Crime & Punishment
Horse Doping Test Centre In laboratories at the world’s racing HQ in Newmarket, scientists fight the men who seek to stop the best horse winning. The forensic laboratories were established in 1963 following the recommendations of a committee under the chairmanship of the Duke of Norfolk. By 1970, when these pictures were taken of the technicians at work in the laboratory, horse-doping had become more widespread and more scientific than even before.
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In the early seventies, I met up with a remarkable young researcher called David Anderson who had been studying the Ripper murders in Whitechapel for many years and believed that he had identified the killer as Montague John Druitt who is buried in Wimborne Cemetary, Wimborne, Dorset. We visited several locations related to the murders and I photographed David standing on the location of some of the bodies in those areas of London – fast disappearing even then – that could be identified from police sketches and photographs of the time. David also supplied me with post mortem and police photographs of some of the victims, together with an envelope sent by the Ripper and, for comparison, a sample of Druitt’s handwriting. I also photographed him standing outside the chambers in which lawyer Druitt had once worked.
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CAUTION SOME VIEWERS MAY FIND THESE IMAGES DISTURBING. Beheading in the Yemen It was a cold, overcast, day in November 1962. The man who approached me was barefoot and wore a check jacket with flowing robes. His arms were unbound as he walked steadily from a prison van to an open square that was surrounded by crowd of silent, curious, spectators and uniformed soldiers. He was followed at a short distance by several other men. A civilian executioner wearing a long, black, coat and woollen cap stepped forward carrying a sword. The man in the check jacket knelt down and I stepped forward to within a couple of yards of him. His lips were moving but I could not hear any words. Perhaps he was praying. The sword swept down and his head tumbled off. I was not fully aware of what was happening until I processed the film a few hours later. I was concerned with firing the shutter and winding on the film in my Nikon. I took a few other pictures of the headless body lying on the mud. I remember thinking how suddenly a human being could go from living to dying and how far arterial blood spurted when the head came off. There were six other executions by the sword that afternoon but I hadn't the stomach for them.
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Timothy Davey – In 1971 Timothy Davey, then aged 14, was jailed for six years by a Turkish court for drug smuggling. With his mother, brothers and sisters, Timothy had been on the ‘Hippie trail’ to India and were traveling home through Turkey when he was arrested. Timothy and his mother contrived an escape from prison after a few months by dressing in girl’s clothes. Rearrested at the border, he was sent back to a juvenile prison on the coast at Izmir. I found a friendly and helpful reception from the guards and from Sevki Levend, the enlightened public prosecutor in charge of the reformatory. The only prohibition was on taking a picture of Timothy except as part of a group of other inmates. This was unacceptable to me as I very much wanted a shot of him with his mother and some of his siblings. In the end I had to resort to taking my picture secretly, firing the motorised Nikon while holding it casually in one hand and hoping that the wide angle lens would capture the image I needed. If Sevki heard the shutter fire he was too polite to say anything, but it was an uncomfortable moment as I had visions of joining Timothy behind bars. Not long after my exclusive story appeared in the British press, he was released and returned to England with his family. When I last heard from him he was working as a journalist in the North of England. Should he ever read this and would like to get in touch I should be delighted to hear from him again.
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