Name/Title
Sussex Constabulary pocket crime information booklet c1968-1970Entry/Object ID
2368Description
Small black coloured pocket sized plastic covered folder, containing 10 x pages, each titled "Pocket Crime Inf.", dated either 1968 or 1970, and containing a photograph and description of a person wanted by the police and details of what they are wanted for. The cover of this folder has two press stud type fasteners, which when opened allow the pages to be removed and others put in, the pages having holes punched in then which are aligned with the stud fasteners. The folder also has a pocket sized aide memoire for Judge's Rules.Use
For an officer to carry to advise them of persons currently wanted for arrest.Context
This booklet was clearly designed to be regularly updated and to be carried on an officer's person, to aid in the recognition of persons wanted for arrest by the police. The dates of 1968 and 1970 show that it would have been used within Sussex Constabulary and it is known to have been used by Sergeant Herbert Hother who was stationed at Brighton.
It is not known how long these pocket crime information booklets were in use within Sussex Constabulary but possibly not much later than the early 70's. Given the technology available, by the time pages were prepared, copied and distributed, in many cases wanted persons would already have been detained.
Of particular interest in this example is one page that has the details for Ronnie Biggs, one of the notorious 1963 "Great Train Robbers", who escaped from prison in 1965 and managed to evade justice until 2001, when he returned to the UK suffering with poor health. He was returned to prison until 2009 when he was released on compassionate grounds, and died in a nursing home in 2013. He spent most of his time "on the run" living in Brazil, where he arrived in 1970, after previously having been living under an assumed name in Australia. The Brazilian authorities refused to extradite him to the UK as he had father a son by a Brazilian woman.
The Judge's Rules aide memoire, relates to the legal guidance in relation to the questioning of suspects and the taking of statements, that was used until it was superseded by the 1984 Police and Criminal Evidence Act, better known as P.A.C.E.