50 Facts About Derek Bentley

Derek William Bentley was a British man who was hanged for the murder of a policeman during a burglary.

Derek Bentley was convicted as a party to the crime under the English law principle of joint enterprise, as the burglary had been committed in mutual understanding and bringing deadly weapons.

The outcome of the trial, and Home Secretary David Maxwell Fyfe's failure to grant clemency to Derek Bentley, were highly controversial.

Goddard sentenced Derek Bentley to be hanged, despite a recommendation for mercy by the jury.

The Derek Bentley case became a cause celebre and led to a 40-year-long campaign to win Derek Bentley a posthumous pardon, which was granted in 1993, and then a further campaign for the quashing of his murder conviction, which occurred in 1998.

Derek Bentley's case is thus considered a case of miscarriage of justice alongside that of Timothy Evans, and pivotal in the successful campaign to abolish capital punishment in the United Kingdom.

Derek Bentley entered Norbury Manor Secondary Modern School in 1944, after failing the eleven-plus examination.

Six months later, Derek Bentley was sentenced to serve three years at Kingswood Approved School near Bristol.

Derek Bentley's parents reported that in a childhood accident he had broken his nose and since then he had three seizure fits, including one in which they said he nearly died of choking.

Derek Bentley was sent to Kingswood Training School, Bristol, on 27 October 1948.

Kingswood staff reported Derek Bentley to be "lazy, indifferent, voluble and of the 'wise guy' type", whilst a court described him as "indifferent, smug, self-satisfied and ready to tell tales".

Derek Bentley was described there as "borderline feeble-minded", with a verbal score of 71, a performance IQ of 87 and a full scale IQ of 77.

Derek Bentley was discovered to still be "quite illiterate" at the time of his arrest in November 1952.

Derek Bentley was examined twice by EEG: a reading on 16 November 1949 indicated he was an epileptic and a reading on 9 February 1950 was "abnormal".

Derek Bentley was released from Kingswood school on 28 July 1950, a year early, though he was told that he would remain under the care of Kingswood until 29 September 1954, by which time he was dead.

Derek Bentley was a recluse for the rest of 1950, rarely venturing out of the house, breaking his isolation in January 1951.

In May 1952, Derek Bentley was taken on by the Croydon Corporation as a dustbin man; one month later, in June 1952 he was demoted to street sweeping for unsatisfactory performance.

Derek Bentley was still unemployed at the time of his arrest in November 1952.

Derek Bentley carried a number of undersized rounds for the revolver, some of which he had modified by hand to fit the gun.

Derek Bentley carried a knuckle-duster, which he had been given by Craig, who had been fined the previous year for possessing a firearm without a certificate.

At around 9:15pm, neighbours called police after spotting Craig and Derek Bentley climbing over the gate and up a drainpipe to the roof of the warehouse.

When police arrived, Craig and Derek Bentley hid behind the lift-housing.

Fairfax was nonetheless again able to restrain Derek Bentley, who told Fairfax that Craig had further ammunition for the gun.

Derek Bentley had not used either of the weapons in his pockets.

The Children and Young Persons Act 1933 prevented execution of those under 18; consequently, of the two defendants, despite Craig having fired the fatal shot, only Derek Bentley faced the death penalty if convicted.

Secondly, there was controversy over the existence and meaning of Derek Bentley's alleged instruction to Craig, "let him have it, Chris".

Craig and Derek Bentley denied that Derek Bentley had said the words while the police officers testified that he had said them.

Further, Derek Bentley's counsel argued that even if he had said the words, it could not be proven that Derek Bentley had intended the words to mean the informal meaning of "shoot him, Chris" instead of the literal meaning of "give him the gun, Chris".

Thirdly, there was disagreement over whether Derek Bentley was fit to stand trial in light of his mental capacity.

Hill's report stated that Derek Bentley was illiterate and of low intelligence, what today would be described as having learning difficulties.

However, Matheson was of the opinion that whilst agreeing that Derek Bentley was of low intelligence, he did not have epilepsy at the time of the alleged offence and he was not a "feeble-minded person" under the Mental Deficiency Acts.

The jury took 75 minutes to decide that both Craig and Derek Bentley were guilty of Miles' murder, with a plea for mercy for Derek Bentley.

Derek Bentley was sentenced to death whilst Craig was ordered to be detained at Her Majesty's Pleasure.

Derek Bentley was eventually released in May 1963 after serving 10 years' imprisonment, married two years later and subsequently became a plumber.

Derek Bentley was scheduled to be hanged on 30 December 1952, but this was postponed to allow for an appeal.

Derek Bentley's lawyers filed appeals highlighting the ambiguities of the ballistic evidence, Derek Bentley's mental age and the fact that he did not fire the fatal shot.

Derek Bentley's appeal was heard on 13 January 1953 and was unsuccessful.

When his appeal was turned down, Derek Bentley's life was placed in the hands of the Home Secretary, David Maxwell Fyfe, who had to decide whether to recommend that the Crown exercise the royal prerogative of mercy to commute his death sentence to life imprisonment.

Derek Bentley went on to say that Bentley's case involved the issue of the police force, since it was a police officer who was killed.

At 9am on 28 January 1953, Derek Bentley was hanged at Wandsworth Prison, London, by Albert Pierrepoint, with Harry Allen assisting.

In March 1966, Derek Bentley's remains were removed from Wandsworth and re-interred in Croydon Cemetery.

Derek Bentley fired twice at Craig but missed, Craig having fired at him.

Derek Bentley later made a number of statements to police officers sitting with him in hospital, displaying a hatred of the police and a total lack of remorse at what he had done.

On 29 July 1993, Derek Bentley was granted a royal pardon in respect of the sentence of death passed upon him and carried out.

Derek Bentley's daughter, Maria Bentley-Dingwall, who was born 10 years after Derek Bentley's execution, continued the campaign after her mother's death.

Derek Bentley apologised to the families of both PC Miles and Bentley for his actions, as well as his own family for the press intrusion they had suffered over the years.

The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Bingham of Cornhill, ruled that Lord Goddard had not made it clear to the jury that the prosecution was required to have proved Derek Bentley had known that Craig was armed.

Derek Bentley further ruled that Lord Goddard had failed to raise the question of Bentley's withdrawal from their joint enterprise.

Lord Bingham ruled that Derek Bentley's trial had been unfair because the judge had misdirected the jury and, in his summing-up, had put unfair pressure on the jury to convict.

Lord Bingham did not rule that Derek Bentley was innocent, merely that there had been fundamental defects in the trial process.