| Flowers in Gods Garden
- Articles |
01/11/92
- Trapped we get letters that caught a child killer
By SARAH STEPHENS
News and Echo
THIS is the face of a monster. Richard Blenkey strangled
seven-year-old Paul Pearson in a shed and blamed a mysterious
'Mr Punk.' Even constant police questioning FAILED to
break the sick misfit.
Then in stepped father of two, Bernard Mahoney. He started
sending letters to Blenkey, as he waited in prison on
remand. Gradually he earned the psycho's trust. Slowly,
in his handwritten replies, Blenkey began to confess.
As a result of this astonishing 'pen-pal' trap, Blenkey
was jailed this week for 20 years after changing his plea
to guilty just 11 days before his trial. Today, for the
first time, Bernard tells how he trapped the Cleveland
sex beast... for the price of a first class stamp. Here
is how the amazing events unfolded...
Wednesday August 14th, 1991
PLAYFUL Paul Pearson left his home at Marske-by-the-Sea,
Cleveland, at 3.30pm. He was looking forward to cycling
to his friend's house to play. But he was always concientious,
and promised his mum that he would be back for tea by
six o'clock. He failed to return.
Thursday August 15th
THE holiday mood which normally buzzed through the tiny
seaside town was dampened as a huge search got underway
for the missing boy. Police, coastguards and concerned
civilian volunteers, many of whom gave up their day on
the beach, began a systematic hunt through the surrounding
area. A team of 80 detectives interviewed holidaymakers
on a caravan site close to the spot where Paul was last
seen.
Friday August 16th
PAUL'S mum Julie made a tearful plea for help at police
headquarters. But as Julie, 30, and her electrician husband
Ken faced the TV cameras in a bare, drab police station,
a horrific discovery was being made just yards from the
couple's home. Paul Pearson's body had been found at the
bottom of a 50ft ravine, overlooked by the family home.
Just minutes after making their emotional plea, detectives
broke the news to Mr and Mrs Pearson. Scarcely able to
believe what they heard, the pair were told that their
son had been dragged from his favourite red mountain bike
in broad daylight.
Paul, strangled with a piece of red twine, had been found
by a member of the public. The bike had been found earlier
in long grass near abridle path. A stunned detective said:
"There is not an officer in Britain who is not totally
disgusted by it all."
Saturday August 17
POLICE announced they had charged jobless Richard Blenkey,
32, of nearby Diamond Street, Saltburn-by-Sea, Cleveland,
with the murder of Paul Pearson. Blenkey was arrested
during the early hours of Friday morning and quizzed for
nearly 12 hours. A local man had heard Blenkey sobbing
in his chicken hut on his allotment on the day following
the murder.
A police search uncovered Paul's socks and underpants
in the hut. Blenkey's palm print had also been found on
Paul's bike. Julie and Kenneth Pearson and their other
children, Kevin 10, Claire, six, and Chris, four, stayed
with relatives who lived nearby, in Granville Close. The
same day, Blenkey made a brief appearance at Teeside magistrates
court. He was remanded in custody.
Sunday August 18
NIGHTCLUB bouncer Bernard O'Mahoney finished off his Sunday
lunch, sat back in his favourite armchair and began to
flick through the pages of a tabloid newspaper. A cursory
attempt at the crossword, a quick glance at the TV pages.
Nothing special, he thought. Until he read about Paul.
Bernard turned to watch his two children playing noisily
on the lounge floor, giggling, full of fun, and full of
promise for the years ahead.
He made an instant decision that was to affect many lives.
He told us: "This had been the third child murder
that week. "The Sun newspaper ran an article asking:
'Should We Hang Child Killers?' "The mood of the
country was very black. "Blenkey had denied, any
involvement with the murder. I heard he was jailed in
Old Elvet prison and Durham, before being moved to Holme
House, Stockton, Cleveland."
That night, Bernard sat down and started to write the
first of 36 letters which would eventually force Blenkey's
dramatic confession. Bernard said: "I set out with
the intention to catch him because I believed he was guilty.
"In my first two letters I didn't mention the case
at all. I talked about people who were charged and arrested
and found guilty of offences. "I said some people
were found guilty when they shouldn't be and that he may
fall into that catagory.
"I said I needed to know as much information as possible
if I was going to get to the truth. "I think for
a time Blenkey actually convinced himself he was innocent.
He was desperate for someone to get him out of the mess
he was in." Bernard also revealed that Blenkey's
letters were sometimes hard to understand.
"He admitted that he went to a special school and
wasn't a very bright person. It was as though he almost
thought like a child." Eventually, Blenkey began
to trust Bernard and was convinced he could clear his
name. "He thought I would assist him in his defence"
although I never said I would. "From what I could
gather Blenkly didn't really have any friends.
"The only person he had contact with was his landlady
June Ramsdale. "He was very close to her children
and was very, very fond of them, but not in a sexual way.
"He never spoke of girlfriends, didn't have a social
life. This made me wary of his interest in children. "His
life seemed to be centered around his allotment and the
chickens he kept."
Oct-Nov
BERNARD realised his next, and third letter, would be
decisive. He asked about the case. Bernard told us: "I
asked what date he was in court and how it was going.
"Blenkey's reply was full of anger. He blasted police
for lying about him."
December
IN the fifth letter, Bernard made his first step towards
forcing Blenkey's confession. He wrote.."If you are
responsible, then what's happened has happened and you've
GOT to tell the truth. "If you go to court lying
you will be found out. "If you put your hands up
and say you did it, people won't think much more of you,
but at least you will have saved Paul's family any more
pain."
January 1992
SEVEN days later, Blenkey's reply arrived. Bernard was
stunned. The killer wrote: "The parents don't have
to go to the trial. "There is no need for them to
be there and if they go and get hurt then that's their
decision." Bernard added: "He was just concerned
with himself and nobody else. He couldn't see what it
had to do with the family. He was just worried about being
in prison."
March
BUT Bernard became more confident. He asked Blenkey for
a timetable of his events on the day Paul died. Bernard
said: "Once I had that, I knew it would only be a
matter of time before he 'hung' himself." He added:
"Sure enough, when I asked him to repeat details
of the timetable a few weeks later, he gave different
answers about where he was at certain times."
April-July
IN Bernard's following letter, he risked Blenkey terminating
all contact by calling the stubborn killer 'a liar.' Bernard
told us: "Luckily he wrote back, admitted lying and
he promised to 'be on the level' with me from that day
on."
August
IT was two weeks before Blenkey wrote again. In a bizarre
twist, he wrote: "Great news Bernard! This man called
Mr Punk has written to me and admitted he's done the murder."
Bernard said: "I told him to send me the letter.
He did. And although it was in a different handwriting,
it contained many of Blenkey's usual spelling mistakes.
"I then asked Blenkey to tell me everything he knew
about Mr Punk so we could trace him. "He said he
knew The Punk, he'd had trouble with The Punk's pitbull
terrier scaring his hens. "He said The Punk had it
in for him. Blenkey said on the day of the murder he went
to his chicken hut on the allotment and that The Punk
was already inside with Paul Pearson.
"He said The Punk put a gun to his head and forced
him to assault Paul. He said he had no choice but to sexually
assault the boy and kill him, or Mr Punk would shoot him
in the head. "Then he said The Punk forced him to
dispose of Paul's bike and that he was too scared to tell
the police because The Punk would kill one of his friends.
"I wrote back saying The Punk is a danger to children
and he must be caught, and I asked Blenkey for his address.
"He wrote back saying The Punk lived in Pearl Street,
in his home town Saltburn, but he didn't know the number
of the house.
"I knew for a fact it was fiction, but Blenkey thought
it was a good idea if I went to see The Punk. "Blenkey
was still sending me letters supposedly from the Punk.
It has been suggested he was telling the truth, but through
The Punk. "In The Punk's letters Blenkey said he
had pictures of Paul after death, and also his training
shoes, which were never found.
"It was just Blenkey's words in another handwriting.
"I said I was going to travel to Cleveland and confront
The Punk. I never went, had no intention of going. I wrote
back to Blenkey and said I'd seen the punk and he was
a very violent man.
He did produce the gun he put to your head, and he's told
me if I ever go back there again he would sort me out
as well. "Blenkey wrote back again saying he was
going to use The Punk as his defence. And asked if I would
be willing to court and give evidence against The Punk.
September 1992
"Over the next weeks I got more and more letters
'from' The Punk sending maps of where Paul's trainers
were etc. "Then a fortnight before Blenkey's trial
I wrote to him again saying that, considering everything,
I believed HE was guilty not The Punk. "I told him
that if he lied in court they would find out the truth.
A few days passed and he wrote back saying 'I must have
killed him. I strangled him.' He didn't know how long
the judge would give him and he hoped even after admitting
it he would get a manslaughter charge. "He said if
not it was likely he would commit suicide.
"After receiving 36 letters from Blenkey and visiting
him once I can say this . . . He has committed a murder.
But he's only sorry he's committed a murder because he
has been caught."
October 1992
Blenkey's confession was a bitter victory for Bernard.
The killer had described every detail of the gruesome
murder. "Because he'd killed a child and I have children
of my own, I couldn't allow him to walk the streets. So
I had to hand the letters over to the police. I didn't
want to be identified but there wasn't a lot I could do."
The police had forensic evidence against Blenkey ...but
all it proved was that he had come into contact with Paul.
Paul often played with the children of Blenkey's landlord,
so the letters sealed the case." He added: "The
really sad thing is that he was only given 20 years.
"He will only be 53 when he's released. It's not
fair when you consider the life-long pain Paul's family
have been sentenced to." |
| Contact : bernard.omahoney@bernardomahoney.com |
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