Iris Bentley
Derek’s sister tells us
about the events:
“Age 3 when he had a fall
on the back of his head
and about 3 weeks later
he went into a fit
and that was his first one.
He couldn’t even go in the army
cause he had
the lowest grade possible.”
“After he’d been to Bristol
because he got into trouble
urinating up a wall
and a woman rung up
and called the police
and then when he came home
he was so embarrassed
because he’d been sent away
he locked himself in the house
for nearly a year
he wouldn’t go out
and then the first day he went out
there was this boy hanging on the corner
called Christopher Craig.”
“And - he said,
‘I know all about you’
and - he said,
‘what do you mean?’,
he said,
‘I know where you’ve been’
and we think he held it over Derek
and if Derek didn’t do what he said.”
“Half past eleven
all of a sudden
there was a bang at the door
and we always,
even in those days,
‘who is it?’
and they said,
‘police officers’
open this door -
I open the door
and as I opened it
they pushed me flying
cause he’s supposed to
have called out,
‘let them have it’.”
“You see Craig was too young
and one of their colleagues
has been killed
and Derek fitted the picture right,
completely,
see and every day we went in
and my dad said,
‘now think, did you
speak on the roof?’
And he said,
‘I was too frightened.’
So he said,
‘I gave myself up to Fairfax
and he left me standing there
and I could have ran away but I didn’t.”
“The evidence was all
piled up against him,
so all the time till he died
it didn’t matter what we done
every stone we turned
it was turned back,
every door we opened,
it was closed in our face
and he came to the 28th January
and you know what happened then,
but we made a vow to him
that we would always carry on
no matter what
till we cleared his name
and that’s what I’ve been doing
ever since.”
