Arrests are made on ‘reasonable suspicion’ and convictions secured on evidence ‘beyond reasonable doubt’: two legal tests that are poles apart. In layman’s terms, a justifiable hunch is enough to feel a collar. The toil to convert that into the absolute certainty the courts demand can feel like scaling Mount Everest in a diving suit.
The police remained convinced Bishop was guilty of the Babes in the Wood murders. But that was history. The two cases were totally separate. What happened to Claire was horrific, every parent’s nightmare. If it was Bishop, then the proof needed to be airtight. If it was not him, we needed to find who was responsible and damn quickly.
An early decision was taken that, as far as possible, no one who worked on the Babes in the Wood murders would be on this enquiry. This was not a reflection of anyone’s conduct or competence, just a very wise precaution to avoid unhelpful suggestions of old scores to settle. Detective Superintendent Gordon Harrison, ToC and Streaky knew it would take just one ill-informed sniff of a conspiracy to scuttle any subsequent prosecution.
Harrison insisted on structure to the CID team and, unusually, had to turn down offers of staff from elsewhere. He needed a relatively small, handpicked group of detectives who met his overarching criteria. I was in the right place at the right time.
Another decision was that the face of the enquiry should be a senior officer with flawless integrity and a squeaky-clean discipline record. Whoever this was must have the backbone to field the flak that would no doubt come. They did not have to look far. Streaky had it all and was the perfect embodiment of a thorough, objective and ethical investigator.
The enquiry would be run by the book. Nobody so much as breathed without an action generated by the Home Office Large Major Enquiry System – HOLMES – telling them to do so. Everything we did, and did not do, was driven from the top and documented to the letter. No well-meaning mavericks, no short cuts and no initiative were allowed. For some of the old school this stuck in their throat, but for me, with this being my first major enquiry, tracking down witnesses, taking statements, dotting Is and crossing Ts, I knew no different. Instead I would take this rigour with me as I climbed the promotion ladder.