Police accused of failing to investigate if Christopher Halliwell is serial killer
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Version 0 of 1. The former senior detective who caught the double murderer Christopher Halliwell has accused the police of failing to seriously investigate if he is a serial killer – and has suggested a specific date he believes the taxi driver may have habitually struck on. Taxi driver Halliwell is beginning a full life term – meaning he will never be released – for the sexually motivated murders of Swindon women Becky Godden and Sian O’Callaghan. Wiltshire police have said they will now examine if he may have killed others, but Steve Fulcher, the ex-detective superintendent who tracked down Halliwell in 2011, claimed much of the information that pointed to him being a serial killer was available five years ago but had not been acted on. Speaking to the Guardian, he said: “He was quite apparently a serial killer. We had 43 packs prepared for each of the forces across the country detailing everything we knew about Halliwell with a view to putting him against outstanding inquiries. We did timelines, we knew his vehicles, his associations.” Calling for an inquiry into police handling of the case, he said: “All the information was there in May 2011 but no investigation was conducted by Wiltshire police. There needs to be an inquiry asking why. It is utter madness that this wasn’t done.” Fulcher also called for a commission to be set up to look at the issue of the thousands of vulnerable women – like Becky Godden – who vanish every year. The former detective flagged up 19 March as a date when Halliwell may have committed other offences. He pointed out that: Fulcher said: “I’m not saying Halliwell has killed Linda Razzell. I’m saying that prospect has to be investigated. Glyn Razzell protests his innocence. There’s potential for a miscarriage of justice. On Claudia Lawrence, again I’m not saying Halliwell is responsible. I’m saying there’s enough connection there to investigate.” “What you’d be looking at is events in his life correlating to that date. You’d be looking at that from a psychological perspective.” Fulcher said no investigation into a possible link to Lawrence and Halliwell had taken place; North Yorkshire police said a review of the case was ongoing but the “team was not aware of any evidence that would link” Halliwell. The former officer, who is now working as a law enforcement consultant in Somalia, emphasised he was not suggesting Halliwell only killed on or around 19 March. Becky Godden is thought to have been killed in January 2003, aged 20. Halliwell said he would be “very surprised” if Halliwell did not kill Sallyann John, who like Becky Godden was a Swindon sex worker. She went missing in September 1995 when she was 24 and her body has never been found. Fulcher said Halliwell was known to consort with John and lived nearby. Fulcher said he was also amazed that Halliwell had not been spoken to over the murder of 25-year-old Melanie Hall, who like O’Callaghan went missing from a nightclub, though in Bath, in June 1996. “Avon and Somerset police say they’re happy it’s not him. Melanie Hall’s never been put to Halliwell. How can you be happy it’s not him? You’re supposed to keep an open mind.” Fulcher left Wiltshire police following a disciplinary procedure over Halliwell. After the taxi driver became his prime suspect in the abduction of O’Callaghan, Fulcher, the senior investigating officer, had ordered that he be arrested. Halliwell refused to say where O’Callaghan was so Fulcher had him taken to a remote hill fort, Barbury Castle, where he met him in person. Fulcher believed O’Callaghan was still alive and wanted to give Halliwell one last chance to come clean. Halliwell agreed to take Fulcher to O’Callaghan’s body – she was already dead – and from there led him to a field where he had buried Godden’s body some eight years before. A judge initially ruled that this “confession” evidence was not admissible in court. There was other evidence linking Halliwell to O’Callaghan and he was to plead guilty to her murder in 2012. But he denied having anything to do with Godden’s death and was only convicted last week following a trial at Bristol crown court. Fulcher insisted he was right to act as he did – morally but also in law. Of the encounter with Halliwell, he said: “It was an extraordinary moment. We had a bond formed at Barbury Castle and at Uffington White Horse and Eastleach [respectively where O’Callaghan’s and Godden’s bodies were found]. He was crying on my shoulder, pleading for my help. That has turned into hatred. In his moment of weakness he confessed. He’s kicking himself. He has realised that if he had kept silent he would be continuing his killing spree to this date. We would never have found Sian or Becky’s [bodies].” Fulcher said at Barbury Castle there had been a “contest” between O’Callaghan’s right to life – he believed she was alive – under section two of the European convention on human rights, and Halliwell’s right to silence and access to a lawyer under Pace – the Police and Criminal Evidence Act. Fulcher insisted he was not a “maverick” as he is often portrayed, but was closely following the rules set out in the police’s kidnap and extortion manual. This includes the paragraph: “The primary objective of a crime in action investigation is article 2 right to life. This means that the normal investigative priorities of securing evidence, arresting an offender and prosecution are relegated.” Fulcher said there had been no Pace-compliant way of getting O’Callaghan back had she been alive – or of finding Godden’s remains. He added: “It was a straightforward choice. In Sian’s case, do I try to save her life or don’t I? As far as Becky is concerned, do I find Becky or don’t I? There is no middle ground. I conducted negotiations under the kidnap procedures. What else could I do? Nobody has been able to identify that.” The former detective said officers now would not put finding another O’Callaghan or Godden before a suspect’s rights in case they were treated as he was. “Missing people will not be properly investigated,” he said. “The public needs to know what the police will do now or won’t do if a daughter is kidnapped.” Fulcher praised Godden’s mother, Karen Edwards, arguing that Halliwell would not have been brought to justice for her daughter’s murder if she had not kept the pressure on the police and prosecutors. “She is an amazing woman,” Fulcher said. He also said that not enough was done by society to make sure women did not vanish from sight. Some 250,000 people are reported missing every year. Fulcher said: “And these aren’t the most vulnerable ones. The ones we don’t know about are the most vulnerable – the prostitute community, the traveller community, the trafficked people, the migrants. We know nothing about them, we do nothing about it. What is the plan? What are we doing to help women who have been drawn into drugs, into a chaotic lifestyle like Becky? Very little.” A Wiltshire police spokesperson said it was due to the “diligence and professionalism” of the team that took over the Godden investigation that Halliwell had been found guilty of her murder. Following Halliwell’s conviction for Godden’s murder, the senior investigating officer confirmed that outstanding cases would now be reviewed. However, on Monday following Fulcher’s criticism, the spokesperson said: “From the early stages in this complicated investigation, it was conceivable that there may have been further victims of Christopher Halliwell. “This has always formed an important part of the senior investigating officer’s approach and this has been a key aspect of the investigation throughout. “We have already engaged with a number of agencies in relation to Christopher Halliwell. The additional information we have learned about Halliwell’s character during the court case, alongside the facts established regarding his modus operandi, will assist us going forward. “Serious and major crime investigations are a complex aspect of policing. It remains our commitment to keep an open mind and follow the evidence wherever that may take us, so if there are further victims of Halliwell, then our investigation will work tirelessly to bring justice for all those concerned. “To assist us in this, we strongly discourage speculation as this will cause further distress to families and friends of people who are currently missing across the country, who will clearly be desperate to have news of their loved ones. We would, however, welcome any new information from the public, or indeed, from Halliwell himself.” Elaine Pickford, the mother of Sian O’Callaghan, said on Monday she felt there was too much speculation around Halliwell’s suspected victims. She said: “Despite my belief that there is likely to have been more victims, I personally do not feel it is helpful to either the police or those families to publicly speculate on those victims, scenarios and to presume.” |