murder had taken place. It was well
away from the road, close to the banks
of the River Swale.
The pathologist who carried out the
post-mortem examination included in
his report that Ketley had sustained a
head wound caused by gunshot pellets.
Following Doohan’s appearance
before the Sittingbourne magistrates
on February 10th, I was detailed to sit
with Doohan in his cell for the three
hours before his transfer to Canterbury
Prison.
Being young and inexperienced, I
felt very uneasy and at a loss for what
to talk about. I did manage to get a
conversation going
with him, however,
and challenged him to
a game of cribbage to
take his and my own
mind off the probability
he would be hanged.
I suppose I had
been detailed to stay
with him to stop him
from harming himself,
although he could
not possibly have
committed suicide
as his braces, belt,
shoelaces and any
other item of clothingthat could have been used had all been
taken away.
It was about 4 p.m. when Doohan,
ashen-faced and very tearful, asked me,
“D’you think I will hang, constable? I
know I deserve to die for what I did, but
I don’t really want to swing on the end
of that bloody rope. Tell me what you
think will happen. I can take it.”
I don’t mind admitting that a full
minute elapsed before I managed to
answer in words that I hoped sounded
optimistic. “It all depends on you, old
son. If you were nutty or rather insane
at the time you pulled the trigger and
because of that you didn’t know whatIt was an unforgettable day in the
life of a young police officer. As a
constable in Sheerness,
BILL BISHOP came face to face
with a cold-blooded killer – hours
after he’d committed his crime and
made a detailed confession. Here he
recalls the case – and the time he
spent with a murderer destined for
the gallows...
KENT SHOCKER
IBLE REVENGE
TED SUITOR
you were doing, or perhaps you didn’t
realise or know that what you were
doing was quite wrong, your counsel
would put that across to the jury. The
truth is, Doohan, I don’t really know
and neither does anyone else in this
situation.”
After all, I couldn’t possibly tell him
what I really thought, and that I would
be prepared to bet on my prediction.
His trial was held at Maidstone
Assizes on March 23rd, 1954. Although
Doohan pleaded not guilty as instructed
by his barrister, Mr. Cope-Morgan QC,
it was clear right from the start that his
fate was sealed.
Mr. Cope-Morgan agreed that the
facts of the killing were not in dispute,
but added, “I am going to say, however,
my Lord, that my client was insane at
the time he committed the murder.”
He went on to outline all that I had
told Doohan in his cell about insanity,
and disputing that Doohan had known
what he was doing. He called as a
witness Dr. Ambrose, who had been the
army doctor in Doohan’s unit in 1948.
He told the court that on one occasion
when he examined Doohan he hadformed an opinion that his patient was
suffering from a type of schizophrenia,
and displayed symptoms of a dual
personality.
Dr. Ambrose averred that he had little
doubt Doohan was still suffering from
the disorder. “For instance,” he said,
“when I saw him in Canterbury Prison
recently, he told me he had been having
terrible headaches for a long time and
was continually hearing voices. In fact,
he told me he had heard a voice telling
him to kill Ketley. He asked me not to
mention this fact in court, as he didn’t
want people to know that he had a
screw loose somewhere.”
Dr. Ambrose went on to tell the
court, “He even mentioned the [Derek]
Bentley murder and said, ‘I have killed a
man. Am I in the same class?’”
“Did you put the question of voices to
him?” asked Judge Sellers.
“Yes, after he had spoken about
headaches,” replied Dr. Ambrose, but in
reply to the prosecuting counsel, he said
that he did not think the prisoner was
certifiable under the Mental Deficiency
Act.
When the prosecuting counsel, Mr.
Tristram Beresford, asked him, “Was
there anything mad about going to the
police and telling them the truth about
this matter as he did?” Dr. Ambrose“D’you think I will
hang? I know I deserve
to die for what I did,
but I don’t really want
to swing on the end of
that bloody rope. Tell
me what you think will
happen”