Chapter 18

One Gunman after Another

ohn Faulkner was not a criminal well known to London’s police. True, he possessed a conviction for forgery in England, but he was better known to the authorities in France and especially Switzerland, where he had escaped from prison whilst serving a sentence for safe-blowing. However, he was about to move up a notch in the criminal hierarchy. During the early hours of 30 November 1970 Faulkner and an associate climbed on to the roof of a building close to the Trafalgar public house in the Kings Road, Chelsea; it appeared that they intended to break into the premises – until they were spotted, the police were called and both men fled.

Faulkner dashed up Chelsea Manor Street towards Britten Street, but at that moment Police Constable 516 ‘B’ Rodney Andrew Phillips, who was attached to Chelsea police station and on patrol in a police car, heard the information regarding the suspects and drove towards the area. Phillips, a single man aged twenty-six, had almost four years’ service as a Metropolitan Police officer. The former accountant was also an enthusiastic member of the Scout movement, having previously headed the 3rd Ilford West Troop; during a three month posting in 1969 as part of ‘The Anguilla Police Unit’ he had helped to run a Scout troop there. During his time with the Scouts he had impressed upon his young charges the need to ‘Be Prepared’ – and as a young copper, Phillips was prepared for anything. It was just as well.

Seeing Faulkner turn into Britten Street, Phillips immediately realized that this was one of the suspects, and as Faulkner ran towards him Phillips braked to a halt and flung open his driver’s door in front of him and shouted at him to stop. But Faulkner ran round the open door, so Phillips jumped out of the car and chased him, again shouting at him to stop. As both men raced into Sydney Street, Phillips drew his truncheon and hit Faulkner, left-handed, on his left shoulder. Faulkner stopped, turned and Phillips saw he was holding a gun, which he pointed at the officer, shouting, “I’ll shoot! I’ll shoot!” Phillips lashed out with his truncheon at the pistol, but Faulkner avoided the blow and ran off. In the ensuing chase, Phillips again struck Faulkner on the shoulder, so hard this time that his truncheon snapped in two, causing Faulkner to slip and fall; but he rose immediately, adopted the classic shooter’s position on one knee and, pointing the pistol directly at Phillips, again shouted, “I’ll shoot!” Phillips rushed towards the gunman, who turned and ran, with the officer in pursuit. Faulkner again stopped, turned and levelled the pistol at Phillips, who leapt at him, seizing him in a bear hug. As Phillips tried to grab hold of the weapon, Faulkner hit him with the gun butt just above his ear. The blow caused Phillips to become dizzy and disorientated, but he kept hold of the gunman and both men crashed to the pavement. Faulkner was on top and he hit Phillips in the mouth with the gun butt and also punched him in the face with his other hand. “He still had hold of the gun and but for the fact that I’m left-handed and he was right-handed, I would have sustained more injuries,” Phillips recalled, forty years later.

Phillips refused to relinquish his hold, and as the struggle continued he was suddenly aware that other police officers were approaching. “Look out, he’s got a gun!” he shouted to his colleagues, and Faulkner, possibly thinking that these officers were armed, shrieked, “It’s not loaded!” and immediately surrendered. Examination of the pre-war Polish-made P.64 Radom 9mm automatic pistol revealed that it was indeed unloaded; but even in its empty state, it still weighed over two and a quarter pounds and caused Phillips severe bruising to his face and head and a chipped tooth. He was detained for forty-eight hours at St Stephen’s hospital, Chelsea, since for the first twenty-four hours following the attack he had suffered double vision; he was kept on the sick-list for the following two weeks.

On 11 May 1971 Faulkner appeared at the Old Bailey and stood alone in the dock – his accomplice had not been caught – before His Honour Judge Broderick QC, whose sentences were invariably evaluated by the Court of Appeal as being ‘just right’.

Faulkner was indicted on seven counts, including possessing a firearm with intent to resist arrest, conspiracy to steal and assaulting PC Phillips, and after a week-long trial he was found guilty and sentenced to a total of six years’ imprisonment.

The jury congratulated Phillips, as did the judge, who calling him before him, said:

I think you are a very brave and conscientious officer. I am sure the Force is proud of you, as well it ought to be. Indeed, the whole community should be grateful to you for the way in which, and the courage you displayed in tackling this man who may have been a very dangerous criminal. I propose to see to it that the Commissioner of Police is informed of the court’s commendation and your conduct so that it may be placed on record.

On 29 June 1971 the commissioner highly commended Phillips for ‘his outstanding courage and devotion to duty’, and on 18 August he was handed a cheque for £25 from the Bow Street Reward Fund by the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Sir Frank Milton, who said, “This officer fully deserves this award because alone he persistently pursued this man and eventually overpowered him.”

The press was full of the story; the Chelsea News commented, ‘PC tackled gunman: court praise’, but that was not all. Phillips’ presence was ‘requested’ at Buckingham Palace on 28 March 1972, when for his outstanding courage Her Majesty the Queen invested him with the British Empire Medal for Gallantry.

The Diplomatic Protection Group (DPG) was formed to provide protection from terrorism to London’s 160 embassies and high commissions (amongst a large number of other duties), and its personnel who operated in uniform and plain clothes, were armed with a variety of weapons and were highly mobile to respond to emergencies. But quite apart from protecting any of the 10,000 members of the diplomatic community in London, the ability of the DPG officers was often tested in situations beyond their remit. Police Constable Peter Slimon was shot by gunmen robbing a bank as he went to take up his protection post; although badly wounded, he drew his revolver, shot two of the robbers and was awarded the George Medal. Police Constable Stephen Peat similarly shot a man in the act of bank robbery, and Police Constable Gordon McKinnon opened fire on a kidnapper, freeing the person whom the man had taken hostage. And on 15 November 1978, Rodney Phillips, by now a sergeant with the Diplomatic Protection Group, was on mobile patrol in ‘Ranger 500’ (the DPG Central London Security Patrol) when he received a radio message which sent him and local officers from ‘E’ Division speeding to the Swinton Hotel, 18–24 Swinton Street, WC1, just off King’s Cross Road.

At about 5.15 that afternoon, Paul David Booth, dressed bizarrely (and frighteningly) in a fireman’s jacket, leather belt and armband, his face completely masked in a balaclava, had entered the hotel. At the reception desk he produced a pistol and, placing a parcel wrapped in Christmas paper on the counter, passed a note to the manageress, Mrs Peggy Hodgson, which read:

The Christmas present is a bomb. This gun is real and loaded. You have seven minutes to leave the hotel.

This was a threat not to be taken lightly; the IRA offensive on mainland Britain was still very active (and would continue to be for several more years), so with tremendous composure Mrs Hodgson sounded the fire alarm, thereby initiating the evacuation of the hotel; once the premises were clear, she herself left and telephoned the police.

Two unarmed local officers entered the hotel, but Booth, who was now on the upper landing, pointed the pistol at them and warned them off. They retreated outside the premises, but they could still see Booth, who now descended to the ground floor and handled the package, before retreating to the landing. The local duty officer, Inspector John Rowe, a police officer with twenty-three years’ service who the previous year had been awarded a commissioner’s high commendation for outstanding courage, arrived and took charge of the situation. A safety cordon was set up, with local residents and passers-by being warned to stay away from the area.

Inspector Rowe and Rodney Phillips advanced into the hotel in full view of Booth who, still on the landing, was crouched down pointing his gun at the officers. Phillips shouted, “We’re armed police officers – throw the gun out and come down!”

There followed a long silence; then Booth threw the gun into the hallway of the hotel, and the officers ‘talked him’ down the stairs, whereupon he was arrested. A later examination of the parcel revealed that it was not a bomb at all, but a hoax; the gun with which Booth had threatened the officers turned out to be a starting pistol. Booth was not a terrorist or a blackmailer, just a very foolish and immature young man with (as would be said nowadays) ‘issues’; and when he appeared at the Old Bailey on 9 February the following year, he pleaded guilty to making a hoax bomb and possessing an imitation firearm with intent to commit an indictable offence. His Honour Jack Abdela QC, normally known as a ‘hard-line’ judge when it came to sentencing, came to the eminently sensible conclusion that Booth was more to be pitied than punished, imposed a two-year probation order and ordered that he pay the whole of the legal aid costs of his defence or £200, whichever was the less of the two sums. But even though with hindsight, poor, sad Mr Booth had not represented a physical threat, nevertheless it had been a tense and fraught situation for everybody concerned, and the judge singled out Mrs Hodgson for special commendation, saying:

I suggest Mrs Hodgson richly deserves suitable recognition for her exemplary coolness and courage when confronted with an armed man. Her prime concern was for the safety of the residents and her action in evacuating the hotel, with the minimum of fuss, made the job of the police much easier.

In addition, Judge Abdela commended several of the police officers. Inspector Rowe was later awarded a commissioner’s commendation for ‘courage, leadership and ability’, and Phillips was one of four officers who were commended for ‘courage and ability’ by the Deputy Assistant Commissioner.

Three months later, Phillips, now Police Sergeant 95 ‘Q’ attached to Wealdstone police station, received information that an armed robbery together with an indecent assault and the unlawful taking of a vehicle had occurred in Coventry and that the suspect – Peter Richard Mark Mardon, who had first come to the attention of the police two years previously – was likely to return to his home address in Edgware. Arming himself with a police issue .38 Smith & Wesson revolver, Phillips, together with Police Sergeant 46 ‘Q’ Philippe de Chaumont Rambert, made his way to the vicinity of Mardon’s home, where they made enquiries and kept observation. After three and a half hours a black London taxi appeared, and the passenger matched the description of Mardon. The taxi was followed at a distance until it stopped, then the two officers jumped from their vehicle and ran over to the cab, Rambert approaching the offside door and Phillips the nearside. As Rambert reached the door of the cab he saw through the window, which was slightly open, that Mardon was pointing a cocked crossbow at him and at the same time was fumbling with a black briefcase on the seat. “Put it down, put it down, don’t be silly,” shouted Rambert, but Mardon did not. The terrifying weapon, easily capable of causing mortal injury, was still pointed at Rambert. At that moment Phillips wrenched open the nearside door and, levelling his revolver at Mardon, he shouted, “I’m armed, put it down, do you hear me, put it down!”

With what appeared to be great reluctance, Mardon placed the crossbow on the floor of the cab, was taken out of the vehicle and arrested. The black briefcase which Mardon had been trying to open was searched; it revealed an open pack of crossbow bolts, plus a cocked Colt .45 automatic pistol, which turned out to be a replica. During an interview at the police station, where he was found to be in possession of £50, he admitted the money was the proceeds of the robbery in Coventry.

At his trial at Coventry Crown Court, two months later on 25 September, Mardon was convicted of robbery, taking a conveyance, indecent assault and possessing an offensive weapon, and was sentenced to a total of four years’ imprisonment. The judge, His Honour Martin Wilson, said:

Would you please ensure that it is passed on to the Metropolitan Police that this court thinks very highly of the behaviour of Sergeant Rambert and Sergeant Phillips, who went to arrest a man who, as far as they were concerned, was armed with a pistol.

Just over a year from the date of the incident, both officers were awarded a commissioner’s commendation for courage and determination in effecting the arrest of a person wanted for robbery.

In January 1983 Phillips was promoted to the rank of inspector and posted to Cannon Row police station, where he attended the Harrods’ bomb scene, as well as dealing with a viable Improvised Explosive Device (IED) and a number of suspect packages, including one at the Admiralty. Had it been necessary to evacuate the building, because a NATO exercise was in progress, it would have required the approval of the Prime Minister!

Now married, with two children, a boy and a girl, Phillips spent much of the rest of his service devising and implementing firearms training, public order practices and sports stadium evacuation procedures. He was teaching from the benefit of his considerable experience in keeping the police and the public safe. In addition, he was selected to travel to South Africa to be part of the Commonwealth Peacekeeping Advisor Group to help train the National Peacekeeping Force in policing the forthcoming multi-cultural elections in 1994.

Phillips retired, having completed thirty years’ service, on 31 March 1997. Much of his service had been filled with excitement, carrying out deeds beyond the capabilities of many of his contemporaries, but in his later years, he assumed, as he put it, “a slightly lower profile.”

It is debatable whether dealing with IEDs could be described as adopting ‘a low profile’, but in any event, Phillips arrested no more gunmen. As he told me, “I must have realized by that stage that the ‘cat’s lives’ were running out!”