Essex Boys, The New Generation (28 page)

‘This filth! This filth!’ she screamed, pointing at the walls, which appeared blurred and smudged to my semi-conscious brother-in-law. ‘Why have you put this filth up?’ As his eyes began to focus, he saw that whilst he had been asleep Vella and his friends had plastered the walls around his bed with pages from hardcore pornographic magazines. Explaining to his mother that he wasn’t responsible for posting the pictures on his wall turned out to be far more difficult than explaining his gunshot wound to the police.

If nothing else, the incident proves that Vella at least had a sense of humour. When referring to this shooting incident in newspapers, at least one book and several television programmes, police officers have implied that ‘the victim’ was too scared to make a statement, thus adding to Vella’s sinister reputation. The truth is that Vella and my brother-in-law were friends and it was no more than a regrettable accident.

One of several men who genuinely fell foul of Vella was Reggie Nunn, who was invited to his flat and brutally attacked. Nunn had been sent to Scotland to peddle Vella’s drugs, but he had been foolish and squandered some of Vella’s money on excessive expenses. In a rage, Vella had kicked, punched and finally stabbed Nunn. To escape what he believed was certain death, Nunn had leapt through a closed first-floor window.

Another man named Mark Skeets was invited out for a drink by Vella. Instead of being tied up in social banter, Skeets was tied up with rope and badly beaten. Vella then chopped at Skeets’ hair with a knife, shaved his eyebrows off and took photographs of his handiwork. Just as Skeets thought his ordeal was over, Vella jabbed him with knives and burned his body and the soles of his feet with cigarettes. To finish off the evening’s entertainment, Skeets was forced to lick LSD-coated paper and snort excessive amounts of cocaine. His crime? He had been judged to have taken a diabolical liberty with Vella by having the audacity to send his girlfriend a Christmas card.

Alvin’s friend Dean Power appeared to have upset Vella on two occasions. As punishment for his first misdemeanour, Power was whipped with a metal coat hanger and beaten with a bamboo cane. Twelve months later, Vella and another man arrived unannounced at Power’s home and proceeded to attack him. He was overpowered, jabbed with a toasting fork, beaten with lumps of wood, kicked in the head and had his arms and feet stamped on. He was totally disfigured by this barbaric beating.

In 1994, Vella and his gang were rounded up as part of Operation Max, which took three years to complete and resulted in Vella being sentenced to seventeen years behind bars. His gang were given prison sentences ranging from two years to six years and eight months. Operation Max resulted in 21 prosecutions and Essex police introducing their first witness-protection programme. Describing Vella during the trial, Power said, ‘He is like Jekyll and Hyde. The bloke is a lunatic. Seemed like a nice bloke at first, but he is just possessed, like he had the devil in him or something. I am living my whole life in fear.’

Nobody quite knows what Dean Power did to deserve the horrific assault that he suffered at the hands of Vella and his accomplice, nor does anybody know what possessed him to become involved with Damon Alvin. According to Alvin, on the morning he was arrested he and Power had collected a kilo of cocaine from a man named Henry Swann. ‘At eight-thirty, we drove to a snooker club in Leigh-on-Sea and waited in the car park,’ he said. ‘After five minutes, a car pulled up. Power walked over to it, spoke to the driver, opened the boot and took a carrier bag out of it. After getting back into my car, we drove back to Power’s flat to weigh and check the gear.

‘Usually when you buy a kilo of cocaine it is three, four, maybe five grams underweight, but this was half an ounce light. I was due to pay for it later that day so I wasn’t concerned; I would just pay for what I had received instead of the full kilo. Once we were satisfied that it was all OK, I left on my own with the cocaine.

‘As I was travelling home, I was stopped by armed police and arrested. My first thought was that Power and Swann had grassed me up. Power didn’t get arrested, which was odd because the police had obviously been watching me all morning. Henry Swann, a travelling pikey, had originally said that the cocaine was going to be available the night before but had called it off at the last minute. I thought that he could have used this delay to make the phone call and set my arrest up.’

As usual, Alvin was blaming other people for his own failings. I worked alongside ‘Big Henry’ on the door at Raquels nightclub before Tony Tucker was invited onto the scene. I have not had the pleasure of keeping his company since I left Essex in the late ’90s, but I know that in all the time I knew him he was very anti-drugs. Henry made a living travelling the world, salvaging precious metals from crashed aeroplanes and shipwrecks. When he was at home between jobs, he would work on the doors of various pubs and clubs in the Essex area.

He was slashed and stabbed during an infamous battle between members of West Ham United’s Inter City Firm and the bouncers at Basildon’s Festival Hall. The injuries he received that night were sustained simply because he and another doorman named Nicky Cook refused to run from the baying mob. When the police visited Henry at the hospital, he refused to assist them, despite having been left for dead and sustaining horrific injuries.

One evening whilst working with Henry at Raquels, a fight had broken out which resulted in a customer losing one of his ears and me being arrested. When I was released from the cells the following day, it was Big Henry who contacted me first to offer assistance should I need it. In short, Henry Swann is fearlessly loyal to everybody he knows and most certainly would not dream of informing on either friend or foe to the police.

The worrying thing about Alvin’s de-brief account of the cocaine incident is that, by his own admission, it was not Leach or Webber bullying him into selling drugs that had caused him to be arrested, nor was it loan sharks demanding the repayment of a debt from his wife; it was Alvin simply supplying a kilo of cocaine to his own customers for financial gain. I shudder to think what lies Alvin may have told to escape the murder charge he faced.

During the de-brief process, the police paid Alvin £31,917.28 for his expenses. I am not for one moment suggesting that Alvin and his family should not have been subsidised while he was assisting the police with their inquiries; however, some of the items purchased for him and his family would, I imagine, be deemed luxuries by most people, rather than necessities. They included £290 for an educational course, 60 pence for paracetamol, various sums of money for Christmas presents for his family, £44.15 to MOT his vehicle, £3,491 in removal costs, £876.46 for two months’ car rental, £468 for a laptop and £49.99 for a carry case, £19.99 for a mouse for his laptop, a 60 pence parking fee and £82.68 for the purchase of an enclosure for his tortoises. It’s comforting to know that some of our hard-earned taxes have been used to re-house and relocate Alvin’s tortoises on the witness-protection programme.

Beverley Boshell had her claim for compensation for her son’s murder turned down by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board (CICB). She wasn’t asking for much. Beverley is registered as disabled and in receipt of state benefits, so she thought the CICB might have assisted her with her son’s funeral expenses. After all, he was undoubtedly the victim of a crime, and victims of crime are the reason the CICB came into being.

According to the police, Beverley’s son may have been murdered because he was passing on information about his criminal associates to them. I would have thought that the family of somebody murdered for assisting the police would be considered a priority for compensation. Not Beverley Boshell. She was told that because her son had previous convictions compensation could not be paid.

I wonder how she must feel now, knowing that Alvin, his family and their tortoises were financially rewarded for their information? I felt so disgusted by this outrageous display of nauseating double standards that I have used some of the proceeds from this book to pay for Dean Boshell’s memorial at Pitsea cemetery myself.

15

  THE PIG CIRCUS  

In 1644, Matthew Hopkins, a top
Essex boy of his time, who went on to become known as the Witchfinder-General, kick-started his bloody career and introduced the supergrass phenomenon to Essex after arresting a lady named Elizabeth Clarke. A toothless, one-legged octogenarian, Elizabeth was accused of being a witch by Hopkins. Initially refusing to admit her guilt, the hapless old lady was incarcerated and subjected to long periods without food, water or sleep. By the time Hopkins had finished with her, Elizabeth had ‘grassed up’ 31 of her associates and claimed that they were all witches. These unfortunate, innocent women were rounded up and taken to Colchester Castle to await trial.

In July 1645, the women (four of whom had already died) were tried at the County Assizes in Chelmsford under the jurisdiction of Robert Rich, the 2nd Earl of Warwick and Lord Lieutenant of Essex. John Sterne, Hopkins’ evil sidekick, who was being paid handsomely by his master, gave evidence against Elizabeth and claimed that he had seen her ‘call one of her white Imps, and play with it in her lap’. This Imp was described as having a remarkable resemblance to a dog. ‘It was white, had sandy-coloured spots and short legs,’ Sterne said. Another of Elizabeth’s Imps was said to look like a greyhound.

Saving the best for last, Sterne told the court that Elizabeth had confessed to him that she had indulged in ‘carnal copulation with the Devil’ four times a week for the past six years. With no legal representation and amidst scenes of total chaos, all but one of the women were found guilty. Elizabeth Clarke and fourteen of the others were hanged in Chelmsford, but four were taken to Manningtree and hanged on the village green. Nine were later reprieved.

Three hundred and sixty-one years later, Chelmsford was once more the setting for another unusual trial. The names had changed, the charges were different, but there were striking similarities.

Desperate after being incarcerated, like Elizabeth, Alvin had accused his friends of wicked crimes in the hope that he would not have to face the ordeal of a trial himself. Like the false testimony of brutal thug John Sterne, the verbal testimony of Alvin, who had nothing to lose and everything to gain, was the only evidence against Percival. And like a dog with sandy spots being described as the Devil’s Imp, innocent conversation, meetings or events were portrayed as something far more sinister.

Ricky Percival stood shoulder to shoulder with Damon Alvin when he faced his murder trial 11 months earlier. But when it was Percival’s turn to face his murder trial, Alvin was noticeably absent. Everybody present was aware that he was sitting in a local police station waiting to be escorted to the trial. He was then going to face his former friend and accuse him of a whole host of evil crimes, including murder.

Alongside Percival sat Kate Griffiths and Kevin Walsh. The last time they had been in court it had been alleged that along with Percival they had given Alvin a false alibi to cover up the fact that he had been elsewhere committing murder. It was now being said that they had given Percival the same alibi to conceal the fact that he had been elsewhere committing the same evil deed.

After the jury of seven men and five women had been sworn in, the three defendants were asked to stand and plead to each of the charges they faced. The clerk of the court read out one joint charge to Percival, Walsh and Griffiths, which was that ‘between the 26
^th
day of February 2001 and the 6
^th
day of March 2001, they had conspired together to pervert the course of public justice’. All pleaded not guilty.

Percival alone faced a further nine charges. It was alleged that he had murdered Dean Fergus Boshell, conspired together with Damon Alvin and another to pervert the course of justice by preventing CJ McLaughlin from attending court, conspired together with Damon Alvin and Dean Boshell to steal cannabis of a value unknown belonging to a person unknown, robbed the manager of the Wickford snooker club of £2,000, had with him a firearm or imitation firearm, namely a silver handgun, with the intent to commit robbery, had in his possession a firearm, namely a ‘Savage Stevens’ pump-action 12-bore shortened shotgun, with the intent to endanger life, and had attempted to murder Raymond Tretton, Stuart Tretton and Jenny Dickinson.

Staring straight ahead with his hands clasped firmly in front of him, Percival answered not guilty to each charge. As the proceedings got under way, Alvin arrived at the court in an armoured car escorted by police vehicles with flashing lights and sirens. The entrance to the court was guarded by a number of armed policemen brandishing machine guns. More armed officers guarded the door to the room where the trial was taking place. During the course of the proceedings, these officers would often walk across or stand in front of the glass panes in the door immediately opposite the jury, creating the false impression that an extremely dangerous criminal was on trial and everybody present was under threat. Such an impression could of course sway the jury into thinking that the defendant was more than capable of carrying out the crimes he was alleged to have committed before they had even considered the evidence.

Percival by this time had been travelling back and forth to the same court for nearly two years, but such measures had never been deemed necessary before. In my opinion, it was an unnecessary and unsavoury spectacle for jurors to be greeted with upon their arrival at court each morning. I certainly felt that the presence of so many heavily armed men created a distinct atmosphere of menace.

If the jury were not convinced of just how dangerous Percival was by this show of arms, they most certainly were by the time Alvin had finished giving his evidence. Alvin told them that Percival and his brother Danny had tried to bribe and/or physically harm jurors at the first trial. Despite the fact the police hadn’t bothered to question the Percival brothers about this serious crime, they permitted Alvin to make his allegation in open court.

Alvin also accused the Percival brothers of trying to bribe a prosecution witness so that he would not testify. CJ McLaughlin had told the police that Boshell had used his phone to call Alvin on the night of the killing. According to Alvin, the Percival brothers wanted CJ to withdraw his statement. Danny was alleged to have gone to talk to CJ’s uncle, who happens to be Trevor Adams. This is the man Alvin claimed had returned to Boshell’s body with Percival to remove his phone.

Alvin testified that when Danny visited Adams, he had said that he didn’t want to get involved and this really upset Danny. ‘After that Danny was sent to go and offer £4,000 to CJ’s father,’ Alvin said. ‘In return for the money, he was required to take his son away to a coastal caravan park so that he wouldn’t be around to give evidence. Danny had been told to give him the cash, a clean mobile phone and to make sure they disappeared until they received a call telling them to come home.

‘Before leaving, CJ was to contact the police and inform them that he wasn’t prepared to give evidence and that his decision had been made of his own free will. CJ’s father went and spoke to his ex-wife and she refused to allow her son to be party to this. She said that her son had done no wrong and therefore he was going to attend court. Percival was really upset by this news and said that he was going to have nothing to do with the family again.’

When the police questioned CJ and his family about Alvin’s story, they denied any knowledge of such a plot. As far as they were concerned, Boshell had used CJ’s mobile phone as a favour to make a call. That call was an indisputable fact because phone records show that it was made. CJ, therefore, couldn’t possibly deny it, even if he wanted to. His family were adamant that he had no reason to hide anything and so he would be attending court. In any event, a call made by Boshell to Alvin using CJ’s phone had no bearing on the innocence or guilt of Ricky Percival whatsoever, so why would he ask his brother to bribe the family? Furthermore, why would Trevor Adams refuse to assist a man with such a relatively minor crime if, as Alvin alleged, he had already assisted the same man after a murder? It was ludicrous, but nevertheless the denials made by McLaughlin and his family were disbelieved.

Whilst trying to prove Percival’s guilt in regard to the Locksley Close shootings, the prosecution had called Carla Evans, in whose home the incident had occurred. Evans had made a detailed statement to the police at the time of the shootings in which she claimed that after the death of Malcolm Walsh she’d had an altercation with Percival. During this incident, Percival had allegedly shouted and sworn at her and threatened to rape her. I cannot say if this is what actually happened, but this is what Evans said occurred, so I am fairly certain that she doesn’t think a great deal of Percival.

Whilst giving her evidence at the trial, Evans happened to mention that the man who had burst into her home with a shotgun had blue eyes. Percival has brown eyes. This is an extremely important point. The gunman was wearing a balaclava and so his eyes would be the focal point of the witness’s attention. If the jury had believed that Evans was absolutely certain about the colour of the gunman’s eyes, it was more than likely that they would have acquitted Percival of all charges relating to the Locksley Close shootings. Unfortunately, the task of deciding themselves was taken away when the judge intervened and permitted the prosecution to treat Evans as a hostile witness. This meant that Evans was deemed as a witness who was deliberately giving false evidence that would assist Percival. Evans and her evidence were discharged from the proceedings forthwith.

She had given no indication that she was going to vary her account of the shootings from her original statement; it just seemed like she had simply given an answer that didn’t suit the prosecution’s case. The prosecution even asked Evans if she was expecting to be invited to Percival’s victory party and the judge chose to repeat the same rather florid phrase in his summing up of the case.

Unfortunately for Percival and justice, the trial trundled on in much the same vein throughout. Numerous allegations made by Alvin concerning third parties (most of whom were absent) were presented to the jury and, without the presence of important witnesses to challenge them, they were left hanging in the air like a bad smell.

Steven and Raymond Tretton had unfortunately died from alcohol-related illnesses approximately two years after the shootings. There was material to suggest that at least one of them might have given evidence that Percival was not the gunman. The other had made a statement but only part of it had survived. The police claimed that they had somehow lost the crucial page that would have assisted Percival’s defence. It was obviously impossible for fresh statements to be taken.

I doubt that Essex police would have deliberately lost or destroyed evidence in a murder case, but it does seem an unfortunate coincidence that it was the one page that could have proved Percival’s innocence that vanished.

When Alvin was cross-examined about the shootings, he denied that he had set foot in Carla Evans’ house. As far as he was concerned, Percival had been the only one with a gun and the only one who had burst into the house and opened fire. Three of the people present in the house that night, however, were adamant that there were two gunmen. When the police had appealed for witnesses after the incident, even they were claiming that ‘two masked men armed with pump-action shotguns had burst in on the party’. When Alvin was asked to explain why so many people thought they had seen two masked men, he said that they must have mistaken a coat that was hanging on the banister at the bottom of the stairs for a gunman. Percival’s barrister asked Alvin if that coat also appeared to be wearing a balaclava, to which he meekly replied, ‘No.’

Although deceased and having a zero credibility rating, Dean Boshell was given a voice at his own murder trial. He had informed his police handler that Percival and a ‘doorman named Dave’ had carried out the Locksley Close shootings, though nobody doubted that he was lying. No such person was ever identified by the police or mentioned by any other witness. Boshell had simply invented this name to protect the true identities of the gunmen.

Putting Percival’s name alongside Dave the Doorman’s was an obvious choice because Percival had been arrested for the shootings and had revelled in the rumours that he had been one of the gunmen. The interesting thing about the information that Boshell gave to the police is that he too was claiming that two gunmen were involved. When asked why Boshell would say this, Alvin replied, ‘Boshell lied about the Locksley Close shootings. He said the shotgun was a double-barrelled shotgun and that Dave the Doorman was involved. If Doorman Dave does exist, I don’t know him.’

The reason Alvin was so keen to point out that Boshell was lying about the weapon used in the shootings failed to register with all concerned at the time. If the police had accepted what the witnesses and their informant Boshell had told them about there being two gunmen, they would never have been able to charge Percival with three attempted murders and firearms offences unless they charged Alvin too. They couldn’t charge Alvin with such serious crimes because the likelihood was he would have then refused to cooperate with them. Without Alvin, there was no case against Percival.

Alvin was forced to say that only three shots were fired during the attack because the pump-action shotgun, which was recovered by police from the drain in Burgess Close, still had four live cartridges in it. Normally, such a weapon can hold only six cartridges, but it is possible for it to be loaded with seven. Three shots fired and four found in the weapon equals seven. Because Alvin had said that only three shots had been fired, the mathematics indicated that he was being truthful. The fact that only three people had been shot also supported Alvin’s story.