Essex Boy (22 page)

‘I just stood at the lounge door and opened fire; the first person I shot hit the back wall. I then tried to shoot one of them in the chest and they raised their hand to stop me.’

Alvin had found this particularly amusing. He continued boasting and said that one of the people they had shot on the settee had pulled a girl on top of himself for protection. Alvin told Boshell that he had shot this particular person in the face.

Fearing things had got out of hand and he was in above his depth, Boshell had said, ‘I thought you were just going to do them in the legs?’

Alvin looked at Boshell with a smirk and replied, ‘Fuck them.’

It was clear to Boshell that Alvin was really hyped up, excited almost, so he concentrated on the road ahead and said no more. When they arrived in Shoeburyness, Boshell parked in a road called Burgess Close, near Pamela Walsh’s house.

As he did so, Alvin said, ‘There’s a drain there. Ditch your gun.’ Boshell got the gun out of the car, walked to the back of the vehicle and dropped the weapon down the drain.

Unbeknown to Alvin and Boshell, a man was watching them from his bedroom window. Leonard Spencer, a retired gentleman whose home was on the corner of Burgess Close, had been awoken in the early hours of the morning by loud voices and the sound of car doors slamming. Thinking that this disturbance at such an unsociable hour was somewhat suspicious, Leonard had got out of bed and opened his window. Looking to his right he saw a Vauxhall Belmont and two men, who were running from it. After these men had run a short distance, one of them had stopped and returned to the car. Leonard quite rightly assumed that the vehicle was stolen and that the man had returned to it to retrieve something that he had forgotten. After getting dressed, Leonard made his way downstairs and then out into the street to inspect the vehicle. The doors were not locked and inside Leonard could see that audio tapes and a number of coins had been scattered around the footwell. Returning to his home Leonard had telephoned the police who he recalls ‘didn’t seem interested’. Later that morning, when the police realised the possible significance of the vehicle, they attended Burgess Close and interviewed Leonard about all that he had seen.

Upon his return from Cyprus, Percival had kept his promise and visited Pamela Walsh at her home in Shoeburyness to check on her well-being. The sight he was greeted with was not pretty; since it was the anniversary of Malcolm’s death Pamela had hit rock bottom. Finding Pamela in a terribly emotional state, Percival agreed to sleep over to help her through what was a very traumatic time. He spent the evening talking to Pamela and her children and, when they retired for the night, he made a bed up on the sofa and went to sleep.

Alvin and others concede that it was fairly common practice for those in our circle to borrow one another’s cars. Percival worked as a motor mechanic for a local company and as a sideline he would buy second-hand cars, carry out any minor repairs that needed doing and sell them on at a profit. This meant that he often had several vehicles at his disposal; I had often borrowed vehicles from him. Percival has since told me that on the day of the Locksley Close shootings Alvin had asked to borrow a car to do ‘a bit of work’. Percival had told Alvin that he could have a 4x4 Sierra which he had used to drive to Pamela’s house. He was to leave the keys under the foot mat on the driver’s side because he had no idea what time Alvin was going to collect the car, and if it was going to be late, he didn’t want Alvin to disturb Pamela or her children.

After talking to Alvin, Percival had telephoned his friend Pete Edwards to ask him if he would give him a lift home the following morning because he knew that he would be going his way. In the early hours, Percival was woken by somebody hammering on Pamela’s door. Fearing Pamela and her children would be disturbed, Percival opened the door and saw Alvin standing before him. He realised that he had forgotten to leave the keys to his car under the mat as arranged. Alvin immediately barged his way into Pamela’s house and when Percival looked outside to see what, if anything, was causing him to be in such an apparent agitated state, he saw two men who appeared to be searching his car. He assumed that they were looking for the keys that he had forgotten to leave under the mat.

Percival asked Alvin what was going on and he replied, ‘If you don’t know, you can’t be accused of any wrongdoing. Keep your mouth shut and you will be all right.’

Alvin demanded the car keys, which Percival retrieved from inside one of his training shoes and then Alvin left. That morning, as arranged, Pete Edwards picked Percival up from Pamela’s house and dropped him off near his home.

At 1010 hrs that morning, a number of officers from Essex Police Force Support Unit set up a roadblock to seal off the road in which Percival lived. Satisfied that all exits and entrances were secured, PC Noel O’Hara knocked on Percival’s front door and when he answered it he was formally arrested on suspicion of attempted murder. Only a few hours had elapsed since the blood-letting orgy in Locksley Close, and one would imagine that Percival and his clothing would have been a forensic scientist’s paradise. The shootings were common knowledge by this time as BBC Essex Radio had broadcast details of the incident on its 1000 hrs news bulletin. Despite the shootings only happening a few hours earlier, the report was extremely accurate and detailed.

The newsreader said that a woman and two men had been shot and seriously injured by two masked gunmen in the early hours of the morning at a house in Locksley Close, Southend. An update in the following news bulletin stated that the masked gunmen were, in fact, wearing balaclavas. After all the talk and all the threats that had been made about avenging Malcolm Walsh’s death, and the fact that the Trettons lived in Locksley Close, Percival didn’t have to be a super sleuth to work out that the shootings he had heard about on the radio involved the Tretton family.

He made no reply when arrested by PC O’Hara but when he was being handed over to other officers for transportation to Southend police station he had asked, ‘Is this about the Trettons?’ One of the officers informed Percival that he was unable to discuss the reason for his arrest, to which Percival replied, ‘Are they dead?’

The officer ignored Percival’s comments and placed him in a vehicle. As they made their way to Southend, Sergeant Caldwell, who was sitting alongside Percival, asked, ‘Are you all right? Are those handcuffs a bit tight?’

Percival replied, ‘I’m all right, mate. I have got nothing to worry about.’

The sergeant advised Percival to lean forward in his seat so that he would be more comfortable. When Percival had done this, he said to Sergeant Caldwell, ‘What’s this all about?’

The officer replied, ‘I don’t know, we are just the taxi drivers.’

Percival then said, ‘I knew that this would happen. How are the Trettons? Trouble is, Malcolm knew so many people. One of your officers had already told me that I would be the first one to be nicked if anything like this happened.’

Sergeant Caldwell reminded Percival that he had been cautioned and therefore anything he said could be used in evidence against him, but Percival didn’t appear bothered or guarded.

He asked what the penalty for attempted murder was and when the officer replied, ‘Life’, Percival said, ‘I wouldn’t want to be the bloke who did it then. I feel sorry for the bloke who gets caught.’

While Percival was in police custody, officers searching the car that had been dumped outside Leonard Spencer’s home in Burgess Close discovered an open bottle of white spirit on the back seat. This information was relayed back to the officers dealing with Percival and they decided that specific forensic tests for traces of white spirit and other materials such as gun residue would be carried out on him. Percival’s outer and under clothing was seized, as were various other items from his home, such as a boiler suit and footwear. These were sent to the Forensic Science Service Laboratory for examination. Despite Percival’s being arrested within hours of the shootings, not a single shred of forensic evidence linking him to the stolen car, the crime scene or the crime itself was found. After three days of intense questioning, and having been subjected to numerous forensic tests, the police released Percival on bail pending further inquiries.

Percival rang me and told me what had happened to him. We both agreed that it was more than likely that Alvin and Boshell had shot the Trettons, but to us it seemed like justice after Malcolm’s murder, not a crime. The weekend after Percival was released we threw a big party for him. Everybody came, including Alvin.

When I asked Alvin about the shootings, he just raised his glass, looked up at the ceiling and shouted at the top of his voice, ‘One fucking one, Malcolm, one fucking one!’

I took it that Alvin was telling us that he had settled an outstanding score. Looking at Alvin with a huge deranged grin on his face, I couldn’t help but wonder how many more scores he would settle before joining the likes of Tate and Tucker in a graveyard or prison cell. As they had found out, somebody somewhere will always step in and stop the insanity.

CHAPTER NINE

The blood-letting orgy at Locksley Close had a dramatic effect on Percival
and all of us that associated with him. He was catapulted overnight from being an 18-year-old petty criminal in the eyes of a few, to being a psychopathic, gun-toting madman in the eyes of many. Foolishly, very foolishly, Percival didn’t protest his innocence too loudly, if at all, when rumours of his arrest and assumed guilt began to circulate. He chose instead to let the gossipmongers, and the notoriously inaccurate Southend grapevine, promote the view that he was guilty so that his reputation as a no-nonsense hard man would be enhanced. Percival ended up with a fear factor on the streets of Essex that surpassed Tucker’s and Tate’s.

While Percival prowled around Southend enjoying his new-found fame, Alvin was worrying himself sick thinking the police were going to unearth evidence that would not only implicate him in the Locksley Close shootings, but his sidekick, gofer and occasional best friend Dean Boshell as well.

Shortly after Percival had been released on bail, Alvin and Boshell returned to Burgess Close to recover the shotgun that had been dropped down the drain. Alvin had kept the shotgun that he had used because he had paid out a considerable fee for it and was too tight to do the sensible thing and hide it or otherwise dispose of it. Alvin told me that he and Boshell had parked some distance from Burgess Close when they returned, because they feared that the police may already have found the gun and put the area under surveillance. Not wanting to put himself at risk, Alvin sent his faithful gofer to retrieve it. Boshell seemed to be taking his time, so when Alvin was confident that they were not being watched, he walked up the road to join him.

Boshell told Alvin that he had taken so much time because he was unable to lift the drain cover alone. Together the two men raised and removed the heavy iron cover and then Alvin put his arm in the drain to see if he could feel the gun beneath the water. Still unable to locate the weapon, Alvin told Boshell that the police had probably retrieved it at the same time that they had found the stolen vehicle.

I don’t know how, but Boshell later found out that the stolen car that he had driven to and from the shootings had been returned to its owner. Boshell told Alvin and together they decided that they were going to burn the vehicle just in case the police decided to fingerprint it at a later date. I personally couldn’t see the point. If the car had been returned to its owner, it would have already been fingerprinted. Regardless, a few days later the car was fire-bombed outside its owner’s house. Alvin advised Boshell that if the police had already lifted his fingerprints from the car and he was arrested, he would have to say that he had attempted to steal the vehicle before the shootings had occurred but failed.

Despite Boshell’s futile attempts to destroy evidence that could link him to the shootings, he was arrested a few weeks later for the theft of the vehicle. The police had matched his fingerprints to a partial fingerprint they had found on the steering column prior to the car being burned. As soon as Boshell was bailed by the police, Alvin quizzed him about his time in custody. Had the police questioned him about the shootings? Had they found the gun? And had they asked him about Alvin? Boshell denied being questioned about the Tretton shootings, which Alvin found very suspicious. Alvin told me that he didn’t believe Boshell and feared that he may have given information about him to the police.

‘I don’t even know for sure if he was arrested or if he is just fucking storytelling. You can never tell with him. He’s always talking gangster shit,’ Alvin said.

A month after the shootings, Alvin was left in no doubt that Boshell had been arrested because, on this occasion, he was handcuffed alongside him when police took him into custody. The arrest had nothing to do with the Locksley Close shootings; Boshell and Alvin had been caught breaking into Jewson’s, the builder’s merchants. Boshell knew that he had no chance of evading justice this time because he and Alvin had been caught red-handed by the police. It was equally apparent to him that no judge was going to give him anything other than a custodial sentence after taking into account his habitual offending.

Previously, Boshell would have accepted his fate and served his time but recently he had met a girl that he hoped he could settle down with and start a family. Between 1996 and 1998, Boshell had been rewarded by the courts with discounted sentences for snippets of information that he had given to the police about his criminal associates. Desperate to avoid losing his girlfriend, Boshell asked the officers involved in the Jewson’s case if he could once more trade information for a reduced sentence. No promises were made, but Boshell was told that any assistance he did offer would be made known to the judge who was going to sentence him.

This bargaining process by criminals with police is a fairly common practice, but anybody who agrees to become an informant has to adhere to strict rules that try to ensure that the information given is genuine and the informant is not encouraging others to commit crime, about which he can then tell the police. Documentation generated by the police at the time describes Boshell as being a ‘previously untried source and the authenticity of any information he may give should be doubted’. Rules regarding informants had changed since Boshell had first offered evidence to the police in 1996. All informants now had to be registered, which involved them meeting a senior police officer, having the terms and conditions explained to them and then signing the agreement if deemed suitable.

The officer who dealt with Boshell wrote in his notes: ‘The source was told in no uncertain terms that he must tell us everything in relation to crime. He was told that if he was arrested then the fact that he was an informant would not assist him in any way. He was told that there could be, in exceptional circumstances, a situation where he could have a minimal involvement in a crime, but only after he has been given authorisation by us and not before.’

Rules, regulations and the law had never meant much, if anything, to Boshell. He considered himself to be one of life’s players, the type of guy who would agree to go through the motions of any agreed scenario so long as it was ultimately beneficial to him. Nobody can deny that some of the information that Boshell went on to give to the police proved to be reasonably accurate. Likewise, nobody can deny that some of the information proved to be entirely false. The problem that exists, in the here and now, is that nobody can say with any certainty which evidence falls into which category.

In order to try and protect Boshell’s identity, the police gave him the pseudonym Michael Bridges. Giving informants a false name is standard police practice designed to ensure that their informant’s true identity does not become known to their criminal associates. All paperwork, telephone calls and conversations with, and regarding, the informant only ever refer to the informant’s pseudonym to prevent them from being identified.

It was clear from the outset that Boshell was never going to give the police his full co-operation as promised. Instead, he decided to cherry-pick crimes that he could tempt the police with, and play some bizarre game that he believed would result in the police needing him more than he needed them. Once Boshell believed he had taken the upper hand, he could then negotiate a better deal when he came to be sentenced. The criminal company that Boshell kept meant that he didn’t just have a good hand of cards to play the police with, he had an entire pack. Testing the water, rather than diving in head first, Boshell initially offered the police details of fairly minor crimes and criminals that they were already aware of. He told them that a man was selling stolen tax discs; another, counterfeit designer clothing; and he told them the identity and address of the person who stored Alvin’s stolen goods for him.

Boshell’s information was received with thanks, but little enthusiasm. The police were told about these sorts of matters more often than time, and their limited resources, permitted them to prosecute people for committing them. Sensing that Boshell was holding back on far more serious criminal activities, his police handler felt the need to remind him ‘in no uncertain terms’ that he had to tell them everything he knew in relation to crime if he wished to continue being an informant. Keen to appear compliant, within a month Boshell had begun telling the police about a plan of Alvin’s to rob a drug dealer from Basildon using guns. He also mentioned rather vague details about the stolen vehicle used in the ‘Locksley Close shootings’.

Finally, the police appeared to be sitting up and listening. When asked what else he knew about the Locksley Close incident, Boshell said that Alvin had told him that he could lay his hands on cyanide and hand grenades. Asked what Alvin intended doing with such lethal weapons, Boshell said that Alvin had bragged, ‘The Trettons could end up getting a syringe full of cyanide, injected into a milk bottle on their doorstep, or a hand grenade thrown through their letterbox.’

Only Boshell knows why he decided to discuss aspects of the Locksley Close shootings with the police. It was a crime that he had been actively involved in. Although he never went so far as to implicate himself in any serious wrongdoing, Boshell must have known that if the police did arrest Alvin there was a possibility that he would talk about his involvement. As the date for Boshell to appear in court approached, he became noticeably depressed and increasingly desperate. Boshell was painfully aware that if he was given a lengthy prison sentence he would lose his girlfriend and all that the relationship promised. His darkest secrets could, he realised, become his guiding light. If Boshell told the police everything he knew, maybe, just maybe he could escape a custodial sentence and set up home with his girlfriend and live happily ever after.

Seven weeks before Boshell was due to appear at Southend Crown Court for sentencing, he concocted a story for the police that was a mixture of truth and lies about the Locksley Close shootings. He said that he had been the driver of the car on the night of the shootings and his passengers, Alvin and Percival, had been in possession of a double-barrelled shotgun. The inclusion of Percival was an obvious choice for Boshell to make, because most people in the area believed that Percival was guilty, or at least involved, because he had been arrested for the shootings. Boshell told the police that they had been ‘spooked’ by a police car and ‘his bottle had gone’, so they had abandoned the vehicle.

‘Later the same evening,’ Boshell said, ‘Alvin asked me to drive to the scene of the shootings, but I refused to do so. Alvin had called me a cunt for not doing as he had asked, but the following day he acted as though nothing had happened.’

The police did their best to convince Boshell to tell them more about the shootings but every time he agreed to discuss the incident, his story seemed to change. On one occasion, he said that Percival and ‘a doorman named Dave’ were responsible but nobody had heard of ‘Doorman Dave’. Beginning to doubt the authenticity of Boshell’s information, the police reminded him that he had agreed to be truthful with them at all times. In an effort to prove to them that he was being honest, Boshell offered to take the police to the drain where the shotgun used in the shootings had been dumped. Boshell knew that the gun was not, in fact, there because he had already searched the drain for it with Alvin. Regardless, Boshell needed to prove that he was a trustworthy informant and so decided to act out his part. When Boshell accompanied the police to the drain, he feigned surprise that it was no longer there.

The police had also known that the gun was not in the drain because they had recovered it shortly after finding the stolen car nearby. They had just wanted to test Boshell’s knowledge of the crime and ensure that he was telling them the truth. Unwittingly, the police had failed miserably with the second half of their objective. Boshell was now considered to be truthful, but in reality he had only lured the police into trusting him with half-truths. He had shown them where the gun had been, but he hadn’t told them that he knew it had already been taken.

The general public are, in the main, of the opinion that if the police know who committed a crime they should lock them up. Fortunately or otherwise, depending on which side of the fence you live your life, the police are not supposed to be able to do this. Thinking that they know who committed a crime is a world away from proving that somebody is guilty. That is why the police are duty-bound to painstakingly gather all the available evidence before charging their suspect and presenting everything to the courts, so that the guilt or innocence of the accused can be ascertained by a jury. Owing to forensic tests and the time it takes to gather and evaluate evidence, it can be months before any arrests are made in a major investigation.

The police had already arrested Percival for the shootings and so arresting him again would have been pointless because Boshell’s information was not only contradictory, it was also made up of the same gossip that every villain in Essex had been repeating since the incident first happened. Not wishing to dismiss Boshell’s information out of hand, the police told him that they needed to know more details about the incident in Locksley Close and tasked him to find out all that he could. Boshell’s court date was now only a few weeks away and his chances of securing a reduced sentence were looking increasingly slim. He had taken the information regarding the shootings as far as he dared. So, in a last-ditch attempt to win favour, Boshell told his handler that the robbery of a drug dealer that Alvin had been talking about for some time was going to take place soon. When asked to find out who was going to be robbed, when and where, Boshell said that he had not managed to discuss the job in any detail with Alvin because he was working away from home in Kent. However, he would be returning shortly.