| Flowers in Gods Garden
- Articles |
28/07/95
- The animal who stole beat and finally killed
By PAUL WlLKINSON
The Times
TONY ARMSTRONG stole from his stepfather and workmates.
beat his mother and stepchildren and lied about his
past.
His wile of six months walked out after one particularly
violent attack on her children ChristineTeat, 39, whom
he beat on their honeymoon night, said: "He used
to hit me all the time I couldn't stand it. He was like
an animal."
Mrs Teat who has since remarried, already had two children
when she met Armstrong 11 years ago at a country and
westem night at the Comrades Club in Horden, Co Durham.
She said. "He was charming; he had something about
him, even though he wasn't much more than 18.
"But as soon as we were married he changed. He
started hitting me I couldnt believe it, that someone
could change so much. From then on it was as though
I hardly knew him at all. He was a very disturbed, strange
individual.
"Eventually my brothers threw him out of our house.
My daughter once barricaded herself in her bedroom because
he was trying to get at her. I wish i had never met
Tony Armstrong. As soon as I heard of the murder, i
thought to myself, "He's capable of that."
Armstrong was three when his mother Rachel, married
George Armstrong in 1966. Mr Armstrong, a plasterer,
legally adopted the boy and they all lived over a fish-and-chip
shop in Horden about 10 miles from Hartlepool.
Armstrong discovered during his teenage years that he
was the product of an incestuous relationship between
his mother and her father, his grandfather. During his
adult life he regularly turned to his mother for sex.
Mr Armstrong, now 64. said: "l took him under my
wing and gave him my own name I made him my real son
and I wanted him to look upon me as his real father.
"But he started knocking about with the wrong crowd.
There was nothing I could say to him. He wouldn't listen.
He wouldn't take me as his father. He would never take
orders from anyone, although he got on okay with his
mother. I would drop him off at school but he wouldn't
go in, he would play hooky."
He was only 16 when he robbed his stepfather, taking
£180 saved for a holiday in Blackpool from his
wallet. "The bloke next door told me it was him.
He had gloves on and everything. I couldn't understand
why he was stealing from me."
Mr Armstrong said."I reported it to police but
I think it was all dropped." By then George and
Rachel Armstrong had separated, but he made one last
effort to help his stepson, getting him into the Navy.
"He was a bad lad even then, going ashore when
he wasn't supposed to. I got a telegram from his commanding
officer saying he was being sent home. He hadn't even
completed his basic training. It was very disappointing
for me. I thought the Navy would make a man of him but
when he failed that I knew then he just wasn't going
to make the grade.
"After that ... I told him I wanted nothing to
do with him. I've had no contact with him for the last
four years since his mother died. I knew that he was
going into other people's lockers at Horden when he
was working at the pit. That's why he got sacked."
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