The mid-50s were not happy years for police officers. Street attacks were common, and in 1954 there were some normal drink and fight problems, but also some very odd cases.
PC Dennis Matthews’s young son caused a lot of trouble one night in Ashby. He had been watching a programme called Journey into Space on television one night, and then decided to go wandering around the streets. His walk took him towards the home of William Douglas, in Wesley Road, and from then on, the boy seems to have spun a yarn, convincing Douglas that his father was in the habit of beating him.
When the constable, on his bike and searching for his son in the darkness of the late evening, finally came across Douglas, it was a heated exchange. The constable asked Douglas if he had seen a little boy, and the boilerman, who was now in Bellingham Road and clearly hunting for the man who had been so brutal to a small boy, said the child was in his home.
Douglas swore at the policeman, then hit him on the jaw and knocked him to the ground. Matthews had called for his son, after getting to his feet, and did not retaliate. Instead, he simply put the boy on the saddle and rode home. There was physical punishment in the Matthews household, but it came allegedly from the mother. But at the time, Douglas turned his venom on the man who had apparently abused a small boy. He threatened the officer, saying, ‘If you touch the boy again I will murder you.’
Douglas’s solicitor, H M Winocour, argued very convincingly that Douglas’s moral indignation was the action of a thoughtful and caring civilised man, but the fact was that Matthews’s jaw was broken, and Dr Robert Eminson stated that there were no marks on the boy to indicate harsh physical beatings. A A Collins, acting for Matthews, gave an explanation that matches the facts and events very well. He said that the boy had been ill, had nightmares, and had been suffering from a feverish condition for some days. It seems highly likely that his imagination had created a scenario to rival some of his comics’ and television storylines. To make things worse, the boy was wearing pyjamas, giving the impression that he had run away from home in some haste and in a panic, at such an abnormal time to be out and about.
Emotions ran so high that Winocour actually reacted to Mrs Matthews’s anger by saying that surely Douglas had saved her son’s life? The woman was clearly in trouble, knowing that her husband had said that she would hit the child if any hitting had to be done. That did not help his case.
This tale has an element of black comedy, and is bizarre in the way it brings out communal attitudes at the time. But there is nothing amusing about the assaults on PC John Henderson and Sergeant Cuttell, who were attacked by a crowd of Irish labourers. Five of the attackers were destined for imprisonment, such was the ferocity of the violence unleashed that night.
It was a Wednesday night, and the labourers had been paid. There went on the usual pub crawl and turned nasty. The bunch seem to have been led by Desmond McCabe and Patrick Harte, two men in their twenties. The group had only been in the town for a few days, working for contractors on the steelworks. When officers had words with them outside the Furnace Arms, the response was unexpectedly savage. The two officers were thumped, kicked and struck with beer bottles as more men set about them. But two civilians had helped the police, one of them knocking McCabe to the ground. DI Cottingham in court made the point that it was hard to distinguish who did exactly what in the affray, but one officer could only recall seeing heaps of broken glass before losing consciousness. Another officer, PC Henderson, limped into court. He said that McCabe broke a bottle on a nearby traffic sign and came at him with it. McCabe had also been seen kicking an officer as he was down on the road.