Timothy Evans, 25, sentenced to death. Police incompetence? Or ill fate?
The story of Timothy Evans is as hair-rising and repulsive as any horrific legend of the past.
As a child, Timothy John Evanshad difficulty learning to speak and struggled at school. Following an accident in 1932 when he was eight, Evans missed considerable amounts of time from school for treatments; this further set back his education. Consequently, he was unable to read or write anything beyond his name as an adult.
On 20 September 1947, Evans married Beryl Susanna Thorley, whom he had met through a friend. Timothy and Beryl's daughter Geraldine was born on 10 October 1948. Their marriage was characterized by angry quarrels, exacerbated by Beryl's poor housekeeping and inability to manage the family's finances. However, Timothy also misspent his wages on alcohol and his heavy drinking at the time strengthened his already short temper. The arguments between Timothy and Beryl were loud enough to be heard by the neighbours and physical violence between them was witnessed on several occasions. In late 1949, Beryl revealed to Timothy that she was pregnant with their second child. Since the family was already struggling financially, Beryl decided the only course to take would be to have an abortion; after some reluctance, Evans agreed to this course of action.
Several weeks later, on 30 November 1949, Evans informed police at Merthyr Tydfil that his wife had died in unusual circumstances. His initial confession was that he had accidentally killed her by giving her something in a bottle that a man had given him to abort the foetus; he had then disposed of her body in a sewer drain outside 10 Rillington Place. When police examined the drain outside the front of the building, however, they found nothing and, furthermore, discovered that the manhole cover required the combined strength of all three officers to remove it.
When re-questioned, Evans changed his story and said that his neighbor John Christie had offered to perform an abortion on Beryl. On 8 November, Evans had returned home from work to be informed by Christie that the abortion had not worked and that Beryl was dead. Christie had said that he would dispose of the body (abortion being illegal in the U.K. at the time) and would make arrangements for a couple from East Acton to look after Geraldine. He said that Evans should leave London for the meantime. On 14 November, Evans left for Wales to stay with relatives. Evans said he later returned to 10 Rillington Place to ask about Geraldine, but Christie had refused to let him see her.
On a more thorough search on 2 December, the police found the body of Beryl Evans, wrapped in a tablecloth, and the body of Geraldine while Evans had not mentioned he had killed his daughter in either of his statements. Beryl and Geraldine had both been strangled. Evans then apparently confessed to having strangled Beryl during an argument over debts and strangling Geraldine two days later, after which he left for Wales.
Evans was put on trial for the murder of his daughter on 11 January 1950 (in accordance with legal practice at the time, the prosecution proceeded only with the charge of murdering Geraldine; Beryl's murder, with which Evans was still formally charged, was "left on file", though evidence from this murder was allowed to be used to prove Evans's guilt in the murder of Geraldine).
In January 1950 Evans was tried and convicted of the murder of his daughter, and he was sentenced to death by hanging. During his trial, Evans had accused his neighbour, John Christie, of being responsible for the murders. But Evans's reputation for conflicting statements, fatally undermined his credibility. That reputation was created by the police themselves in preparing several false confessions, forcing Evans to incriminate himself with threats of violence.Three years after Evans's trial, Christie was found to be a serial killer who had murdered at least 8 women at his property, including his wife, and this cast serious doubt on the safety of Evans's conviction. An official inquiry conducted 16 years after Evans's hanging confirmed that Evans's daughter had been murdered by Christie, and Evans was subsequently granted a posthumous pardon. Christie admitted that he had also murdered Beryl Evans.
The case generated much controversy and is acknowledged as a major miscarriage of justice. It played a large part in the abolition of capital punishment in the United Kingdom.
There are situations in our life when it is difficult to understand ans find a right way. I think police isn't in fault. When all neigbours and relatives tell about an awful life whih this family have it's difficult to not belive in their words. Physical violence between them, alcohol, shortage of money, abortion are quite important arguments. I'm sure that every person chooses his way of life. If a man does bad things, his life returns everyting to him. In this case we see a man, who are not interessted in his family, who doesn't respect his wife and after all he is repaied.
