Essex Boys, The New Generation (15 page)

The manager of the snooker club had no idea that he was about to be literally dragged into the most terrifying ordeal of his life. Sitting on a stool at the bar with his back to the stairs where Alvin and his accomplice were lying in wait, he sipped his drink as he watched the television.

Alvin continued: ‘When we reached the top of the stairs, we waited for about ten or fifteen minutes, but every so often I crept forward to the main entrance to see what was going on. I recall that the manager was sitting with his back to me.

‘We still had no plan with regards to what we were going to do, but I remember at some stage telling Percival that I was going to get the manager on the floor. I remember reaching the corner of the lounge bar and then running towards him. As I reached the manager I think I caught him by surprise; I struck him in the face and he fell to the floor. The punch didn’t knock him out, so we both grabbed him in an attempt to disable him. Our main aim was to hold him whilst we tied him up. He was swearing, resisting and struggling with us whilst lying face down on the floor. Both Percival and I were trying to get his hands behind his back, but I don’t recall this being much of a problem. We were not assaulting him whilst we were trying to do this. However, Percival did squirt him in the head area with a washing-up liquid bottle full of ammonia.

‘We managed to get his hands behind his back and Percival produced some cable-zip ties. The manager said we could take whatever we wanted but asked us not to put his hands behind his back, but we still did. Once the ties were on his wrists and secured behind his back, the manager became compliant and I got the impression that he just wanted the whole scenario to be over with. Percival and I got off the manager but ensured he remained face down so he couldn’t cause us any trouble. I asked him where the CCTV tapes and the panic buttons were located. He said that there were no cameras and then he went on to tell me that the panic button was behind the bar. I asked him where the safe was and for the keys to open it.

‘Once in possession of the keys, I walked into the storeroom where the safe was located. Percival remained in the lounge bar standing over the manager. There wasn’t a lot of cash in the safe – I would say that there was only a few hundred pounds – and I was very disappointed about this. I put all of the cash in the safe into a cloth moneybag and went back to join Percival.

‘As I approached him, I noticed that he was holding a gun in his right hand loosely by his side. I also noticed that the manager had broken free from the cable ties, which may have been why Percival had got the gun out. I wasn’t shocked by seeing Percival with a gun, as I had got to know him a lot more since the Locksley Close shootings and I knew what he was like with guns. I was kind of surprised, though, as he had never discussed bringing anything like that on this job with me.

‘I told Percival that there was nothing in the safe and at some point during our conversation we agreed that we would empty the fruit machines. I think the manager must have overheard me telling Percival that there was no money in the safe because he said something about him having already banked it. He must have heard us talking about emptying the fruit machines because he told us which keys were needed to get into them. I had trouble opening the machines and so went behind the bar and picked up a screwdriver. I returned to the fruit machine and began to prise away a corner so I could get my hands in and pull the back off. As I was doing this, the manager began making sarcastic remarks about the damage that I was causing. It’s possible that there was more money in the fruit machines than there was in the safe.

‘I think in total we only managed to get about £1,000 from the club. When we were finished, I made the decision to put the manager in the storeroom. We got him to his feet and ushered him towards it – I was in front of him and Percival was behind. Once he was inside, I locked the door.

‘We then made our escape back out towards the main stairs. We were walking briskly, but I wasn’t too concerned, as the manager couldn’t get out of the storeroom. During the journey back to Percival’s house, I asked him if the gun he had was real or a replica, and he said it was real. We also talked about the amount of money that we had stolen, as we were both disappointed.

‘Before we got to Percival’s house, he said he wanted to get rid of the gun and the ammonia. He told me to drive to Belfair’s woods, which I knew he had been using to hide particular items. When we arrived, Percival hid the gun, the ammonia, gloves and balaclava under some ivy that was growing on the ground. I hid my gloves and balaclava in the same location. After leaving the woods, we went to Percival’s house, where we counted the money in his bedroom. We split the money 50-50 and agreed to give Carla Shipton £200 to keep her sweet.’

The day after the robbery Alvin claims that he, Boshell and another man whom I shall call ‘Dan Baker’ returned to Belfair’s woods to retrieve the gun and other items. What Alvin doesn’t explain is how Boshell, who had told police that he had no idea when the robbery was going to take place, had become aware that Alvin had carried out the robbery.

It’s my belief that it was, in fact, Boshell who accompanied Alvin on the robbery and not Percival. Alvin claims that Boshell and Baker got out of his car to have a cigarette when they arrived at Belfair’s woods and he went alone into the undergrowth to retrieve the weapons and tools he had hidden.

‘I had trouble locating the items,’ Alvin said, ‘and whilst I was looking I was joined by the other two, who began searching with me. I don’t think I had told them exactly what I was looking for, but they must have guessed, as I believe it was actually one of them who found the items. After leaving the woods, I drove to Percival’s house. During the journey I was aware that Boshell was rifling through the bag and handling the gun. He appeared to be playing around with it and examining it up close. He was asking me whose it was, but I can’t remember if I told him or not.

‘Boshell then passed the gun to Baker, who began to lecture us on his experience with firearms. When we arrived at Percival’s, I got out, leaving the other two in the car. I handed the bag containing the items over to Percival and left.

‘A day or two later I had a conversation with Carla Shipton on the telephone. She said that the police had interviewed her and she seemed pretty firm in what she had told them, so I didn’t think she was going to be a problem to us.’

Carla Shipton had indeed been ‘pretty firm’ when the police had visited her. She told them that on the night of the robbery she had not been working and had not been expected to do so. The manager had telephoned Carla’s home earlier that evening to ask if she was available to work, but she had already gone out with friends. Her brother Clayton, who had answered the phone, offered to work in her place and the manager agreed to this because he had done so on several occasions in the past. At 11 p.m., Carla had driven to the snooker club to give her brother a lift home. When he had finished work, Clayton told Carla that he wanted to buy a kebab and he would meet her outside.

When Clayton was interviewed by police shortly after the robbery, he told them that after he had left the club he had seen ‘two males acting strange outside’. He said, ‘One of them seemed to stare at me before jumping behind the bin sheds. As I walked past them, one of the men pretended that he was urinating. Crossing the car park, I looked back and saw that one of the men was trying the snooker club door. My sister joined me at the kebab shop shortly afterwards. We spoke about the two men. My sister said that she had only seen one but, from her description, it sounded like one of the same men that I had seen.’

Carla and her brother had discussed calling the police, but as the snooker hall backs onto Wickford High Street, a regular haunt of hoodies and delinquents, they had reasoned that these particular people posed no more of a threat than the usual misfits that plagued the area. They thought no more about it and went home.

Three days after the robbery, Dean Boshell met his police handler and told him that he had been driving Alvin and Baker around when Alvin had asked him to drive to Belfair’s woods to pick something up for Ricky Percival. After being directed to an access road on the edge of the woods, Boshell said that Alvin and Baker had got out of the vehicle and returned shortly afterwards with a black handgun, a magazine, fourteen bullets, two scarves, a cosh, two baseball caps and a washing-up bottle containing ammonia. Boshell claimed that Alvin did not tell him what these items had been used for. Everything was put into a plastic bag and, according to Boshell, handed to Percival.

One imagines that after such a serious crime had been committed the police would have descended on Percival’s home in the hope of finding the gun and any other incriminating evidence. For reasons known only to the police, neither Percival nor Alvin were ever questioned.

Seven days before Boshell was due to appear in court for sentencing, he contacted the police and told them that he would be willing to become a supergrass and give Queen’s evidence against those responsible for the Locksley Close shootings and other matters. In return, he wanted the charges he faced in relation to the burglary at Jewson’s to be dropped.

Boshell was advised that the charges would remain in place, but if he was willing to testify against the Locksley Close gunmen and the snooker club robbers ‘things could be done for him’.

Undecided which way to fall – because either way fall he must – Boshell went away to consider his options. Before he could reach a decision, fate struck Boshell a cruel blow.

8

  A VOICE FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE  

Nothing in Dean Boshell’s world was
straightforward. He deceived everybody that he encountered in life. In the company of his friends he was a criminal, but in their absence he was a police informant. In his relationships, he had pledged his future to Elizabeth Reece and shared his bed with Carla Shipton. He even stole from his own family. Without exception, everybody was a victim of his treachery.

A few days before he was due in court, Boshell, drunk and behaving in a wholly inappropriate manner, got involved in an altercation with a police officer. During the struggle that ensued, Boshell damaged a police car and was arrested. A routine check on the police computer revealed that Boshell had outstanding warrants out against him for a variety of offences and so any chance he might have had of being granted bail was denied. He was taken to court the following morning and remanded in custody to HMP Chelmsford to await sentencing.

When I spoke to Elizabeth about this period in Boshell’s life, she felt that his actions that night ruined not only his life but also any future they might have had together. ‘Everything was going well between Dean and I until the night he decided to go out with his so-called friends. Dean failed to come home and, as I grew increasingly concerned about him, a police officer knocked on my door. He said that Dean was in his car outside and he needed some clothes. Dean later told me that he had smashed up a police car and he had also been wanted for some time on previous matters. I do not know whether that was true or not. Regardless, Dean was sent to prison.

‘We kept in touch by writing every week. In his first letter to me, Dean seemed really sad and down. I have kept all of the letters he sent me and reading them again makes me realise just how depressed and low Dean was at that time.’

In that letter, Dean wrote:

Thanks for coming down to the police station for me. Now that I am away from you, it’s hit me just how much I miss you. Damon is going to go around and see you. I’m not sure if he has been around already. I have got the radio on, just chilling, thinking about all the things I wished I had never done. I can’t turn back time – I wish that I could. I keep hearing that R. Kelly song [‘If I could turn back the hands of time’]. I really wish that I could because I would be at home with you.

Do you still think you might be pregnant? Let me know. I really need to know. It’s all I am thinking about. I do want a baby with you. What with my looks and your brain, it will have a head start in life.

‘Dean wrote to me regularly and phoned me every day. Apart from me, I don’t think he had a lot of contact with people. He used to say that he had written to his mum, but she ignored his letters. His brother Damon had visited him a couple of times, but even he had let him down by not always turning up when he said he would. I did feel sorry for Dean, as nobody really seemed to give a toss about him.

‘He did eventually seem to settle down in prison and he began to think about and plan for the future. He told me: “When I get out, all my life is going to revolve around is going to work, being with you and your daughter Lauren and going to the gym. It sounds like a proper family environment, doesn’t it?”’

Elizabeth showed me the letter, which continues:

Damon did not come to see me yesterday, fuck knows why. My fucking mother hasn’t written back yet. I don’t know what the fuck she is playing at. I can’t wait for you to come up and visit me. It seems like ages since I last saw you. I guess that’s what love does to you. I don’t think I have ever been in love before. Last time I went away I didn’t care about my ex, but with you it is totally different because I do nothing but think about you. You’re lucky to have me, I know, I know, and I am lucky to have you. I just wish I could be with you now.

My next-door neighbour is really pissing me off. He keeps saying that he can’t cope, but what is he telling me for? I am not a Good Samaritan. The worst thing about it is he only has six weeks left to serve. I fucking hate people like that. I might tell the prison officers that he is bullying me so he has to serve longer – that will shut him up, ha ha ha.

Someone who appeared in court for the same sort of charges as me got two years. I couldn’t stand being away from you for that long. I am going to try every scam in the book to get a smaller sentence. I will even give the judge a backhander. I just want to get my judgment day over. I am going to tell the judge that it’s not only me that he is sentencing but also my partner and little girl and it’s not fair on them. We will just have to wait and see what happens. Just remember, they can’t stop time and time is all it will take for me to come home.

You said in your letter that time was dragging, well it is for me too, but we both have to keep our chins up to get through this. I swear to God it will never happen again. If you do fuck me off, I will totally understand, as you deserve better. All I can say is that I love you and your daughter and I hope you do stick by me. I promise I will stick by you for as long as you want me to.

I know I have been in prison a few times, but I never really had anybody to think about before. A few years down the line, I want to give Lauren a little brother or sister. All I want is my own family, someone who is there for me and people I can be there for, too. It will be like a storybook ending, we will all live happily ever after.

Unfortunately for Boshell, Elizabeth did not share his dream. She told me, ‘As the date for Dean to be sentenced approached, he grew increasingly fearful of how long he might have to serve. I was becoming more distant with him because it wasn’t just my life I had to consider, it was that of my daughter. I didn’t want to risk bringing her up in an environment where my partner was in and out of prison like some sort of antisocial yo-yo. I thought the world of Dean, but in my heart of hearts I knew that there would never be any storybook ending because I would have to terminate our relationship. I couldn’t tell him whilst he was in prison – it would have destroyed him. I decided to help him through the difficult situation he was in and break the news gently to him when he was released.

‘I think Dean knew that I was in turmoil about our future together because he did all he could to convince me that he would not be in prison for long and we could pick up where we’d left off.’

In his next letter to Elizabeth, he wrote:

I saw a probation officer today. I blamed all of this trouble on drugs. I told him about you and Lauren. I said I had just met the right person and then this happens. The probation officer said, ‘If there was a magic lamp in front of you and you had one wish, what would you wish for?’ I said that it would be to be at home with you and Lauren. I put on the old tears; I think that worked, ha ha ha. I think he will give me a cracking report. Let’s hope so. My solicitor said that I could get anything up to four years. I said you must be joking, but she said I have to always expect the worst.

She said I probably won’t get that much as I have got an excellent probation report, plus she’s going to ask for rehabilitation because I have said I have a drug habit. Depending on the judge, I could be given probation and a drug course, which means if I stay clean for a year I stay out of prison. That won’t be hard because I never touch drugs. I am knocking drinking on the head when I get out because I always end up in prison as a result of it.

Damon never came up today; he is coming next week instead hopefully. I have had only one visit since I have been in so, like I said, when I get out everyone can kiss my arse because none of them are my friends. They are just wankers and when I get out if I see any of them the motherfuckers can go to hell. When I get out it’s going to be about me, you and Lauren and one in the oven. Not straight away, though, but I hope you do want another kid because I would like you to have one.

When the day Boshell had been dreading arrived, he delivered his mitigation speech to the court whilst stuttering and showering those within striking distance with flecks of phlegm. His anxiety accentuated his stammer, making it impossible to understand what he was trying to say. The judge thanked Boshell ‘for that’ before sending him to prison for two years. The moment Elizabeth heard, she knew that Boshell’s life would spiral from being dangerously erratic into some sort of suicidal free fall. All his hopes, plans and dreams would have been trashed.

‘I’m not for one moment saying that he didn’t deserve to be sent to prison,’ Elizabeth said to me. ‘Those that commit crime should face the consequences of their actions. I am just saying that maybe, just maybe, Dean’s cries for help should have been given a little more attention when he was younger.

‘Once sentenced, Dean’s mask slipped; he no longer talked about mending his ways. He went back to talking about all of the things I do not like, such as violence and revenge.’

In a letter bristling with anger, Dean had written:

I swear to God that if any man comes near you, I would go off my fucking head because you are all I have got and you are all I want. If anybody tries anything, God help them.

I am sorry I am talking like this, but I have got a lot of things on my mind at the moment. There is you, Lauren and my mum has not wrote back to me yet. I have got all of these things building up and I am sure I am going to explode soon. I am reading a book at the moment about the IRA, it’s called
Killing Rage
and it is really good. I might join the IRA, ha ha ha. You know, I smashed up that police car? Well, we have got the address of the person who grassed me up. He lives in Victoria Road, but the top end, fucking wanker.

Elizabeth said that when Boshell was released from prison he went to her home. ‘We were polite and pleasant enough to one another,’ she said, ‘but he sensed that something was troubling me. When I said it was over between us, Dean became very defensive and said that he’d had enough of Southend and was going to disappear back up to Leeds, where he said his friends and some of his family were. I felt he was showing a bit of bravado, seeing if I would ask him not to go. I didn’t, and shortly after gathering up his meagre possessions Dean left.

‘He did come to see me a couple of times after that, just to see how I was and to say hello. He told me that he was very happy and doing well and I was genuinely pleased for him. Dean was a kind and caring person who loved my daughter and me. There isn’t anything that he wouldn’t have done for either of us. Dean only ever wanted a future with my daughter and me; he craved for a normal, everyday family life. Unfortunately, he looked up to his brother Damon as some sort of hero. I just wish I knew what sort of business or mess Dean ended up becoming involved in. Whatever it was, it would have been something that he was dragged into by Damon.

‘On the anniversary of his death each year, I go to the spot on the beach where we spent our first day together to reminisce about him and the good times that we shared. News of his murder really shocked me. I cannot imagine why anybody in this world would have wanted to hurt him. The Dean I knew was so kind and gentle.

‘In a way, I blame myself for his death. If I had found the strength to stand by him, Dean might have kept out of trouble and, more importantly, kept away from Damon. Had that happened, I have no doubt whatsoever that Dean would still be alive today. I have learned that it’s not what you have in life, it’s who you have that counts.’

Carla Shipton, the other woman in Boshell’s complicated love life, had also stood by him whilst he was in prison. Rather than go out alone and risk being accused of having affairs, Carla had socialised with Alvin’s partner Barbara. Occasionally, Alvin would go out with Barbara and Carla, or give Carla a lift to the prison to visit Boshell. For all his apparent faults, Damon appeared to Dean to be the perfect friend. If he wasn’t supplying his daily newspapers, giving him money, electronic games or giving Elizabeth and her daughter gifts, he was looking after Carla.

Alvin had even approached Ricky Percival to ask him to supply Boshell with a course of protein supplements, as he had taken up bodybuilding whilst in prison. Percival had given Alvin the products free of charge on the basis that he was helping the friend of a friend. He later learned that Boshell had given them to Essex Boy Chris Wheatley. Boshell should have been eternally grateful for the apparent favours that his friend Alvin bestowed upon him, but Boshell only cared about one person and that was none other than Dean Boshell.

Not long after Boshell had been sentenced he was visited in prison by the police, who were hoping that he would continue to provide them with information about his criminal associates. Boshell told them that his ‘best friend’ Alvin was importing large amounts of cannabis from Amsterdam and another guy named ‘Spanish Frank’ was smuggling an ounce of heroin into the prison every week.

No one knows what prompted Boshell to do what he did next. Some say it was guilt, others believe that it was fear, but, as soon as the police officers had left the visiting room, Boshell rang Alvin and told him that he ought to be extra vigilant because the police had been to the prison and wanted to know all about his business. What Boshell failed to mention was the fact that he had supplied the officers with the information that they had requested.