THE DIARY FROM F Division’s Q-car was one of the standard items used by three officers on patrol before they were tragically shot and killed.
The incident happened in Braybrook Street near Wormwood Scrubs prison. Detective Sergeant Christopher Head, Temporary Detective Constable David Wombwell and the driver, Police Constable Geoffrey Fox, were the plain-clothes crew of F11 Q-car, an unmarked Triumph 2000 with an automatic gearbox, crewed for proactive crime patrol. On 12 August 1966 the officers saw three suspicious men in a Standard Vanguard in Braybrook Street, W12, near Wormwood Scrubs prison at 3.15 p.m. and decided to investigate. They did not know that the men had in fact been planning to rob a rent collector. It is possible that Geoffrey Fox recognised the driver, John Witney, as a criminal. After questioning Witney about the ownership of the car, Christopher Head pointed out the fact that Witney’s insurance certificate had just expired and then asked to look inside a holdall in the car. At that point David Wombwell was leaning in to the car to talk to Witney, when, without word or warning, Harry Roberts, a passenger, suddenly shot the officer through his eye and killed him outright. Christopher Head started to move towards the Q-car for assistance, but Roberts fatally shot him twice in the back, whilst the third man, John Duddy, fired three shots at Geoffrey Fox, the third bullet hitting the officer in the temple and killing him instantly. The three criminals drove away from the scene, where the stationary police car’s wheels were still turning with Christopher Head’s body jammed underneath it and Geoffrey Fox’s foot still on the accelerator. A man driving into Braybrook Street noted the Vanguard’s number as it sped away.
It was a day when every officer in the Metropolitan Police knew what they had been doing when they heard the news. An enormous effort was made by great numbers of officers, and offers of help poured in from the public. A passing security officer had made a note of the index number of a Standard Vanguard PGT 726 that he had seen racing away from the scene. It was before the days of the Police National Computer, so arrangements had to be made to gain access to the paper records of the car licensing system to trace the last registered owner of the Vanguard. That owner had sold the car to a dealer and he, in turn, had sold the car to John Witney. Although Witney had not registered his ownership of the vehicle, Detective Inspector Ron Steventon arrived on his doorstep at 9 p.m. the same evening. Witney claimed to have sold the car on to a man in a pub and gave a false account of his movements that day, details that were disproved. Information also arrived about a blue Standard Vanguard being garaged at Vauxhall, and this led to the police finding the car. There were cartridges in it from the gun that had been fired by Duddy and the garage owner eventually identified Witney as his tenant after Detective Inspector Jack Slipper reassured him that he should not allow his fear about receiving stolen lead from Witney to stop him from telling the truth. Witney was charged with the murders and then named the two men who had been with him. John Duddy was arrested five days after the crime, in Glasgow. Roberts went on the run, camping in Epping Forest and, after a long police search and many inquiries co-ordinated by Detective Superintendent Dick Chitty, was arrested three months later.