Then They Ran Away

[Erik Narramore]

The movement in the window was all in the statements anyway that the police prepared themselves.  Jeremy raising it or not raising it at a particular point tells us nothing about whether it really happened.  When preparing his initial statements, Jeremy may have not believed it to be very important as it was already assumed Sheila was the killer, and Jeremy may have therefore also assumed that any important information was recorded by the officers themselves.  At trial, Jeremy was in the hands of his legal team.

There are two schools of thought on the officers 'running away'.  The guilty camp say it was just the officers hurrying back to their cars to make a radio call, as they realised that Headquarters would need to mobilise the firearms team.  Thus, the guilty camp say, there is nothing significant about it and nothing much to read into it.

The innocent camp say the officers were hurrying from the immediate area for a similar reason that the guilty camp say, except that the officers had seen, or believed they had seen, movement in the window and had grounds to think that any person still alive in the house could well be armed and therefore dangerous, and if it was Sheila, would be psychotic.  If such a person emerged from the house, the officers would be wary of challenging her, especially in the dark, as she could easily fire on them and injure them.  Additionally, there was an urgent and pressing risk that Sheila, if armed, would kill herself.  Thus, all things considered it was rational to hurry back to the cars, where it was safe and they could - if necessary - lock themselves in and drive away, and from where they could make the radio call for assistance.

[Erik Narramore]

Bews states at Sheet 3 of his witness statement dated 16/08/1985 that he called for armed assistance via the Force radio.  The approval for the decision to draw arms would then have been made by Chief Superintendent George Harris, who was Divisional Commander at Chelmsford.