As the story unfolded it became clear that there was a large gang involved here: other secondary villains were also in court. There was a network of thefts, fences and outlets in the case, and the men involved were all young and reckless. Raymond McLaughlin, only eighteen, was in the burglary caper and had taken over £200 worth of cash and goods: he went to prison also. John Revell, of the same age, was involved in both burglaries and was sent to Borstal. The train of crooks went down even to a sixteen-year-old who received stolen goods and was given a supervision order.

What actually happened on that day when petty theft and burglary went to another level of violence was that, according to Mark Cursham for the prosecution, the preparatory moves had been made by Finch ingratiating himself into the Jones family and becoming friendly with the victim’s granddaughter. But nevertheless, they were still disguised when they broke in, and they ran upstairs to where the old lady slept, to demand money. Lefley took hold of her and handled her very roughly. The intimidation was extreme, and the woman began to scream in fear; at this point, the thug said he would strangle her. She feared for her life, of course, and at the time felt that her heart would suffer an attack through the stress and terror.

Even when Mrs Jones was allowed to go downstairs for a drink of water, she found another hooded figure: this was Finch. If the gang had planned to put her through mental torture of some length and intensity, they could not have planned it better. At that point, she was shoved down into a chair and told that she could be knifed if she was not attentive to their demands. During this part of the ordeal, under threat, and expecting a knife to be produced, Mrs Jones tried to bang on the wall. She would indeed have been heard. The houses in Crosby, all in the network of red-brick terraces, had thin walls in those days. But Lefley would have none of that and he grabbed her at her neck and began choking her. Cursham made the point that this was vicious and intense: ‘He pressed his thumbs into her throat so hard that she could hardly breathe.’