How did I become charged with murder? Of course some of it will be to do with the night of Friday the 1st of March 1991, but it probably started on the 2nd of September 1974. My 1st day of secondary school. Remember how I said I went to 8 or 9 different schools because of my dad’s job, well this was the day I started at Western Comprehensive School, Grimsby. I was 12 years old and can only remember having had 1 fight up until that time; it was 5 years earlier when I was 7. If I learnt anything at all at that school it was how to fight, or how to lose to be more precise. One name will stay with me forever, Wayne Clarke. Here I was a skinny little 12 year old with a strong Hull accent I soon learnt what it felt like being the odd one out. Wayne Clark didn’t like it that was for sure. The trouble was for the 1st 4 years at that school Wayne always had his older brothers to help him out should I start getting the better of him. Unfortunately for Wayne his brothers were not the sort that would be staying on to do sixth form so he had to do his last year without his minders. I got my revenge at every opportunity not just fighting either, although I did enjoy fighting with him without his brothers sticking the boot in. Wayne’s girlfriend who he’d been seeing for a couple of years asked me to go baby sitting with her. He rang her up and we continued messing around while he was on the phone. You know what they say Wayne? He who laughs last....
My education in fighting continued when I joined the Royal Air Force. My first posting was to RAF Uxbridge home to the Queen’s Colour Squadron RAF Regiment. I was now a skinny little 16 year old working at Headquarters Military Air Traffic Operations, home of the 2 prettiest girls on the camp, who unfortunately for me were both dating Rock Apes. For those that don’t know, Rock Apes is the term used to describe members of the RAF Regiment (the fighting force of the RAF) everyone else in the Air Force are called Penguins So I wasn’t helping myself much when I had a T Shirt printed that declared “Penguins Shit On Rocks”. The T Shirt served as an open invitation to Rock Apes to fight with me and there were plenty who accepted my invitation. The boy friends of the girls I worked with Cathy and Linda certainly did on numerous occasions, usually together at the NAAFI disco. It was at Uxbridge that I had my first run in with the Police not the civil but the military Police. It was here that my attitude towards them changed. I was 17 and had invited a girl who I had gone out with a couple of times to a party at work. She worked in the communications centre which was a small office in the HQ MATO building. It had strict access; a small hatch of 6x6 inches would open when you rang the bell to the door. Anyway I decided to go and see where she was and when the hatch opened I was greeted with a smack in the face from a pole with a hook on the end the kind used to open windows. The hatch was then slammed in my face. I just had time to see who the clever bastard who did it was. Bob or Andy Rae I can’t remember which one now but it was one of a pair of identical twins who at that time boxed for the camp. Unknown to me they were part of a gang on the camp that were extorting money and electrical items ( TVs, Stereos etc) out of young musicians (The Central Band of the Royal Air Force was also based at RAF Uxbridge) I’m not really painting a good picture of the RAF am I? I probably missed my true vocation in life I think I should of gone into advertising because I had a T Shirt printed saying “The End Is Nigh For Bob And Andy” and wore it at every opportunity. I didn’t intend to just get even with them, to me even means equal and they weren’t my equal and I wanted everyone to know it. The fight with one of the twins led to my court martial it probably wouldn’t have gone that far but like I said earlier the SIB (Special Investigations Branch) were already investigating more serious crimes on the camp, involving the twins. I was placed into an RAF detention centre at RAF Northolt. The 2 investigating officers were both in their late 40s and were the RAF equivalent to detectives. They would come and question me not only about the fight but also about the other shit. I had just turned 18 and still remember it very well. If I didn’t give them the answer they wanted they would either throw something at me or slap me around the face. I remember saying to a young RAF policeman while I was crying during the interview that he should try not to end up like these 2. That got me another smack in the mouth. My meals would arrive at the appropriate meal times but I wouldn’t get them till they were stone cold usually they had patches of water on with little bubbles where someone had kindly spat in it. Mmm nice. I’ll tell you how good it was there, someone in the next cell had slashed his wrists thinking it might be his way out not death I mean he would go to hospital. It didn’t happen someone came and stitched him up he was then handcuffed to a radiator. Those 2 weeks were hell on earth for me my parents didn’t even know I was there. If my treatment there wasn’t bad enough it was at my courts martial that gave me a greater insight as to how the Police operate. I was charged and found guilty of assault occasioning actual bodily harm contrary to section 70(1) of the Air Force Act. I had punched one of the twins and broke his nose. I wasn’t surprised at the guilty verdict I pleaded guilty after all. What was surprising was the sentence; I was fined one hundred pounds. Nobody could believe such a lenient punishment was handed out at a District Courts Martial. It was unheard of; DCMs cost thousands of pounds and involve hundreds if not thousands of man hours to arrange a lot of very senior officers, members of the press are invited so why did I only get what on the face of it seemed like a slap on the wrist? Because the 2 members of the SIB who investigated the assault made statements both dated early January and both went on to talk about things that happened in the bloody February. An impossible thing for them to do. It wasn’t some little error on their part, it was fabrication; I remember my Solicitor Gilbert Blades cross examining one of the Policemen about it and the Policeman dropped all his papers as his hands were shaking that much. I wanted to jump up and scream yes we’ve got ya, of course I didn’t it was a Courts Martial after all. On the 4th of July 1980 I got a hundred pound fine, a criminal record and a very important insight into how the Police operate.
The photos me on my 18th birthday at the Yankee Bar RAF Uxbridge.( butter wouldn't melt).
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