Harry Roberts, the Wanstead-born man who killed three policemen in 1966 and served 45 years in prison, has been released from prison. Now 78, he is according to the BBC, expected to be given a new identity having served one of the longest sentences.
Roberts’ birth certificate shows born he was born on 21 July 1936 at Maycroft Nursing Home which was at 53 Woodford Road. His parents ran the George Hotel – one source says the family lived on Halstead Road – but aged five he was he was evacuated to Monmouthshire. During the war his father served in the forces but did not return to his mother, and when the boy Harry returned from Wales his mother sent him to a boarding school in South London.
He was convicted of receiving stolen goods aged 15, and then of assault at 18, after which he went to borstal. He joined the army and served in the jungles of Malaya where he learned some of the skills which he used later when on the run to hide from police for three months in Epping Forest.
Any other links or information about his links with Wanstead are welcome.
Jake Arnott’s book ‘He Kills Coppers’ is definitely worth a read.
Who gives a monkeys where this bloke lived or where he was evacuated to? Have you got nothing better to write about than apparently glorify a murderer of three coppers with tenuous links to Redbridge and a pub his parents ran? Why don’t you suggest a petition for cop killers and a mass protest against his release?
Glorify? Looked like simple reporting of facts to me.
Perhaps you could give a list of things that people shouldn’t mention on the website?