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It was maggots that they were
looking at on that June day 1964. Two thirteen year olds scouting through
Bracknell woods in hope of finding a dead pigeon or squirrel, any dead meat that
might be home to the fat white maggots that they needed for fishing bait. Then
they found them; thousands of the things. The excitement ended as soon as the
boys saw what the maggots were feeding on, as soon as they saw the arm. Terry
King and Paul Fay, bright lads, went to the police: 'There's a dead body buried
in the woods!'
For pathologists Keith Simpson the call out was routine - a body discovered in
suspicious circumstances. Beneath the covering of moss and leaves was the body
of a man, lying on his back, his head wrapped in towelling. The corpse was too
far decomposed for any normal time of death tests - in fact, the police thought
it might have been there for up to two months. But they had reckoned without a
very special study that Keith Simpson had made his own. Simpson put the time of
death as at least nine or ten days - 'but probably not more than twelve; its
astonishing how quickly maggots will eat up flesh'.
The pathologist had routinely checked samples of the insect infestation and
identified the maggots as those of the common blue-bottle (Calliphora
erythrocephalus): 'There larvae I was looking at were mature, indeed elderly,
fat indolent, third-stage maggots, but they were not in pupa cases. Therefore I
estimated that the eggs had been laid nine or ten days earlier. Adding a little
more time to allow for the blue-bottles getting to the dead body, I reckoned
death had occurred on 16 or 17 June.'
Post mortem examination revealed that the bones of the larynx had been crushed,
and death had resulted from blood seeping into the windpipe. Identifiable
features indicated that the victim was Peter Thomas, reported missing from his
home at Lyndney on 16 June. It was also learned that Thomas had lent the sum of
£2,000 to a man named Brittle. Under questioning William Brittle admitted that
he had met Thomas at Lyndney on 16 June - in fact, he had gone there
specifically to repay a loan, so he claimed.
Now it came to light that Brittle had been trained in unarmed combat while
serving in the Army; information which was not lost on Professor Simpson, whose
report on Thomas's throat injuries were entirely consistent with a blow such as
a karate chop. It was the firm belief of police that Brittle had visited Peter
Thomas on 16 June, not to repay £2,000, but to dispose of his debt rather more
decisively; he had then transported Thomas's body in the boot of a car to
Bracknell woods.
Unfortunately, the police had an independent witness who adamantly insisted that
he had seen Peter Thomas, alive and well, in Gloucester on 20 June.
In the end William Brittle was committed for trial and the main scientific
evidence was offered by Professor Simpson. Simpson testified that he had found
maggots of the common blue-bottle on the corpse, and that they had not yet
pupated; this put the time since death nine or ten days. Though he was appearing
as an expert witness for the defense, the eminent entomologist Professor McKenny-Hughes
corroborated Simpson's findings, and William Brittle was convicted of murder and
sentenced to life imprisonment. |
