Murder Most Foul – July 2018

the murder to come forward. He then

centred his attention on the footprints

found in the house. Prints made by the

same shoe were also found near the

neighbouring houses on both sides.

It seemed that a prowler intent on

robbery had come across a female alone

and vulnerable, and his lust had taken

over.

The prints had been made by shoes

with Redfern soles style 282, probably

size nine, and had a Goodyear Wingfoot

rubber heel pattern.

The Scotland Yard men also

concentrated on the fingerprint found

on a brandy bottle in Flora’s scullery.

The investigation was widened to

encompass military establishments,

displaced persons’ camps, borstals

and mental institutions. One of Flora’s

doors bearing fingerprints was taken to

a laboratory, and the sill of the window

through which she had been thrown was

also removed.

Detective Constable John Canning of

York City Police was sent to Strensall

Camp to fingerprint each of the 467

soldiers stationed there. A barrack-room

was provided for his use, and each

company was brought there in turn.

Canning had taken 60 sets of prints

before anything remarkable happened.

Then he found he had a problem with

one soldier – Private Philip Henry,

25, of the King’s Own Yorkshire Light

Infantry.

There was nothing suspicious about

the difficulty, which arose from the fact

that the ring and little fingers of Henry’s

right hand were deformed, resulting in

a bad print. But when all the soldiers’

fingerprints were processed, one set

was found to match those found on the

brandy bottle. They were those of Philip

Henry.

S

tockily-built and dark-haired, Henry

had joined the army in 1946, serving

three years in Malaya and a year in

Korea, returning to Britain the previous

December.

As yet he didn’t know that he was in

trouble. He had just been one of many

men who had been fingerprinted. But

the police obtained his home address, 6

Rathnew Avenue, Stockton-on-Tees.

Making enquiries in the area, the

police visited 4 Salisbury Terrace, the

premises of Frederick Marley, a boot

and shoe repairer. He identified a

plaster-cast of the crime scene footprint

as a sole and heel he had fitted to the

shoes of Philip Henry the previous

December.

More questions were asked at the

barracks where Henry was stationed.

The soldiers occupying the beds on

each side of Henry told the police that

he had not used his bed on the night

of March 9th, and one soldier spoke

On the kitchen floor was a washing

“dolly” that bore traces of having been

used to inflict some of her injuries. Her

sheets were bloodstained, and there was

blood on a pair of knickers found on her

bed.

In addition to indicating a sexual

motive for the killing, the post-mortem

revealed the appalling extent of Fiona’s

injuries, which were listed in five groups.

T

he injuries in the first group were

consistent with a head-first fall from

a height. There was a large lacerated

wound on the top of the left side of the

head, and a fracture which extended

down to the base of the skull. There was

a fracture of the spinal column and of

two ribs on the right side and the main

artery of the body was torn. There was

a compound fracture of the left thigh

bone just above the knee, and there

were abrasions in parallel lines over the

abdomen, chest, left arm and legs that

corresponded with irregularities on the

ground where the body was found.

Making up the second group were

severe bruises over the right eye,

evidence that extreme force had been

used. The third group consisted of small

bruises, abrasions and lacerations inside

the mouth. These showed that pressure

had been applied to the lips.

In the fourth group were bruises on

the right side of the neck and fractures

of the horns of the voicebox. The fifth

group of injuries related to the genitals

and had been caused by a serious sexual

assault. A small amount of hair at the

back of the head had been singed.

Superintendent Black appealed for

anyone who had seen, or had given a

lift to, a man in the region of Diamond

Street in the early hours of the day of

It seemed that

a prowler intent

on robbery had

come across a

female alone and

vulnerable

Diamond Street in York. Number 30 was

halfway down on the right. Below, the

York evening paper headlines the story

The arrowed line shows the extent of

Flora’s fall from her back bedroom