Murder Most Foul – July 2018

34 Murder Most Foul Terrible Revenge of A Jilted Suitor

that was it. There must have been a

lot of blood, but as it was dark I didn’t

see much. As he lay on the ground, I

felt for his pulse but found none, and

none from his heart area. It was then

I knew that he was dead. I knew that

my work was finished as far as he was

concerned.”

Doohan was well aware that he had

committed a savage, premeditated

killing, but this had not prevented

him from walking the mile or more to

Queenborough police office.

After taking almost the entire day to

make and go over his statement, at 9

o’clock Doohan led Detective Sergeant

Jock Robertson, accompanied by a

number of other police officers, to the

desolate spot on the moor where the

KENT SHOCKER

TERRIBLE

OF A JILTED

and said, “I’ve just killed

a man. You’d better have

this.”

After being cautioned

Doohan dictated to a

CID officer:

“I detested Yvonne’s

stepfather and I made

up my mind to do him

harm. I knew he was

the cause of the trouble

between Yvonne and me.”

He went on to describe how he had

contrived to walk a few paces behind

Ketley once they reached the marshes.

“I put the barrel of the gun a few

inches away from the back of his head

and neck. I knew he wouldn’t feel it

there. I then pulled the trigger and

F

OR ME, AS a police constable

serving in the Kent naval town of

Sheerness in 1954, Wednesday,

February 10th proved to be singularly

memorable. I had been instructed to

sit in one of the old Victorian cells of

Sheerness police station for the whole of

the afternoon with a man who, 19 hours

before, had killed his prospective father-

in-law in cold blood.

The victim was Herbert Victor Ketley,

a 40-year-old motor mechanic. The

murderer was James Reginald Doohan,

a 24-year-old labourer from Borough

Road, Queenborough, on the Isle of

Sheppey.

James Doohan and Yvonne Deighton,

Ketley’s 18-year-old stepdaughter,

had been going out together for about

three years. Doohan was convinced that

Yvonne would eventually marry him.

However, on the evening of February

7th, Yvonne confessed to Doohan that

she was not sure she loved him enough

to take such an important step. She was,

after all, only 18.

Yvonne’s words had a shattering

effect on Doohan. He immediately

jumped to the conclusion, quite wrongly

as it happened, that Yvonne’s stepfather

had turned her against him.

On February 8th, Yvonne again told

Doohan she would not marry him and

he made up his mind there and then

that Ketley must die.

On the morning of February 9th,

Doohan got his plan worked out. His

first step was to borrow a shotgun and

cartridges from one of his mates on the

pretext of wanting to go shooting on the

marsh. This, as

it happened,

was quite true,

because at

about 7 o’clock

that night he

called round to

31 Swale Road,

Queenborough,

Ketley’s home,

and told him

a convincing

yarn about

a man being

injured on the

marshes. Ketley,

anxious to help

if he could,

unhesitatingly

went with him,

unaware that his

stepdaughter’s

boyfriend had a

gun concealed

under his coat.

What

happened when

Doohan and his

intended victim reached the desolate

wastes of Rushenden Marshes is best

explained by the killer’s own statement

to Sheerness CID at 3.15 a.m. on

Wednesday morning. Having knocked

on the blue-painted police station office

door and roused Sergeant Chatfield,

Doohan simply handed him the shotgun

Above, left to right, killer James Doohan and Yvonne Deighton.

Left, Yvonne’s stepfather Herbert Ketley, a wartime sailor, who

was shot dead after the sweethearts’ romance abruptly ended.

Opposite below right, Sheerness in the 1950s