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Thread: 'Pembrokeshire Murders': 2 Double Murders in 1989, Trial 2011

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    'Pembrokeshire Murders': 2 Double Murders in 1989, Trial 2011

    John Cooper denies double murder as trial set to start





    A JURY will be sworn in tomorrow to begin the trial of John William Cooper, the man accused of two double murders in Pembrokeshire in the 1980s.
    Gerard Elias QC is due to open the prosecution case tomorrow in what is expected to be a 10-week trial at Swansea Crown Court.

    Cooper denies the murders of brother and sister Richard and Helen Thomas at their Scoveston Park manor house in 1985.

    Grandfather Cooper, 66, of Letterston, near Haverfordwest, also denies the killings of Oxford holidaymakers Peter Dixon and his wife Gwenda four years later.



    In addition he is pleading not guilty to a rape and indecent assault charge unrelated to the murders and to attempted robbery all alleged to have taken place in 1996.

    Richard Thomas was 58 and his sister 54 when their bodies were found in the burned out remains of Scoveston Park in December 1985.
    They both died of gunshot wounds.

    Peter Dixon, 51, and his 52-year-old wife, on holiday in Little Haven, Pembrokeshire, in July 1989 were also shot dead. They were attacked as they walked along the Pembrokeshire coastal path near the camp site where they were staying.

    A panel of more than 100 potential jurors was slimmed down to 51 yesterday, the large number needed because of the estimated length of the case and its complexity.
    The jury of 12 will be chosen tomorrow morning from the final 51 potential jurors.

    Trial judge Mr Justice John Griffith Williams Kt told the potential jurors the case involved “a substantial body of evidence”.
    He also warned jurors that site visits to various spots in Pembrokeshire during the trial would involve walks of “up to half a mile, possibly over rough and uneven ground”.

    Bespectacled Cooper appeared in the dock today wearing a smart, grey suit and striped tie and carrying a folder of papers.





    http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wa...#ixzz1S6j9RZkW

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    Links to the earlier developments during the trial HERE and more HERE

    Apr 6th - Apr 18th


    Apr 19th - May 5th

    May 5th - May 19th

    May 23rd - May 26th


    VERDICT


    John Cooper found GUILTY of Pembrokeshire double murders






    John Cooper (left) was found guilty of murdering Gwenda and Peter Dixon and Richard and Helen Thomas


    Farm labourer John Cooper will stay in prison for the rest of his life for the murders of Richard Thomas, Helen Thomas and holidaymakers Peter and Gwenda Dixon

    Merciless Cooper blasted to death millionaire farmer Richard Thomas, 58, and his sister Helen, 56, at their Scoveston Manor home near Milford Haven on December 22, 1985.
    Before escaping into the night with Mr Thomas’s shotgun, he set their three story historic mansion ablaze.

    Four years later, with the same gun, this time with sawn-off barrels, Cooper “executed” middle aged Oxfordshire holidaymakers Peter and Gwenda Dixon as they strolled the Pembrokeshire coastal path they loved near Little Haven on June 29, 1989.

    Before killing them he forced marketing manager Mr Dixon to hand over his cash card and pin number and even stole his gold wedding band then indecently assaulted Mrs Dixon.

    Hiding their blood soaked bodies in a screen of hazel twigs and bracken, he later cycled into Pembroke and Haverfordwest to use the cash card, witnesses describing him as the notorious “wild looking man” whose photofit was widely circulated.


    But psychopath Cooper made a fatal mistake, taking Mrs Dixon’s shorts and wearing them for years as a bizarre “trophy”.
    When cold case detectives began reviewing the case five years ago using the latest DNA advances, they found the shorts in Cooper’s bedroom.

    Out of vanity, Cooper, who appeared every day in court in a smart suit, had altered the hem so they fitted him.
    He lied that they were his shorts.

    But scientists found a tiny speck of Peter Dixon’s blood on them and in what was a “forensic gold nugget”, they discovered under the altered hem the DNA of Peter Dixon’s daughter Julie.
    It proved beyond doubt she must have brushed against the shorts years earlier illustrating Cooper had taken them from the murder scene.

    Over more than a quarter of a century, using the cunning of a fox, Cooper broke into dozens of people’s homes, escaping from his crimes with money and people’s prized possessions via a maze of hedgerows and fields whose fences he cut to give him access.
    He even used curry powder to stop police dogs following him home.

    And he used hedges as “safes” for stolen earrings, brooches, rings and photo-frames.
    As his break-ins became more prolific he invented a “burglary tool”, a home made car jack type device with a sharp edge used for forcing open doors and windows.
    He also had a chilling propensity to kill to prevent his victims speaking out.
    As prosecutor Gerard Elias QC put it “if he needed to use his gun on occasion he would do so”.

    As well as being behind the horrific double murders which left police baffled for two decades, in 1996, dressed in a sinister black balaclava and holding a loaded shotgun, he held up five terrified teenagers in woods at Milford Haven’s Mount Estate, raping one girl aged 16 and indecently assaulting another aged 15.
    The jury also convicted Cooper of those crimes.

    The murders were heavily featured on the BBC’s Crimewatch and thousands of people including some across Europe were interviewed but for years they remained unsolved.
    The Dixon murders in particular led to speculative theories the IRA may have killed the couple for stumbling over an arms cache or that a drug smuggling gang might have been responsible.

    But Dyfed Powys Police began to suspect Cooper could be the killer in the 1990s.

    Their Operation Huntsman inquiry into his vast number of break-ins earned him a 16 year jail term at Swansea Crown Court in 1998 for a sample 30 burglaries and one armed robbery in which he held up terrified teacher Sheila Clarke in her own home at Sardis, Pembrokeshire, using the very same sawn-off shotgun he had taken from Scoveston Manor.

    Operation Huntsman officers recovered 503 house keys from the cesspit of Cooper’s former home at St Mary’s Park, Jordanston plus jewellery and a vast number of other stolen items.
    They also dug up a shotgun from his garden and found a key which fitted a bedroom door in Norton Farm, a property once owned by murder victim Richard Thomas.

    There were so many stolen goods they were laid out on trestle tables in places such as Witheybush Airfield and the Gulf oil refinery so Pembrokeshire burglary victims could identify which items were theirs.

    By the time Cooper was released on licence in 2008 after serving 10 years, Dyfed Powys Police set out to trap the countryside killer with a calculating effort of their own


    They set up a cold case review of the two double murders and the Mount Estate incident code-named Operation Ottowa led by Detective Chief Superintendent Steve Wilkins.
    This time, more than two decades of innovation and improvement in forensic techniques finally caught up with Cooper.


    After the verdict, trial judge Mr Justice Grifftith Williams told Cooper: "These murders were all such evil wickedness that the mandatory sentence of life imprisonment will mean just that.

    The judge told Cooper: "I'm confident you will never express any remorse to help those who have lost loved ones to come to terms with what's happened.
    “You are a very dangerous man, a highly organised and predatory burglar whose hallmarks were using a balaclava, gloves and a sworn-off shotgun that was loaded and that you were ready to use, if necessary.
    “If it had not been for advances in forensic science you may never have been brought to justice because your offences were well planned, allowing you to evade arrest for so long."

    “When you went to burgle Scoveston Manor you saw Richard Thomas' car was not there and knew his sister Helen would be alone.
    “She died because she would recognise you.
    “I’m sure she was terrified when you placed that shirt over her head. I am satisfied you did and I think she was sexually interfered with, though we can never be certain.
    Her brother heard the shot that killed her so he had to die too.

    At this point unrepentant Cooper started to argue with the judge shouting: "Utter rubbish." Referring to the Dixon murders, the judge said: "Mr and Mrs Dixon had to wait for immediate execution and the one was forced to watch as the other was murdered in cold blood knowing the other would soon face the same thing."

    Members of Cooper’s family left the court visibly upset as the judge sentenced Cooper.
    One man approached the dock and said: “We’re always here for you John.”

    A statement from Detective Chief Superintendent Steve Wilkins who headed the cold case review of the Dixon, Scoveston Park and Mount Estate attack cases said today: “Following a court appearance in 2009, Cooper shouted to the communities of Wales not to judge him until the evidence had been heard.

    “Over the last nine weeks, 12 people from that community have listened to all of the evidence and decided that he is guilty of all charges.
    “I believe this is the right decision. John Cooper is a very dangerous and evil man, who for pitiful gain murdered four people and later subjected five children to a terrible attack and he will now spend the rest of his life in prison.
    “At this time I would like to express my thanks to the victims and families of the victims in this case who for many years have shown remarkable dignity and patience in their long wait for justice and for the support they have given to me and the investigation team.
    “I would also like to thank Tom Atherton and the Crown Prosecution Service for their advice and guidance and Gerard Elias QC and his team for a superb prosecution of this complex case.”

    _____________________________

    More info, video reports and further links can be found here
























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