Page 30 - Community Living Magazine 32-3

moments in history
Let him have it: a victim of ‘justice’

Derek Bentley, a “three-quarter witted boy”, was hanged for a murder he did not commit,
despite pleas from MPs and a public outcry. Susanna Shapland investigates the teenager’s
background and how much he really understood about his court case

n 2 November 1952, two teenage absence of discipline. He was therefore fit
boys were seen climbing onto the to stand trial.
oroof of Barlow and Parker’s At the trial, Bentley made a poor
confectionary warehouse in Croydon. witness. His denial of evident truths
The younger of the two, 16-year-old discredited his entire performance,
Christopher Craig, habitually carried a leading Craig’s barrister John Parris to
gun and did so that night. He used it to comment that “not only was Bentley a
fire at the arresting officers, wounding moron but he was a lying moron”.
one and killing another, PC Sidney Miles. Iris Bentley thought this was an extension
The other teenager was 19-year-old Derek of her brother’s tendency to “just pretend
Bentley. While Craig had fired the fatal things hadn’t happened”, when he knew
shot, both youths faced a charge of murder he was in trouble. She believed he simply
over the death of PC Miles, although only did not understand what was taking place
Bentley was old enough to be hanged. in court, but added that neither did the
Under the principle of joint enterprise, rest of the family, saying it was “like
it was argued that Craig and Bentley had playing a game where you didn’t know the
been unified in their intention to not only rules”. In this game, the stakes were high.
break into the warehouse but also resist Many of the reports into Bentley’s mental
arrest by force, evinced by the fact that Derek Bentley’s grave. “They fought to the end” capacity were made widely available only
they were both armed. reads a neighbouring stone in the family plot years after his execution, but one person
Although only Craig had a gun, Bentley who had access to them at the time was
had a knuckleduster and a small knife. It He hated school, which was not helped home secretary David maxwell-Fyfe.
therefore did not matter that Craig had by his frequent absences due to severe The night before Bentley’s execution,
shot PC Miles, as Bentley was considered headaches – later thought to be petit mal Parris accompanied a delegation of mPs
guilty by association. (absence) seizures – and occasional to beg maxwell-Fyfe to grant a reprieve.
moreover, three police officers stated full-blown epileptic seizures. He refused. Turning to go, maxwell-Fyfe
that Bentley knew Craig was armed and His patchy school attendance and observed that “everything you have urged
had shouted, “Let him have it, Chris,” epilepsy were coupled with what a in his favour – his feeble-mindedness, his
inciting him to open fire. hospital doctor’s report in 1949 called a illiteracy, his epilepsy and so on – merely
Debates centred over whether Bentley “congenital lack of intelligence”. The goes to confirm the conclusion that I had
meant this as an instruction for Craig or as following year, his IQ was recorded as 66 already come to. He is a young man that
a plea for him to hand over his weapon, – “borderline feeble-minded” – his society can well do without” (Parris, 1991).
but it is probable that it was not said at all. reading age as 4½ years and his mental Despite appeals, petitions, public outcry
Bentley always denied saying it and Craig age as 10½ years. He was called up and and debates in parliament – Reginald
denied hearing it, as did another officer rejected for national service, classed as Paget mP QC referred to him as a “three-
whose evidence was not considered. grade Iv or “mentally subnormal”. quarter witted boy” – Derek Bentley was
Nevertheless, in a two-day trial in He left school at 15 unable to read hanged on 28 January 1953.
December 1952, the official version of or write. This later led to Bentley was pardoned
events was accepted without murmur, questions being raised as to how in 1993 and his murder
both defendants were found guilty – he had understood his police conviction overturned
Bentley with a recommendation for mercy statement, which he had in 1998. n
– and Lord Chief Justice Goddard supposedly signed numerous
sentenced Bentley to death. times despite barely being able to Bibliography
spell his own name. Bentley I, Dening P (1995) Let
A ‘soft’ boy much of this information was Him Have Justice. London:
Derek Bentley was born in 1933 in dismissed by JCM Matheson, the Sidgwick and Jackson
London. His sister Iris described him as a principal medical officer at Brixton medak P, director (1991) Let
Him Have It. Film
“soft” boy who was close to his mother Prison. Matheson decided that Parris J (1991) Scapegoat.
and loved animals. He would stop to pet a Bentley’s “low intelligence” was London: Gerald Duckworth.
cat on his way to school and lose all sense not enough to certify him as “feeble Trow mJ (1992) Let Him Have It, Chris. London:
of time, then get into trouble for being minded”, believing it to be due simply Grafton Steve Brown/Flickr
late, a tendency that would later cost him to a lack of education, exacerbated yallop DA (1971) To Encourage the Others.
his job as a road sweeper. by parental overindulgence and an London: WH Allen

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