The suspect accused of killing a 51-year-old street magician was cleared of manslaughter after the prosecution offered no evidence at court. A coroner later concluded it was not possible to say how he died Not much is known about Paul Dwyer’s life before he moved into a homeless shelter in…
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Homicides in 2022 (so far) are down compared to previous years, despite an increase over recent weeks.
The Metropolitan Police’s own statistics show there were 49 homicides in the first six months, which suggested at that time we might be on course to record less than 100 homicides in a year for the first time since 2014 (when the total was 95).
There have been some signs of an increasing trend in the last two months. July was relatively busy for homicide detectives (the Met stats show 11 cases in July), which upped the average and puts London on course for around 103 homicides this year. [Update 17/8: This trend has continued in August, with at least nine homicides in the month so far].
This interactive graph of homicides in London takes its cue from those charts of rising Covid case totals, but with years instead of different countries. You can see 2022 is running well ‘behind’ the previous four years.
That would still be a significant decrease compared to the years 2018 to 2021 (138, 152, 133, 133 respectively). It’s also notable that there have been far fewer teenage homicides, with seven so far this year compared to 22 at this stage last year, which ended with a record total of 30.
If we accept the theory that homicides in 2020 and 2021 were suppressed by the Covid pandemic (legal restrictions on movement and socialising plus general changes to behaviour), then we might expect the number of murders to increase again once things ‘return to normal’.
Legal restrictions ended mid-July 2021 but there was no obvious increase and 2021 ended with the same total as 2020. Legal testing requirements only ended in February 2022, and it is likely that the continuing waves of Covid over the past winter and this summer are still having an effect.
Another possibility is that the police and other agencies are managing to suppress more homicides this year, possibly spurred on by bad headlines resulting from the record number of teenage homicides last year. The number of Metropolitan Police officers increased from 31,063 in March 2019 to 34,895 in June 2022, although we don’t how much this has helped the Met’s Homicide and Major Crime unit.
At the same time we should probably bear in mind that the ‘cost of living crisis’ could also have an effect over the coming months, such as increasing stress at home (domestic violence) or making it more likely that people get involved in risky situations that end up in fatal violence (e.g. theft, robbery, drugs).
(Update 17/8: Another possibility is that violence has increased because of the recent heatwaves (17-19 July and 9-17 August), with research from around the world suggesting a link between higher temperatures and higher rates of murder/homicide.)
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Christopher Lombard was shot dead while working at the Island Nightclub in Ilford High Road, east London, on 1 December 1996.
At around 3.35am the 30-year-old doorman was standing in the foyer when two men knocked on the locked glass doors to attract the attention of staff.
One of the two men then fired seven shots through the glass doors into the foyer. Christopher was hit three times, including a fatal bullet wound to the head. Two other door supervisors were injured but survived.
Dashcam footage from an undercover police car outside the club shows the suspects running around the corner to the left.
Detectives believe the suspects had been refused entry shortly before the doors closed at 3am. That night an estimated 1,600 people had been in the nightclub, a converted cinema which had hosted gigs by Oasis, Sleeper and Babybird.
The suspects then fled along Green Lane, got into a silver car parked between Connaught Lane and St Mary’s Road and sped off towards Goodmayes and Becontree Heath.
Nobody was charged during the initial investigation but the Metropolitan Police launched a new appeal for witnesses in November 2013 after a review of the case identified new lines of enquiry.
Detectives offered a £20,000 reward for information and issued efits of the suspects. The case was included on BBC’s Crimewatch programme, featuring an appeal from Mr Lombard’s 83 year-old mother Thelma.
Efits of the suspects issued by police
The gunman was described as a very dark-skinned black man, aged 17-20 and 5ft 8ins with hair shaved at the sides and closely cropped on top. He had a small circular scar above his right eye and another circular scar to the right of his mouth. He wore a dark top or jacket.
A second suspect was described as of Mediterranean appearance, possibly Greek or Turkish, 5ft 9 – 10 ins and aged 18-25 with dark hair and a moustache and wearing a hat and light-coloured top or jacket.
Christopher was not meant to be working that night but had agreed to cover the shift for a friend. His sister Denise described him as a “gentle giant” because of his build and told of his love for basketball.
Christopher Lombard
Christopher was a law-abiding citizen just doing his job that evening when he was brutally gunned down. It appears that the doormen were deliberately targeted – possibly because of an earlier incident between them and the suspects. A total of 17 years have passed and it seems unlikely that in all that time the gunman has never spoken or bragged about what he did. Allegiances change over time and I would ask anyone with any piece of information, no matter how small, to please contact us. After all these years his family deserve to know who killed him.”
Detective Inspector Robert Pack, speaking in 2013
The case remains under investigation. To provide information anonymously contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
A 37-year-old property developer died after being restrained during a fight in Chadwell Heath, east London. The inquest revealed why nobody was prosecuted and why the case was not treated as a homicide. Police were alerted almost as soon as Melvin Trotman entered the house in Chadwell Heath, east London.…
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Detectives described it as “a very brutal murder… in an average residential street in suburbia”. Yet just three months later they closed their active investigation, unable to establish a motive or identify a suspect. The case remains unsolved more than 30 years later.
The victim was James Durrant, a relatively wealthy 74-year-old retired solicitor who lived with his wife Margaret, 77, in Surbiton, southwest London, and had recently celebrated his 50th wedding anniversary. He was within a month of seeing his 75th birthday and was not known for his risk-taking, possibly having seen enough action as a squadron leader with the RAF during the Second World War. His son Christopher, then aged 42, described him as “a quiet elderly man who was beginning to suffer in health a little… life did not expose him to situations where he would be pushed around – for example at football matches.”
James Durrant and his wife Margaret (courtesy of Durrant family, not for reuse)
On the evening of 26 October 1988 Durrant attended a Masonic function at the Connaught Rooms in Covent Garden in his role as treasurer of the Anglo-Dutch lodge (established 1942, erased 2014 due to lack of members). He then had dinner with friends at the Sugar Loaf pub at 40 Great Queen Street (now Philomena’s Irish Bar and Kitchen) before heading home at around 8.30pm.
The first puzzle is how he got to Surbiton. Did he get a train from Waterloo? It appears there were no definite witnesses to his journey apart from a possible sighting at Surbiton station.
That evening his wife Margaret was visiting their son Christopher for dinner. Later that night, concerned that he had not made contact, she and Christopher decided to head back to the couple’s home at 12 Cranes Park Avenue. After entering the three-bedroom house shortly before midnight, they discovered James Durrant lying dead on the floor.
12 Cranes Park Avenue in 2021
He had been killed with a single blow to the front of the head with a heavy, blunt but smooth edged weapon similar to a baseball bat. He had also suffered a knife wound to the upper half of his body, according to newspaper reports. There may also have been other, undisclosed injuries.
Detectives found no sign of forced entry, suggesting he was either surprised when he entered the house or was accompanied by the killer as he made his way inside. Nothing was missing from the scene other than his dark leather wallet containing cash and miscellaneous correspondence, which suggested that the motive was unlikely to be robbery. The killer had not bothered to take other cash found on the body. The porch door had been closed but left unlocked after the murder. Neither of the murder weapons had been left at the scene.
At a press conference a few days later, Margaret Durrant described the killing as “very puzzling”. She was not aware of anything that might suggest he was in danger and rejected any suggesting that there was a link to his membership of the Masons. Instead she and Christopher claimed that the killer could have been a drug addict or someone in need of money who followed the victim home from the railway station.
“Somebody out there must know something,” Christopher told reporters. “Someone must be sheltering someone. Someone must know of a connection who can help us.”
The police officer leading the investigation, Detective Superintendent Malcolm Butcher, gave the local newspaper the impression he was working on the theory that James Durrant may have known his killer. “This was a very brutal murder,” he told the Kingston Informer. “The motive may not have been robbery. It could have been motiveless. It occurred in an average residential street in suburbia inside the security of someone’s home. The killer went over the top, even after death, and may suggest the type of person involved.” He added: “Someone left the hosue with blood on them carrying both weapons, and we are anxious to hear from anyone who can help”.
Police questioned commuters at both Waterloo and Surbiton stations in the week after the murder but were apparently unable to establish the victim’s route home.
A reconstruction of the case was also featured on BBC’s Crimewatch TV programme in the hope of finding crucial witnesses, apparently without success. According to the Kingston Informer of 2 December 1988 police were “no nearer knowing the last movements” of the victim and had been unable to unearth any leads on the Isle of Man, where James Durrant owned property.
After exhausting all their leads, police “terminated” the active inquiry in January 1989, the newspaper reported.
The family, concerned at the lack of progress, issued their own appeal on the first anniversay of the case and offered a £25,000 reward for information.
Son Michael Durrant, then a 47-year-old chartered surveyor, spoke to reporters at Kingston Police station. “It is difficult to imagine in the world we live in, which is ordered and respectable, that someone could walk out of the night, murder and elderly man and walk away from it,” he said.
“It is difficult to believe that it happened. And it is difficult to believe that despite enquiries there is no identity of the cultprit. It is a very unsatisfactory state of affairs. It is difficult to cope with living and not knowing the culprit’s identity. Someone must have seen him. If this can happen and they get away with it, how do you know it is not going to happen again? It must not be allowed to. We are sincerely hoping the reward will bring some information.”
Christopher revealed his mother was still deeply affected by the crime and was not sleeping properly. “She cannot look at pictures of him,” he said. “She kept thinking he would walk back through the door.”
The murder remains unsolved and has received little attention since, other than a short article in the Daily Mail which suggested police were examining possible links to the cases of Deborah Linsley, who was stabbed to death on a train in March 1988, and Alison Shaughnessy, who was stabbed to death at her home in Battersea in 1991. However there seems to be no evidence of any connection apart from the fact they all made train journeys on the days they died.
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