Harry Roberts (criminal)

Harry Maurice Roberts (born 1936 in Kennington, London, England) is one of the UK's most notorious murderers and longest-serving prisoners.

Murders

Roberts was the instigator of the Massacre of Braybrook Street, a triple-murder of policemen in 1966.

Roberts was with two other petty criminals in Braybrook Street, East Acton, London, when his car was pulled over by PC Geoffrey Fox, 41, Sgt Christopher Head, 30, and Det Con David Wombwell, 25 in an unmarked "Q" car. When he feared that some handguns were about to be uncovered, Roberts drew one of the guns and shot one of the policemen dead. He then shot a second policeman while one of his accomplices shot dead the third.

Arrest

Roberts hid out in Epping Forest to avoid the huge manhunt. He used his military training (he had served as a soldier during the Malayan Emergency) to avoid police capture for three months. He was finally captured whilst sleeping in a barn at Blount's Farm near Bishop's Stortford after hiding in the adjacent Thorley Wood. Roberts was familiar with the area as he had been sent there as a child evacuee earlier in his life. At this time, there were lots of sightings of Roberts, who had actually been eating regularly in a cafe right next to Bishops Stortford police station. Its proprietors commented several times on their guest's uncanny likeness to Roberts. However they and other locals who had seen him around concluded that he couldn't possibly be the same man the police were hunting, and consequently he evaded capture for several months.

Trial and appeals

Convicted of three murders, Roberts was sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommended minimum of 30 years. He made many escape attempts but remains imprisoned more than a decade after the expiry of his minimum term in 1996. In 2001 he had been transferred to an open prison in what was thought to be a prelude to his release. However Roberts was alleged to have been involved in drug dealing, bringing contraband into prison and other activities. In 2005 he made an appeal over the use of secret evidence to keep him in jail, failed in the House of Lords (secret evidence had been used in the parole hearing which subsequently denied his parole).

In September 2006, 70-year-old Roberts applied for a judicial review over apparent delays by the parole board in reaching a decision to free him by the end of the year. In December 2006, he was turned down for parole .

On 29 June 2007, he was given leave to seek a High Court judicial review over his failed parole bid, with the judge saying his case, "was of great public interest."

Influence

His murder of the policemen made him a hero in some anarchist circles, and anarchists and football fans since the murders have chanted his name to antagonise the police. Chants like "Harry Roberts is our friend, is our friend, is our friend. Harry Roberts is our friend, he kills coppers. Let him out to kill some more, kill some more, kill some more, let him out to kill some more, Harry Roberts" (to the tune of "London Bridge Is Falling Down"), a chant which originated with groups of young people outside of Shepherd's Bush police station after Roberts had been arrested. His folk-hero status amongst these sub-cultures has led to various artistic representations of Roberts. The character of Billy Porter in the 2001 novel He Kills Coppers by Jake Arnott, and the 2008 TV adaptation, is based on Harry Roberts, and he features in the lyrics of several songs by the band Chumbawamba, including one in which is name is chanted repeatedly ("Harry Roberts, Harry Roberts, Roberts Roberts, Harry Harry") in parody of the Hare Krishna mantra "Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare".