The Wrong Man: The Shooting of Steven Waldorf and The Hunt for David Martin (16 page)

Meanwhile, the three traumatised detectives had been taken to Kensington police station by Detective Constable Stephen Hoile. ‘They appeared to me to be very dazed and obviously suffering from severe shock,' he said. ‘They looked so bad I asked them whether they wanted to see a doctor. None of them replied. They were so dazed I don't think what I said registered with them.'

This was undoubtedly correct. ‘At this point, I still felt from what happened that it might be Martin and that DC Finch might be mistaken,' said Deane. ‘I felt very shocked by the whole incident.'

The officers were immediately debriefed by the commander of ‘B' District, Robert Innes; Chief Superintendent Baister took possession of the officers' weapons and remaining ammunition until they were packaged by a scenes-of-crime officer.

DCI Chapman had now returned to Kensington police station where he saw the three officers, together with DS Seabrook, in the chief superintendent's office. To all of them, he said, ‘I am not the investigating officer for this matter, nor am I likely to be. I am the detective chief inspector of Kensington police station but until the appointment of and arrival of an investigating officer, I am assuming control of the scene. For that purpose, I will require to know, briefly, in which direction bullets were fired.' To DS Seabrook he asked, ‘Can you tell me about it?' Although Seabrook was able to furnish brief details of the static and mobile observations, he was unable to assist as to the direction of gunfire.

Chapman then said to Finch, ‘I'll have to ask you where you fired your gun. That is all I want.'

Finch replied, ‘I fired my first two shots into the rear tyre.'

‘Is that the nearside tyre?' asked Chapman and Finch replied, ‘Yes.'

‘Did you fire any more?' asked Chapman.

‘Yes,' Finch replied. ‘Then I fired another four through the front passenger window into his arm and I saw them go into his arm.' Finch then rubbed his left upper arm and shoulder to indicate where his bullets had gone.

At some point, Finch mentioned hitting Waldorf over the head with his gun but he did not expand on that subject and Chapman – who only wanted to know about the number and trajectory of the bullets – did not question him further, only asking, ‘Were they in a downward direction?' and Finch replied, ‘Yes.'

Chapman then asked Deane, ‘Where did you fire yours?'

He replied, ‘I was behind the car and fired all five into the rear window.'

‘There only appears to be four holes in the rear window,' said Chapman and Deane replied, ‘Our guns only have five rounds but I'm sure all five went into the back window.'

‘Were they in a downward direction?' asked Chapman and was told, ‘Reasonably, yes.'

To Jardine, Chapman said, ‘What about yours?'

He replied, ‘I fired three at him when he was halfway out of the car and halfway on the road.'

‘Did you see where they went?' asked Chapman and Jardine replied, ‘They hit him.'

‘Then I assume they were all in a downward direction?' queried Chapman and was told, ‘Yes.'

The three officers were taken to the police station's canteen where they were kept segregated until the arrival of the investigating officers from the Police Complaints Branch, CIB2. And while this was going on, precisely what had happened was being pieced together. The questions that needed answers were: why were the three people in the Mini, why had it been hired and where was it going?

Susan Stephens made two statements to police, the first on the day following the shooting, the second five days later to clear up any ambiguities contained in the first, in the presence of a solicitor. She simply said that she was waiting for Lester Purdy to pick her up at her flat; exactly why was never made clear.

Lester Kenton Purdy made three statements; the first on the day following the shooting was written by Commander Taylor. The two subsequent statements were made on 24 January in the presence of his solicitor, Arwyn Hopkins (he would later act for Steven Waldorf in his civil proceedings against the police) of Pelleys Solicitors. Purdy stated that he had been in a relationship with Marion, the sister of Steven Waldorf, for some three-and-a-half years. He and Steven were good friends who occasionally worked together in the film business. On 14 January, he had arranged to meet Waldorf at a car hire company; they intended to go to Coulsdon to pick up a Toyota for use in a film shoot. Before the meet with Waldorf, Purdy had gone to Stephens's address in his Capri because she wanted to come along ‘for the ride'.

Waldorf's statement was not obtained until 27 January when it was taken down by Detective Chief Superintendent Dickens. Waldorf stated that he had met Stephens in December 1982 and had met her thereafter on about five occasions. Both Purdy and Waldorf said that they knew the name of David Martin, because he had been a friend of Susie Stephens; however, both stated that they had never met or spoken to him. Waldorf had known Peter Enter, a friend of Lester Purdy's, since 1979 and when in late October 1982, Waldorf had started working for a film director named Tony Palmer who lived in Kensington Park Gardens, he decided that he needed a flat nearer to the area than his parents' home at Arkley, Barnet. He had heard of a flat becoming available at 295 Ladbroke Grove and because the letting agents would only agree to the flat being ‘company let', Purdy arranged the tenancy through his company Beachshore Ltd, with Waldorf as the tenant. In the event, he stayed there for not more than a total of five nights. Peter Enter moved into the small bedroom of the flat and when Stephens arranged, via Purdy, to move into the flat as well – she was not, as Waldorf understood it, getting on with her flat mate at West End Lane – she would start paying Waldorf's share of the rent. However, although she had moved some of her belongings into the flat, he was unaware if she had commenced paying any rent.

Peter Enter had arrived at Stephens's flat; according to Purdy ‘he had nothing else to do' and he too got into the Capri and at the car hire company, he drove off in the Capri. Both Stephens and Purdy stated that it was Enter's intention to go to Box, a village outside Bath, to see Hugh Cornwell, a member of the band The Stranglers, regarding completing the wiring at a studio before returning the Capri to Purdy's address.

At the car hire company, Purdy stated that Waldorf had forgotten his driving licence and chequebook, so he paid for the hire of the Mini. The car hire's company secretary, Mrs Teresa Walley, who arranged the hire, recalled that Purdy said that he was in a hurry to get to Coulsdon and while he was at the counter he was studying an
A–Z
. The three – Purdy, Stephens and Waldorf – got into the hired yellow Mini and drove off. From time to time, Stephens would lie down on the back seat because, as she would later tell the investigating officers, ‘she felt tired'.

Stationary in Pembroke Road, Waldorf turned to speak to Purdy and Stephens when Purdy saw a man holding a gun by the passenger's door and heard two loud bangs. No bullets entered the car – these, of course, were the shots going into the rear nearside tyre – and as Purdy later said, ‘I thought for a moment that it might be someone fooling around with a starting pistol.' Waldorf too had heard what he described as being ‘two or three softish sounding bangs'.

More shots were fired, these into the car; Waldorf was hit, Stephens screamed ‘Lester!' Purdy shouted ‘Leg it!', and ran but later turned back to see Waldorf being pulled out of the car. Meanwhile, Stephens had been trying to get down on the floor because there was a weight – Waldorf – on the driver's seat which she was unable to push forward. ‘I felt something hit me in the back,' she said, ‘as if I had been hit with a cricket bat.'

The police, said Stephens believed they had shot David Martin, upon which she screamed, ‘Go and look at his fucking face!'

As she and Waldorf were later conveyed to hospital, she could hear him murmuring, ‘My God, it hurts, it hurts.'

Although Brian Arnold, a principal scientific officer attached to the laboratory, had already made an examination of the vehicle at the scene, in the days that followed he made a further detailed examination of the Mini at the Metropolitan Police Forensic Science Laboratory and took possession of various items of clothing, spent bullets and fragments of bullets. He test-fired the three detectives' revolvers and found they were all in good condition. All six chambers of Finch's weapon had been fired, as had three chambers of Jardine's weapon and in the case of Deane's weapon, all five chambers had been fired.

Arnold examined one item which was thought to be part of a bullet; however, it was not. Of the fourteen remaining items, two exhibits which were described as bullets and which had been found in the roadway were in fact bullet fragments. A bullet that Arnold had extracted from the driver's door was very badly damaged and like the previous two items lacked characteristic detail.

A microscopic examination was made by comparing bullets that Arnold had fired from the detective's revolvers and the last eleven spent bullets, which showed varying degrees of damage and several of which revealed evidence of impact with glass and/or clothing. He came to these conclusions:

Finch's gun had fired bullets which were found on the floor of the Mini, in the front passenger footwell, the rear nearside wheel arch and the back of Waldorf's left shoulder. There were also indications that that gun had fired bullets one of which emerged from Waldorf when he was lying on the offside of the Mini and also a flattened bullet found in the roadway.

Jardine had fired bullets, one of which was extracted from Waldorf's left armpit at the hospital and a second which was found under Waldorf's body, also at the hospital.

Lastly, one of the bullets fired from Deane's gun was lodged in the interior of the front passenger seat, another had fallen from Waldorf's clothing and the third had been extracted from Waldorf's right armpit at the hospital.

The pieces of the metaphorical jigsaw were slowly coming together. The independent witnesses had said what they had seen. The exhibits had been – and were being still – scrupulously gathered and recorded. The scene had been photographed and plans of the area drawn up. All the evidence was being marshalled together. Now it would be the turn of the detectives who had fired the shots to explain what had happened; and what they had to say would be crucial.