiry conducted 16 years after Evans's hanging confirmed that Evans's daughter had been murdered by Christie, and Evans was subsequently granted a posthumous pardon
. Christie admitted that he had also murdered Beryl Evans.
The case generated much controversy and is acknowledged as a major miscarriage of justice
. It played a large part in the abolition of capital punishment in the United Kingdom
.
in South Wales
. His biological father abandoned the family in 1924 shortly before Evans's birth. Evans had an older sister Eileen and a younger half-sister Maureen, born when Evans's mother re-married in 1929. As a child, Evans had difficulty learning to speak and struggled at school. Following an accident when he was eight, Evans developed a tubercular verucca
on his right foot which never completely healed and which caused him to miss considerable amounts of time from school for treatments; this further set back his education. Consequently, he was unable to read or write anything beyond his name as an adult.
In 1935 his mother and her second husband moved to London
and Evans worked as a painter and decorator
while attending school. He returned to Merthyr Tydfil in 1937 and briefly worked in the coal mines but had to resign because of continuing problems with his foot. In 1939 he returned to London to live again with his mother and in 1946 they moved to St Mark's Road, Notting Hill. This was just over two minutes' walk from 10 Rillington Place, his future residence after he married.
area of Notting Hill
. Their neighbours in the ground-floor flat were John Christie
, a post office clerk and former Special Constable
, and his wife, Ethel Christie. Unknown to Evans, Christie was also a serial killer
who had already killed two women at the property prior to the Evanses' arrival; he would go on to murder at least another three women as well as his wife over the next five years. Timothy and Beryl's daughter Geraldine was born on 10 October 1948.
Their marriage was characterised by angry quarrels, exacerbated by Beryl's poor housekeeping and inability to manage the family's finances. However, Timothy also misspent his wages on alcohol and his heavy drinking at the time exacerbated his already short temper. The arguments between Timothy and Beryl were loud enough to be heard by the neighbours and physical violence between them was witnessed on several occasions. In late 1949, Beryl revealed to Timothy that she was pregnant with their second child. Since the family was already struggling financially, Beryl decided the only course to take would be to have an abortion
; after some reluctance, Evans agreed to this course of action.
that his wife had died in unusual circumstances. His initial confession was that he had accidentally killed her by giving her something in a bottle that a man had given him to abort the foetus; he had then disposed of her body in a sewer drain outside 10 Rillington Place. He told the police that after arranging for Geraldine to be looked after, he had gone to Wales. When police examined the drain
outside the front of the building, however, they found nothing and, furthermore, discovered that the manhole cover
required the combined strength of all three officers to remove it.
When re-questioned, Evans changed his story and said that Christie had offered to perform an abortion
on Beryl. After some deliberation between Evans and his wife, they had both agreed to take up Christie's offer. On 8 November, Evans had returned home from work to be informed by Christie that the abortion had not worked and that Beryl was dead. Christie had said that he would dispose of the body (abortion being illegal in the U.K. at the time) and would make arrangements for a couple from East Acton
to look after Geraldine. He said that Evans should leave London for the meantime. On 14 November, Evans left for Wales to stay with relatives. Evans said he later returned to 10 Rillington Place to ask about Geraldine, but Christie had refused to let him see her.
In response to Evans's second statement, the police performed a preliminary search of 10 Rillington Place but did not uncover anything incriminating, despite the presence of a human thigh bone supporting a fence post in the tiny garden (about 16 long by 14 feet wide). On a more thorough search on 2 December, the police found the body of Beryl Evans, wrapped in a tablecloth in the wash-house in the back garden. Access to the locked wash-house was only possible by using a knife kept by Mrs Christie. Significantly, however, the body of Geraldine was also found, alongside Beryl's body—Evans had not mentioned he had killed his daughter in either of his statements. Beryl and Geraldine had both been strangled. But the police once again failed to discover earlier human remains left in the back garden, only a few feet away from the wash house. Although they examined the garden, they did not find traces of the skeletal remains of two prior victims of Christie, despite their shallow burial. Christie actually removed the skull
of Miss Eady when his dog dug it up from the garden shortly after the police search, and he disposed of it in a bombed-out building nearby. This vital clue was ignored when the skull was then discovered by children playing in the ruins, and handed in to the police. If the bones had been found in the garden, the investigation would have taken a different turn.
When Evans was shown the clothing taken from the bodies of his wife and child, he was also informed that both had been strangled. He was asked whether he was responsible for their deaths. This was, according to Evans's statement, the first occasion in which he was informed that his baby daughter had been killed. To this, Evans apparently responded, "yes, yes". He then apparently confessed to having strangled Beryl during an argument over debts and strangling Geraldine two days later, after which he left for Wales.
This alleged confession, along with other contradictory statements Evans made during the police interrogation
, was formerly cited as proof of his guilt. Ludovic Kennedy
, however, showed that the confessions were fabricated and dictated to Evans by the investigating officers, and that they interrogated the accused over the course of late evening and early morning hours to his physical and emotional detriment, a man already in a highly emotional state. Evans also stated in court that he was threatened with violence by the police, and it is likely that they coerced Evans to his false confession
. The police investigation was marked by a lack of forensic expertise, with key evidence missed or ignored, such as the bones of Christie's earlier victims in the back garden of 10 Rillington Place.
. He recanted his confession during consultations with his solicitor and alleged that Christie had always been responsible for the murders. This was the basis of Evans's defence in his trial, which Evans maintained as the truth until his execution. Subsequent events were to confirm the veracity of Evans's beliefs.
Christie and his wife, Ethel, were key witnesses for the prosecution. Christie denied that he had offered to abort Beryl’s unborn child and gave detailed evidence about the quarrels between Evans and his wife. The defence sought to show how Christie was the murderer by highlighting his past criminal record. Christie had previous convictions for several thefts and malicious wounding. The latter case involved Christie striking a woman on the head with a cricket bat
. But his apparent reformation, and his service with the police, impressed the jury. The defence also could not find a motive for why a supposedly respectable person like Christie would want to murder two people, whereas the prosecution could use the explanation in Evans's confessions as Evans's motive for wanting to kill the victims. Evans had no criminal record. Had the police conducted a thorough search of the garden and found the bones of two prior victims of Christie, the trial may not have occurred at all, and a serial killer prevented from murdering again. However, Evans's reputation for conflicting statements, fatally undermined his credibility. That reputation was created by the police themselves in preparing several false confession
s, forcing Evans to incriminate himself with threats of violence. The case largely came down to Christie’s word against Evans's and the course of the trial rapidly turned against Evans. The trial itself lasted only three days and much key evidence was omitted, or never shown to the jury. The judge was prejudiced against Evans from the start, and his summing-up biased against the defendant. He was found guilty two days later — the jury taking just 40 minutes to come to its decision. After a failed appeal
held before the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Goddard, Mr Justice Sellers
and Mr Justice Humphreys
on 20 February, Evans was hanged on 9 March 1950 by Albert Pierrepoint
, assisted by Syd Dernley
.
This outcome was severely criticised when Christie's murders were discovered three years later. During interviews with police and psychiatrists prior to his execution, Christie admitted several times that he had been responsible for the murder of Beryl Evans. If these confessions were true, Evans's second statement detailing Christie's offer to abort Beryl's baby is the true version of events that took place at Rillington Place on 8 November 1949. Ludovic Kennedy
provided one possible reconstruction of how the murder took place, where an unsuspecting Beryl lets Christie into her apartment, expecting the abortion
to be carried out, but is instead attacked and then strangled. Christie claimed to have possibly engaged in sexual intercourse with Beryl's body after her death (he could not remember the precise details) but her autopsy
had failed to uncover evidence of sexual intercourse
. In his confessions to Beryl's death, Christie denied he had agreed to carry out an abortion on Beryl. He instead claimed to have strangled her while being intimate with her, or that she had wanted to commit suicide
and he helped her do so.
One important fact was not brought up in Evans's trial: several workmen were willing to testify that there were no bodies in the wash-house when they worked there several days after Evans supposedly hid them. They stored their tools in the wash-room, and mended the roof during this period. Their evidence in itself would have raised doubts about the veracity of Evans's alleged confessions, but the workmen were not called to give evidence. Indeed, the police reinterviewed the workmen and forced them to change their evidence to fit the preconceived idea that Evans was the sole murderer. The murderer, Christie, would have hidden the bodies of Beryl and Geraldine in the temporarily vacant first-floor flat, and then moved them to the wash-house four days later when the workmen had finished. Christie had used a similar procedure in both his previous murders of Fuerst and Eady according to his confession in 1953.
nurse and munitions worker; and Muriel Eady, a former co-worker of Christie, who were both buried in the right-hand side of the small back garden of the building. Indeed, Christie had used one of their thigh bones to prop up a trellis in the garden, which the police had missed in their earlier searches of the property. Christie was arrested on 31 March 1953, on the Embankment near Putney Bridge
and during the course of interrogation confessed four separate times to killing Beryl Evans. He never admitted to killing Geraldine Evans, however. He confessed to murdering Fuerst and Eady, saying he had stored their bodies in the wash-room before burying them in shallow graves in the garden. It was in the same wash-room that the bodies of Beryl and Geraldine Evans were found earlier during the investigation into their murders. Christie was found guilty of murdering his wife and was hanged on 15 July 1953.
Because Christie's crimes raised doubts about Evans's guilt in the murders of his wife and daughter, the serving Home Secretary, David Maxwell-Fyfe, commissioned an inquiry to investigate the possibility of a miscarriage of justice. It was chaired by the Recorder
of Portsmouth
, John Scott Henderson, QC
. The inquiry ran for one week and its findings upheld Evans's guilt in both murders with the explanation that Christie's confessions of murdering Beryl Evans were unreliable because they were made in the context of furthering his own defence that he was insane. The conclusion was met with scepticism by the press and the public alike: if Christie's confessions were unreliable, why should those of Evans be acceptable? The enquiry ignored vital evidence, and was biased to the prosecution case. It led to more questions in Parliament
, especially from Geoffrey Bing
, Reginald Paget, Sydney Silverman
, Michael Foot
and many other MPs. The controversy was to continue until it led eventually to the exculpation of Evans and a declaration of his innocence
of the murder of both his wife and his daughter.
The murder of Beryl Evans was never a primary charge in either of the trials of Evans or Christie. The former had been charged with the murder of his daughter and the latter with the murder of Mrs Christie. Hence questions that went to the murder of Mrs Evans were not those with which the trials were especially concerned. When Christie was later the subject of the Scott Henderson Inquiry, questions drafted by a solicitor representing Evans's mother were deemed not relevant and Scott Henderson retained the right of deciding if they could be asked.
, Ian Gilmour, editor of The Spectator
, John Grigg, editor of The National and English Review, and Sir Lynton Andrews, editor of The Yorkshire Post
, formed a delegation to petition the Home Secretary for a new inquiry because of their dissatisfaction with the conclusions of the Scott Henderson Inquiry. In the same year, attorney Michael Eddowes
examined the case and wrote the book The Man on Your Conscience, which argued that Evans could not have been the killer. The television journalist Ludovic Kennedy
's book Ten Rillington Place went on to criticise the police investigation and evidence submitted at the 1950 trial in which Evans was found guilty. This produced another Parliamentary debate in 1961 but still no second inquiry.
In 1965, Liberal Party
politician Herbert Wolfe of Darlington
, County Durham
contacted Harold Evans
(no relation), the editor of The Northern Echo
. He and Kennedy formed the Timothy Evans Committee. The result of a prolonged campaign was that the Home Secretary, Sir Frank Soskice, ordered a new inquiry chaired by High Court judge Sir Daniel Brabin in 1965–66. Brabin found it was "more probable than not" that Evans murdered his wife and that he did not murder his daughter. This was contrary to the prosecution case in Evans's trial, which held that both murders had been committed by the same person as a single transaction. The victims' bodies had been found together in the same location and had been murdered in the same way by strangulation. Despite his perverse conclusion, the Brabin enquiry exposed police malpractice during the Evans case, such as destruction of evidence. The neck tie which had been used to strangle Geraldine, for example, was destroyed by the police prior to the discovery of Christie's crimes in 1953. Even the record book in which the destruction had to be noted, was itself destoyed by the police. In most serious case, police are required to preserve all material and documentary evidence, so the removal of evidence in this case is suspicious. Many police statements were contradictory and confused as to dates and times of interviews with key witnesses, especially of the Christies during the first murder case. Brabin went to great lengths to prefer police evidence wherever possible, and exonerate them of any police misconduct
(such as threats of violence against Evans during his interrogation), and he didn't address the allegations made by Kennedy about the validity of several of the confessions allegedly made by Evans. He never considered the incompetence of the police in their searches of the garden at Rillington Place, and had a poor understanding of the importance of forensic evidence. The enquiry did little to settle the many issues which arose from the case, but, by exonerating Evans of killing his child, was crucial in subsequent events.
Since Evans had only been convicted of the murder of his daughter, Roy Jenkins
, Soskice's successor as Home Secretary, recommended a royal pardon for Evans, which was granted in October 1966. In 1965 Evans' remains were exhumed from Pentonville Prison and reburied in St Patrick's Roman Catholic Cemetery in Leytonstone
, Greater London. The outcry over the Evans case contributed to the suspension and then abolition of capital punishment in the United Kingdom
.
In January 2003, the Home Office
awarded Timothy Evans's half-sister, Mary Westlake, and his sister, Eileen Ashby, ex-gratia payments as compensation for the miscarriage of justice in Evans's trial. The independent assessor for the Home Office, Lord Brennan QC, accepted that "the conviction and execution of Timothy Evans for the murder of his child was wrongful and a miscarriage of justice
" and that "there is no evidence to implicate Timothy Evans in the murder of his wife. She was most probably murdered by Christie." Lord Brennan believed that the Brabin Report's conclusion that Evans probably murdered his wife should be rejected given Christie's confessions and conviction.
On , Westlake began an appeal in the High Court
to overturn a decision by the Criminal Cases Review Commission
not to refer Evans's case to the Court of Appeal
to have his conviction formally quashed. She argued that Evans's pardon had not formally expunged his conviction of murdering his daughter, and although the Brabin report had concluded that Evans probably did not kill his daughter, it had not declared him innocent. The report also contained the "devastating" conclusion that Evans had probably killed his wife. The request to refer the case was dismissed on , with the judges saying that the cost and resources of quashing the conviction could not be justified, although they did accept that Evans did not murder either his wife or his child.
The case ranks as one of the most serious miscarriages of justice in the post-war period caused by a combination of police incompetence and wilful selection of the facts to ensnare a completely innocent man.
Welsh people
The Welsh people are an ethnic group and nation associated with Wales and the Welsh language.John Davies argues that the origin of the "Welsh nation" can be traced to the late 4th and early 5th centuries, following the Roman departure from Britain, although Brythonic Celtic languages seem to have...
accused of murdering his wife and daughter at their residence in Notting Hill
Notting Hill
Notting Hill is an area in London, England, close to the north-western corner of Kensington Gardens, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea...
, London in November 1949. In January 1950 Evans was tried and convicted of the murder of his daughter, and he was sentenced to death by hanging. During his trial, Evans had accused his neighbour, John Christie
John Christie (murderer)
John Reginald Halliday Christie , born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, was a notorious English serial killer active in the 1940s and '50s. He murdered at least eight females – including his wife Ethel – by strangling them in his flat at 10 Rillington Place, Notting Hill, London...
, of being responsible for the murders. Three years after Evans's trial, Christie was found to be a serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
who had murdered a number of women at his property, including his wife, and this cast serious doubt on the safety of Evans's conviction. An official inquiry conducted 16 years after Evans's hanging confirmed that Evans's daughter had been murdered by Christie, and Evans was subsequently granted a posthumous pardon
Pardon
Clemency means the forgiveness of a crime or the cancellation of the penalty associated with it. It is a general concept that encompasses several related procedures: pardoning, commutation, remission and reprieves...
. Christie admitted that he had also murdered Beryl Evans.
The case generated much controversy and is acknowledged as a major miscarriage of justice
Miscarriage of justice
A miscarriage of justice primarily is the conviction and punishment of a person for a crime they did not commit. The term can also apply to errors in the other direction—"errors of impunity", and to civil cases. Most criminal justice systems have some means to overturn, or "quash", a wrongful...
. It played a large part in the abolition of capital punishment in the United Kingdom
Capital punishment in the United Kingdom
Capital punishment in the United Kingdom was used from the creation of the state in 1707 until the practice was abolished in the 20th century. The last executions in the United Kingdom, by hanging, took place in 1964, prior to capital punishment being abolished for murder...
.
Early life
Evans was a native of Merthyr TydfilMerthyr Tydfil
Merthyr Tydfil is a town in Wales, with a population of about 30,000. Although once the largest town in Wales, it is now ranked as the 15th largest urban area in Wales. It also gives its name to a county borough, which has a population of around 55,000. It is located in the historic county of...
in South Wales
South Wales
South Wales is an area of Wales bordered by England and the Bristol Channel to the east and south, and Mid Wales and West Wales to the north and west. The most densely populated region in the south-west of the United Kingdom, it is home to around 2.1 million people and includes the capital city of...
. His biological father abandoned the family in 1924 shortly before Evans's birth. Evans had an older sister Eileen and a younger half-sister Maureen, born when Evans's mother re-married in 1929. As a child, Evans had difficulty learning to speak and struggled at school. Following an accident when he was eight, Evans developed a tubercular verucca
Plantar wart
-External links:* at the Mayo Clinic website* at The Merck Manual* at dermnet.com...
on his right foot which never completely healed and which caused him to miss considerable amounts of time from school for treatments; this further set back his education. Consequently, he was unable to read or write anything beyond his name as an adult.
In 1935 his mother and her second husband moved to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and Evans worked as a painter and decorator
Painter and decorator
A house painter and decorator is a tradesman responsible for the painting and decorating of buildings, and is also known as a decorator or house painter...
while attending school. He returned to Merthyr Tydfil in 1937 and briefly worked in the coal mines but had to resign because of continuing problems with his foot. In 1939 he returned to London to live again with his mother and in 1946 they moved to St Mark's Road, Notting Hill. This was just over two minutes' walk from 10 Rillington Place, his future residence after he married.
Married life
On 20 September 1947, Evans married Beryl Susanna Thorley, whom he had met through a friend. They initially lived with Evans's family at St Mark's Road but in early 1948 Beryl discovered she was pregnant and they decided they would find their own place to live with their child. In Easter 1948, the couple moved into the top-floor flat at 10 Rillington Place in the Ladbroke GroveLadbroke Grove
Ladbroke Grove is a road in west London, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is also sometimes the name given informally to the immediate area surrounding the road. Running from Notting Hill in the south to Kensal Green in the north, it is located in North Kensington and straddles...
area of Notting Hill
Notting Hill
Notting Hill is an area in London, England, close to the north-western corner of Kensington Gardens, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea...
. Their neighbours in the ground-floor flat were John Christie
John Christie (murderer)
John Reginald Halliday Christie , born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, was a notorious English serial killer active in the 1940s and '50s. He murdered at least eight females – including his wife Ethel – by strangling them in his flat at 10 Rillington Place, Notting Hill, London...
, a post office clerk and former Special Constable
Special Constabulary
The Special Constabulary is the part-time volunteer section of a statutory police force in the United Kingdom or some Crown dependencies. Its officers are known as Special Constables or informally as Specials.Every United Kingdom territorial police force has a special constabulary except the...
, and his wife, Ethel Christie. Unknown to Evans, Christie was also a serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
who had already killed two women at the property prior to the Evanses' arrival; he would go on to murder at least another three women as well as his wife over the next five years. Timothy and Beryl's daughter Geraldine was born on 10 October 1948.
Their marriage was characterised by angry quarrels, exacerbated by Beryl's poor housekeeping and inability to manage the family's finances. However, Timothy also misspent his wages on alcohol and his heavy drinking at the time exacerbated his already short temper. The arguments between Timothy and Beryl were loud enough to be heard by the neighbours and physical violence between them was witnessed on several occasions. In late 1949, Beryl revealed to Timothy that she was pregnant with their second child. Since the family was already struggling financially, Beryl decided the only course to take would be to have an abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
; after some reluctance, Evans agreed to this course of action.
Events leading to Evans's arrest
Several weeks later, on 30 November 1949, Evans informed police at Merthyr TydfilMerthyr Tydfil
Merthyr Tydfil is a town in Wales, with a population of about 30,000. Although once the largest town in Wales, it is now ranked as the 15th largest urban area in Wales. It also gives its name to a county borough, which has a population of around 55,000. It is located in the historic county of...
that his wife had died in unusual circumstances. His initial confession was that he had accidentally killed her by giving her something in a bottle that a man had given him to abort the foetus; he had then disposed of her body in a sewer drain outside 10 Rillington Place. He told the police that after arranging for Geraldine to be looked after, he had gone to Wales. When police examined the drain
Drain
A drain is a plumbing fixture that provides an exit-point for waste water or water that is to be re-circulatedDrain may also refer to:* Drainage, the natural or artificial removal of surface and sub-surface water from a given area...
outside the front of the building, however, they found nothing and, furthermore, discovered that the manhole cover
Manhole cover
A manhole cover is a removable plate forming the lid over the opening of a manhole, to prevent anyone from falling in and to keep unauthorized persons out....
required the combined strength of all three officers to remove it.
When re-questioned, Evans changed his story and said that Christie had offered to perform an abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
on Beryl. After some deliberation between Evans and his wife, they had both agreed to take up Christie's offer. On 8 November, Evans had returned home from work to be informed by Christie that the abortion had not worked and that Beryl was dead. Christie had said that he would dispose of the body (abortion being illegal in the U.K. at the time) and would make arrangements for a couple from East Acton
East Acton
East Acton is a place in west London, England. It is partly in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham and partly in the London Borough of Ealing...
to look after Geraldine. He said that Evans should leave London for the meantime. On 14 November, Evans left for Wales to stay with relatives. Evans said he later returned to 10 Rillington Place to ask about Geraldine, but Christie had refused to let him see her.
In response to Evans's second statement, the police performed a preliminary search of 10 Rillington Place but did not uncover anything incriminating, despite the presence of a human thigh bone supporting a fence post in the tiny garden (about 16 long by 14 feet wide). On a more thorough search on 2 December, the police found the body of Beryl Evans, wrapped in a tablecloth in the wash-house in the back garden. Access to the locked wash-house was only possible by using a knife kept by Mrs Christie. Significantly, however, the body of Geraldine was also found, alongside Beryl's body—Evans had not mentioned he had killed his daughter in either of his statements. Beryl and Geraldine had both been strangled. But the police once again failed to discover earlier human remains left in the back garden, only a few feet away from the wash house. Although they examined the garden, they did not find traces of the skeletal remains of two prior victims of Christie, despite their shallow burial. Christie actually removed the skull
Skull
The skull is a bony structure in the head of many animals that supports the structures of the face and forms a cavity for the brain.The skull is composed of two parts: the cranium and the mandible. A skull without a mandible is only a cranium. Animals that have skulls are called craniates...
of Miss Eady when his dog dug it up from the garden shortly after the police search, and he disposed of it in a bombed-out building nearby. This vital clue was ignored when the skull was then discovered by children playing in the ruins, and handed in to the police. If the bones had been found in the garden, the investigation would have taken a different turn.
When Evans was shown the clothing taken from the bodies of his wife and child, he was also informed that both had been strangled. He was asked whether he was responsible for their deaths. This was, according to Evans's statement, the first occasion in which he was informed that his baby daughter had been killed. To this, Evans apparently responded, "yes, yes". He then apparently confessed to having strangled Beryl during an argument over debts and strangling Geraldine two days later, after which he left for Wales.
This alleged confession, along with other contradictory statements Evans made during the police interrogation
Interrogation
Interrogation is interviewing as commonly employed by officers of the police, military, and Intelligence agencies with the goal of extracting a confession or obtaining information. Subjects of interrogation are often the suspects, victims, or witnesses of a crime...
, was formerly cited as proof of his guilt. Ludovic Kennedy
Ludovic Kennedy
Sir Ludovic Henry Coverley Kennedy was a British journalist, broadcaster, humanist and author best known for re-examining cases such as the Lindbergh kidnapping and the murder convictions of Timothy Evans and Derek Bentley, and for his role in the abolition of the death penalty in the United...
, however, showed that the confessions were fabricated and dictated to Evans by the investigating officers, and that they interrogated the accused over the course of late evening and early morning hours to his physical and emotional detriment, a man already in a highly emotional state. Evans also stated in court that he was threatened with violence by the police, and it is likely that they coerced Evans to his false confession
False confession
A false confession is an admission of guilt in a crime in which the confessor is not responsible for the crime. False confessions can be induced through coercion or by the mental disorder or incompetency of the accused...
. The police investigation was marked by a lack of forensic expertise, with key evidence missed or ignored, such as the bones of Christie's earlier victims in the back garden of 10 Rillington Place.
Trial and wrongful execution
Evans was put on trial for the murder of his daughter on 11 January 1950 (in accordance with legal practice at the time, the prosecution proceeded only with the charge of murdering Geraldine; Beryl's murder, with which Evans was still formally charged, was "left on file", though evidence from this murder was allowed to be used to prove Evans's guilt in the murder of Geraldine). Evans was represented by Malcolm MorrisMalcolm Morris
For the dermatologist, see Sir Malcolm Morris Malcolm Morris QC was a British lawyer. He was involved in many high-profile cases, such as the prosecutions of suspected serial killer John Bodkin Adams and pop star Mick Jagger, and the defence of Timothy Evans.-Career:Morris was called to the bar by...
. He recanted his confession during consultations with his solicitor and alleged that Christie had always been responsible for the murders. This was the basis of Evans's defence in his trial, which Evans maintained as the truth until his execution. Subsequent events were to confirm the veracity of Evans's beliefs.
Christie and his wife, Ethel, were key witnesses for the prosecution. Christie denied that he had offered to abort Beryl’s unborn child and gave detailed evidence about the quarrels between Evans and his wife. The defence sought to show how Christie was the murderer by highlighting his past criminal record. Christie had previous convictions for several thefts and malicious wounding. The latter case involved Christie striking a woman on the head with a cricket bat
Cricket bat
A cricket bat is a specialised piece of equipment used by batsmen in the sport of cricket to hit the ball. It is usually made of willow wood. Its use is first mentioned in 1624....
. But his apparent reformation, and his service with the police, impressed the jury. The defence also could not find a motive for why a supposedly respectable person like Christie would want to murder two people, whereas the prosecution could use the explanation in Evans's confessions as Evans's motive for wanting to kill the victims. Evans had no criminal record. Had the police conducted a thorough search of the garden and found the bones of two prior victims of Christie, the trial may not have occurred at all, and a serial killer prevented from murdering again. However, Evans's reputation for conflicting statements, fatally undermined his credibility. That reputation was created by the police themselves in preparing several false confession
False confession
A false confession is an admission of guilt in a crime in which the confessor is not responsible for the crime. False confessions can be induced through coercion or by the mental disorder or incompetency of the accused...
s, forcing Evans to incriminate himself with threats of violence. The case largely came down to Christie’s word against Evans's and the course of the trial rapidly turned against Evans. The trial itself lasted only three days and much key evidence was omitted, or never shown to the jury. The judge was prejudiced against Evans from the start, and his summing-up biased against the defendant. He was found guilty two days later — the jury taking just 40 minutes to come to its decision. After a failed appeal
Appeal
An appeal is a petition for review of a case that has been decided by a court of law. The petition is made to a higher court for the purpose of overturning the lower court's decision....
held before the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Goddard, Mr Justice Sellers
Frederic Sellers
Sir Frederic Aked Sellers was a lawyer and judge in England and Wales.Sellers was appointed a Justice of the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court of England and Wales on 13 February 1946. A few days later he was knighted...
and Mr Justice Humphreys
Travers Humphreys
The Rt. Hon. Sir Travers Humphreys PC was a noted British barrister and judge who, during a sixty year legal career, was involved in the cases of Oscar Wilde, Hawley Harvey Crippen, George Joseph Smith, the 'Brides in the Bath' murderer, and John George Haigh, the 'Acid Bath Murderer'.-Legal...
on 20 February, Evans was hanged on 9 March 1950 by Albert Pierrepoint
Albert Pierrepoint
Albert Pierrepoint is the most famous member of the family which provided three of the United Kingdom's official hangmen in the first half of the 20th century...
, assisted by Syd Dernley
Syd Dernley
Syd Dernley was dubbed, as also has been Albert Pierrepoint, "the last British hangman", although in fact he was not . More accurately, he was the last surviving hangman, following the deaths of both Pierrepoint and Allen in 1992...
.
This outcome was severely criticised when Christie's murders were discovered three years later. During interviews with police and psychiatrists prior to his execution, Christie admitted several times that he had been responsible for the murder of Beryl Evans. If these confessions were true, Evans's second statement detailing Christie's offer to abort Beryl's baby is the true version of events that took place at Rillington Place on 8 November 1949. Ludovic Kennedy
Ludovic Kennedy
Sir Ludovic Henry Coverley Kennedy was a British journalist, broadcaster, humanist and author best known for re-examining cases such as the Lindbergh kidnapping and the murder convictions of Timothy Evans and Derek Bentley, and for his role in the abolition of the death penalty in the United...
provided one possible reconstruction of how the murder took place, where an unsuspecting Beryl lets Christie into her apartment, expecting the abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
to be carried out, but is instead attacked and then strangled. Christie claimed to have possibly engaged in sexual intercourse with Beryl's body after her death (he could not remember the precise details) but her autopsy
Autopsy
An autopsy—also known as a post-mortem examination, necropsy , autopsia cadaverum, or obduction—is a highly specialized surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse to determine the cause and manner of death and to evaluate any disease or injury that may be present...
had failed to uncover evidence of sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse, also known as copulation or coitus, commonly refers to the act in which a male's penis enters a female's vagina for the purposes of sexual pleasure or reproduction. The entities may be of opposite sexes, or they may be hermaphroditic, as is the case with snails...
. In his confessions to Beryl's death, Christie denied he had agreed to carry out an abortion on Beryl. He instead claimed to have strangled her while being intimate with her, or that she had wanted to commit suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
and he helped her do so.
One important fact was not brought up in Evans's trial: several workmen were willing to testify that there were no bodies in the wash-house when they worked there several days after Evans supposedly hid them. They stored their tools in the wash-room, and mended the roof during this period. Their evidence in itself would have raised doubts about the veracity of Evans's alleged confessions, but the workmen were not called to give evidence. Indeed, the police reinterviewed the workmen and forced them to change their evidence to fit the preconceived idea that Evans was the sole murderer. The murderer, Christie, would have hidden the bodies of Beryl and Geraldine in the temporarily vacant first-floor flat, and then moved them to the wash-house four days later when the workmen had finished. Christie had used a similar procedure in both his previous murders of Fuerst and Eady according to his confession in 1953.
Christie
Three years later, a new tenant in Christie's flat, Beresford Brown, found the bodies of three women (Kathleen Maloney, Rita Nelson and Hectorina Maclennan) hidden in the papered-over kitchen pantry, a recess immediately next to the wash house where Beryl and Geraldine Evans had been found. A further search of the building and grounds turned up three more bodies: Christie’s wife, Ethel, under the floorboards of the front room; Ruth Fuerst, an AustrianAustrians
Austrians are a nation and ethnic group, consisting of the population of the Republic of Austria and its historical predecessor states who share a common Austrian culture and Austrian descent....
nurse and munitions worker; and Muriel Eady, a former co-worker of Christie, who were both buried in the right-hand side of the small back garden of the building. Indeed, Christie had used one of their thigh bones to prop up a trellis in the garden, which the police had missed in their earlier searches of the property. Christie was arrested on 31 March 1953, on the Embankment near Putney Bridge
Putney Bridge
Putney Bridge is a bridge crossing of the River Thames in west London, linking Putney on the south side with Fulham to the north. Putney Bridge tube station is located near the north side of the bridge.-History:...
and during the course of interrogation confessed four separate times to killing Beryl Evans. He never admitted to killing Geraldine Evans, however. He confessed to murdering Fuerst and Eady, saying he had stored their bodies in the wash-room before burying them in shallow graves in the garden. It was in the same wash-room that the bodies of Beryl and Geraldine Evans were found earlier during the investigation into their murders. Christie was found guilty of murdering his wife and was hanged on 15 July 1953.
Because Christie's crimes raised doubts about Evans's guilt in the murders of his wife and daughter, the serving Home Secretary, David Maxwell-Fyfe, commissioned an inquiry to investigate the possibility of a miscarriage of justice. It was chaired by the Recorder
Recorder (judge)
A Recorder is a judicial officer in England and Wales. It now refers to two quite different appointments. The ancient Recorderships of England and Wales now form part of a system of Honorary Recorderships which are filled by the most senior full-time circuit judges...
of Portsmouth
Portsmouth
Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...
, John Scott Henderson, QC
Queen's Counsel
Queen's Counsel , known as King's Counsel during the reign of a male sovereign, are lawyers appointed by letters patent to be one of Her [or His] Majesty's Counsel learned in the law...
. The inquiry ran for one week and its findings upheld Evans's guilt in both murders with the explanation that Christie's confessions of murdering Beryl Evans were unreliable because they were made in the context of furthering his own defence that he was insane. The conclusion was met with scepticism by the press and the public alike: if Christie's confessions were unreliable, why should those of Evans be acceptable? The enquiry ignored vital evidence, and was biased to the prosecution case. It led to more questions in Parliament
Parliament
A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French , the action of parler : a parlement is a discussion. The term came to mean a meeting at which...
, especially from Geoffrey Bing
Geoffrey Bing
Geoffrey Henry Cecil Bing was a British barrister and politician who served as the Labour Member of Parliament for Hornchurch from 1945 to 1955....
, Reginald Paget, Sydney Silverman
Sydney Silverman
Samuel Sydney Silverman was a British Labour politician and vocal opponent of capital punishment.-Early life:...
, Michael Foot
Michael Foot
Michael Mackintosh Foot, FRSL, PC was a British Labour Party politician, journalist and author, who was a Member of Parliament from 1945 to 1955 and from 1960 until 1992...
and many other MPs. The controversy was to continue until it led eventually to the exculpation of Evans and a declaration of his innocence
Innocence
Innocence is a term used to indicate a lack of guilt, with respect to any kind of crime, sin, or wrongdoing. In a legal context, innocence refers to the lack of legal guilt of an individual, with respect to a crime.-Symbolism:...
of the murder of both his wife and his daughter.
The murder of Beryl Evans was never a primary charge in either of the trials of Evans or Christie. The former had been charged with the murder of his daughter and the latter with the murder of Mrs Christie. Hence questions that went to the murder of Mrs Evans were not those with which the trials were especially concerned. When Christie was later the subject of the Scott Henderson Inquiry, questions drafted by a solicitor representing Evans's mother were deemed not relevant and Scott Henderson retained the right of deciding if they could be asked.
Campaign to overturn Evans's conviction
In 1955, David Astor, editor of The ObserverThe Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
, Ian Gilmour, editor of The Spectator
The Spectator
The Spectator is a weekly British magazine first published on 6 July 1828. It is currently owned by David and Frederick Barclay, who also owns The Daily Telegraph. Its principal subject areas are politics and culture...
, John Grigg, editor of The National and English Review, and Sir Lynton Andrews, editor of The Yorkshire Post
Yorkshire Post
The Yorkshire Post is a daily broadsheet newspaper, published in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England by Yorkshire Post Newspapers, a company owned by Johnston Press...
, formed a delegation to petition the Home Secretary for a new inquiry because of their dissatisfaction with the conclusions of the Scott Henderson Inquiry. In the same year, attorney Michael Eddowes
Michael Eddowes
Michael Eddowes was a British lawyer, author and investigator.Eddowes came from a family of barristers and built a large law practice specializing in divorce.-Notable cases:...
examined the case and wrote the book The Man on Your Conscience, which argued that Evans could not have been the killer. The television journalist Ludovic Kennedy
Ludovic Kennedy
Sir Ludovic Henry Coverley Kennedy was a British journalist, broadcaster, humanist and author best known for re-examining cases such as the Lindbergh kidnapping and the murder convictions of Timothy Evans and Derek Bentley, and for his role in the abolition of the death penalty in the United...
's book Ten Rillington Place went on to criticise the police investigation and evidence submitted at the 1950 trial in which Evans was found guilty. This produced another Parliamentary debate in 1961 but still no second inquiry.
In 1965, Liberal Party
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
politician Herbert Wolfe of Darlington
Darlington
Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, part of the ceremonial county of County Durham, England. It lies on the small River Skerne, a tributary of the River Tees, not far from the main river. It is the main population centre in the borough, with a population of 97,838 as of 2001...
, County Durham
County Durham
County Durham is a ceremonial county and unitary district in north east England. The county town is Durham. The largest settlement in the ceremonial county is the town of Darlington...
contacted Harold Evans
Harold Evans
Sir Harold Matthew Evans is a British-born journalist and writer who was editor of The Sunday Times from 1967 to 1981. He has written various books on history and journalism...
(no relation), the editor of The Northern Echo
The Northern Echo
The Northern Echo is a leading daily regional morning newspaper, serving the North East of England. The paper is based in Priestgate, Darlington. Its covers national as well as regional news. It is one of the UK's most famous provincial newspaper titles....
. He and Kennedy formed the Timothy Evans Committee. The result of a prolonged campaign was that the Home Secretary, Sir Frank Soskice, ordered a new inquiry chaired by High Court judge Sir Daniel Brabin in 1965–66. Brabin found it was "more probable than not" that Evans murdered his wife and that he did not murder his daughter. This was contrary to the prosecution case in Evans's trial, which held that both murders had been committed by the same person as a single transaction. The victims' bodies had been found together in the same location and had been murdered in the same way by strangulation. Despite his perverse conclusion, the Brabin enquiry exposed police malpractice during the Evans case, such as destruction of evidence. The neck tie which had been used to strangle Geraldine, for example, was destroyed by the police prior to the discovery of Christie's crimes in 1953. Even the record book in which the destruction had to be noted, was itself destoyed by the police. In most serious case, police are required to preserve all material and documentary evidence, so the removal of evidence in this case is suspicious. Many police statements were contradictory and confused as to dates and times of interviews with key witnesses, especially of the Christies during the first murder case. Brabin went to great lengths to prefer police evidence wherever possible, and exonerate them of any police misconduct
Police misconduct
Police misconduct refers to inappropriate actions taken by police officers in connection with their official duties. Police misconduct can lead to a miscarriage of justice and sometimes involves discrimination...
(such as threats of violence against Evans during his interrogation), and he didn't address the allegations made by Kennedy about the validity of several of the confessions allegedly made by Evans. He never considered the incompetence of the police in their searches of the garden at Rillington Place, and had a poor understanding of the importance of forensic evidence. The enquiry did little to settle the many issues which arose from the case, but, by exonerating Evans of killing his child, was crucial in subsequent events.
Since Evans had only been convicted of the murder of his daughter, Roy Jenkins
Roy Jenkins
Roy Harris Jenkins, Baron Jenkins of Hillhead OM, PC was a British politician.The son of a Welsh coal miner who later became a union official and Labour MP, Roy Jenkins served with distinction in World War II. Elected to Parliament as a Labour member in 1948, he served in several major posts in...
, Soskice's successor as Home Secretary, recommended a royal pardon for Evans, which was granted in October 1966. In 1965 Evans' remains were exhumed from Pentonville Prison and reburied in St Patrick's Roman Catholic Cemetery in Leytonstone
Leytonstone
Leytonstone is an area of east London and part of the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It is a high density suburban area, located seven miles north east of Charing Cross in the ceremonial county of Greater London and the historic county of Essex...
, Greater London. The outcry over the Evans case contributed to the suspension and then abolition of capital punishment in the United Kingdom
Capital punishment in the United Kingdom
Capital punishment in the United Kingdom was used from the creation of the state in 1707 until the practice was abolished in the 20th century. The last executions in the United Kingdom, by hanging, took place in 1964, prior to capital punishment being abolished for murder...
.
Innocence
Home Office
The Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security, and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service . It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs,...
awarded Timothy Evans's half-sister, Mary Westlake, and his sister, Eileen Ashby, ex-gratia payments as compensation for the miscarriage of justice in Evans's trial. The independent assessor for the Home Office, Lord Brennan QC, accepted that "the conviction and execution of Timothy Evans for the murder of his child was wrongful and a miscarriage of justice
Miscarriage of justice
A miscarriage of justice primarily is the conviction and punishment of a person for a crime they did not commit. The term can also apply to errors in the other direction—"errors of impunity", and to civil cases. Most criminal justice systems have some means to overturn, or "quash", a wrongful...
" and that "there is no evidence to implicate Timothy Evans in the murder of his wife. She was most probably murdered by Christie." Lord Brennan believed that the Brabin Report's conclusion that Evans probably murdered his wife should be rejected given Christie's confessions and conviction.
On , Westlake began an appeal in the High Court
High Court of Justice
The High Court of Justice is, together with the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, one of the Senior Courts of England and Wales...
to overturn a decision by the Criminal Cases Review Commission
Criminal Cases Review Commission
The Criminal Cases Review Commission is an non-departmental public body set up following the Royal Commission on Criminal Justice itself a continuation of the May Inquiry. It aims to investigate possible miscarriages of justice in England, Wales and Northern Ireland...
not to refer Evans's case to the Court of Appeal
Court of Appeal of England and Wales
The Court of Appeal of England and Wales is the second most senior court in the English legal system, with only the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom above it...
to have his conviction formally quashed. She argued that Evans's pardon had not formally expunged his conviction of murdering his daughter, and although the Brabin report had concluded that Evans probably did not kill his daughter, it had not declared him innocent. The report also contained the "devastating" conclusion that Evans had probably killed his wife. The request to refer the case was dismissed on , with the judges saying that the cost and resources of quashing the conviction could not be justified, although they did accept that Evans did not murder either his wife or his child.
The case ranks as one of the most serious miscarriages of justice in the post-war period caused by a combination of police incompetence and wilful selection of the facts to ensnare a completely innocent man.
Timothy Evans in popular culture
- Ewan MacCollEwan MacCollEwan MacColl was an English folk singer, songwriter, socialist, actor, poet, playwright, and record producer. He was married to theatre director Joan Littlewood, and later to American folksinger Peggy Seeger. He collaborated with Littlewood in the theatre and with Seeger in folk music...
wrote the song "The Ballad of Tim Evans" (also known as "Go Down You Murderer") about the case. This song appears in the Roger CormanRoger CormanRoger William Corman is an American film producer, director and actor. He has mostly worked on low-budget B movies. Some of Corman's work has an established critical reputation, such as his cycle of films adapted from the tales of Edgar Allan Poe, and in 2009 he won an Honorary Academy Award for...
movie A Bucket of BloodA Bucket of BloodA Bucket of Blood is a 1959 American comedy horror film directed by Roger Corman. It starred Dick Miller and was set in beatnik culture. The film, produced on a $50,000 budget, was shot in five days, and shares many of the low-budget filmmaking aesthetics commonly associated with Corman's work....
. It was also covered by Christy MooreChristy MooreChristopher Andrew "Christy" Moore is a popular Irish folk singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He is well known as one of the founding members of Planxty and Moving Hearts...
in his album Whatever Tickles Your Fancy. - The film 10 Rillington Place was released in the UK on 10 February 1971. It was directed by Richard FleischerRichard Fleischer-Early life:Fleischer was born in Brooklyn, the son of Essie and animator/producer Max Fleischer. He started in motion pictures as director of animated shorts produced by his father including entries in the Betty Boop, Popeye and Superman series.His live-action film career began in 1942 at the RKO...
and starred Richard AttenboroughRichard AttenboroughRichard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough , CBE is a British actor, director, producer and entrepreneur. As director and producer he won two Academy Awards for the 1982 film Gandhi...
as Christie, Judy GeesonJudy GeesonJudith Amanda "Judy" Geeson is an English actor.-Early life:Geeson was born in Arundel, Sussex, England on 10 September 1948. She came from a middle class family; her father edited the National Coal Board magazine. Her sister, Sally Geeson, is also an actress and is known for her roles in British...
as Beryl Evans, and John HurtJohn HurtJohn Vincent Hurt, CBE is an English actor, known for his leading roles as John Merrick in The Elephant Man, Winston Smith in Nineteen Eighty-Four, Mr. Braddock in The Hit, Stephen Ward in Scandal, Quentin Crisp in The Naked Civil Servant and An Englishman in New York...
as Timothy Evans. - Evans is also portrayed (more briefly) by Ben McKay in the 2005 film PierrepointPierrepoint (film)Pierrepoint , is a 2005 British film directed by Adrian Shergold about the life of British executioner Albert Pierrepoint....
.
See also
- False confessionFalse confessionA false confession is an admission of guilt in a crime in which the confessor is not responsible for the crime. False confessions can be induced through coercion or by the mental disorder or incompetency of the accused...
- Forensic science
- Francis CampsFrancis CampsFrancis Edward Camps, FRCP, FRCpath was a famous English pathologist notable for his work on the cases of serial killer John Christie and suspected serial killer John Bodkin Adams.-Early life and training:...
- List of miscarriage of justice cases
- Mahmood Hussein MattanMahmood Hussein MattanMahmood Hussein Mattan was a Somali former merchant seaman who was wrongfully convicted of the murder of Lily Volpert on 6 March 1952. The murder took place in the Docklands area of Cardiff, Wales and Mattan was mainly convicted on the evidence of a single prosecution witness...
- Miscarriage of justiceMiscarriage of justiceA miscarriage of justice primarily is the conviction and punishment of a person for a crime they did not commit. The term can also apply to errors in the other direction—"errors of impunity", and to civil cases. Most criminal justice systems have some means to overturn, or "quash", a wrongful...
- WitnessWitnessA witness is someone who has firsthand knowledge about an event, or in the criminal justice systems usually a crime, through his or her senses and can help certify important considerations about the crime or event. A witness who has seen the event first hand is known as an eyewitness...
- Wrongful executionWrongful executionWrongful execution is a miscarriage of justice occurring when an innocent person is put to death by capital punishment, the "death penalty." Cases of wrongful execution are cited as an argument by the opponents of capital punishment....
- Philip Allen, Baron Allen of AbbeydalePhilip Allen, Baron Allen of AbbeydalePhilip Allen, Baron Allen of Abbeydale, GCB was a British civil servant.-Education and early life:...
External links
- Discussion of the case
- Archive of Documents
- Discussion of the murders
- Brief summary of the case
- Parliamentary discussion of events surrounding the re-interment of Evans' remains in 1965
- Go Down Ye Murderers (The Ballad of Tim Evans) sung by Christy Moore
- Location and Mythology
- A critical discussion of the lyrics of The Ballad of Tim Evans
- The long wait for justice