Court, in July 1988, Dee denied murder but admitted manslaughter because of diminished responsibility. She was ordered to be detained indefinitely in a medium-security hospital after the court heard she was suffering from a depressive illness.
The court was told that Copperman and Trevelyan were alleged to have lured children into wild sex-and-drink parties and there was talk of a young boy’s pet rabbit being shot in front of him because he kept wetting the bed.
Former workers at the school told of often finding the drunken pair still asleep surrounded by dozens of empty spirit bottles. Bleary-eyed children would also still be in bed, recovering from wild goings-on the previous night.
Copperman was said to have groped and kissed Trevelyan during orgies in front of the youngsters.The children also spoke of weird ‘war games’ with loaded pistols.
A handyman once walked into a bathroom and found five youngsters watching drunken Trevelyan naked, writhing and playing with a vibrator.
Copperman’s wife Pam, who ran another home called The Rookery at Stowmarket in Suffolk, later claimed, ‘I have heard gossip about what went on at Four Elms but I don’t believe a word of it. I knew Vic for twenty-nine years. We were childhood sweethearts. He couldn’t have done anything to the children.’
Edmund Lawson QC, defending, said there was ‘ample corroboration’ for Joanne’s allegations of sexual abuse at Four Elms. He revealed that Dee Washington had been in touch with Joanne. She also had the ‘entire sympathy’ of her local community in St Osyth.
The enormity of Dee’s crimes could not be overlooked. ‘But she did it out of a sense of love, guilt and anger.’
Six months after her conviction, Dee Washington was released from hospital.
Sadly, she never actually met up with Joanne, although she says, ‘We are in close touch now. I speak to her on the phone every week and we write. The letter that moved me most was the one where she said she understood why I had killed Vic and Thea, and she knew it was because I loved her.’
The Greenhouse Gallows
Everything in Heathway was the same. The houses. The gardens. The street lights. Even the colour of the front doors.
It was one of those typical between the wars roads in a suburb that became a convenient overspill when London’s population explosion really began to gain pace. The once neat rows of semi-detached three-bedroom houses had rapidlydeclined in appearance. Heathway also had other problems – like its location. Dagenham, Essex, is hardly the sort of place to inspire happiness. They say it peaked in the 1960s when the local Ford factory was churning out saloon cars at a rate of hundreds per day. Then came the lay-offs. Thousands upon thousands of Dagenham residents suddenly found themselves unemployable. It marked a turning point in the town’s fortunes. Now, its biggest claim to fame is that it is the birth place of film star Dudley Moore.
But Dagenham has retained one thing – its reputation as a typical lower-middle-class London suburb. A place where armed robbers learn how to saw off shotguns. A place where Sharon and Tracey are two of the most popular names. A place where net curtains prevail in virtually every front room window. For behind that petty, finger-wagging façade there are a thousand sins being committed.
Marriages come and go in Dagenham these days. The family unit is frequently split in two by divorce. Neighbours are often locked in bitter feuds. But despite all this, the residents of Heathway like to keep up appearances. It might well be a scruffy little street littered with waste in every gutter. But it was still home to hundreds of ordinary, law-abiding citizens.
Then there was Barbara Miller. She never reallyfitted in. Her parents George and Gladys sometimes wondered what they had done to deserve Barbara. She was just not the same as their five other children.
For a start Barbara did not even want to be a girl. Throughout her
The court was told that Copperman and Trevelyan were alleged to have lured children into wild sex-and-drink parties and there was talk of a young boy’s pet rabbit being shot in front of him because he kept wetting the bed.
Former workers at the school told of often finding the drunken pair still asleep surrounded by dozens of empty spirit bottles. Bleary-eyed children would also still be in bed, recovering from wild goings-on the previous night.
Copperman was said to have groped and kissed Trevelyan during orgies in front of the youngsters.The children also spoke of weird ‘war games’ with loaded pistols.
A handyman once walked into a bathroom and found five youngsters watching drunken Trevelyan naked, writhing and playing with a vibrator.
Copperman’s wife Pam, who ran another home called The Rookery at Stowmarket in Suffolk, later claimed, ‘I have heard gossip about what went on at Four Elms but I don’t believe a word of it. I knew Vic for twenty-nine years. We were childhood sweethearts. He couldn’t have done anything to the children.’
Edmund Lawson QC, defending, said there was ‘ample corroboration’ for Joanne’s allegations of sexual abuse at Four Elms. He revealed that Dee Washington had been in touch with Joanne. She also had the ‘entire sympathy’ of her local community in St Osyth.
The enormity of Dee’s crimes could not be overlooked. ‘But she did it out of a sense of love, guilt and anger.’
Six months after her conviction, Dee Washington was released from hospital.
Sadly, she never actually met up with Joanne, although she says, ‘We are in close touch now. I speak to her on the phone every week and we write. The letter that moved me most was the one where she said she understood why I had killed Vic and Thea, and she knew it was because I loved her.’
The Greenhouse Gallows
Everything in Heathway was the same. The houses. The gardens. The street lights. Even the colour of the front doors.
It was one of those typical between the wars roads in a suburb that became a convenient overspill when London’s population explosion really began to gain pace. The once neat rows of semi-detached three-bedroom houses had rapidlydeclined in appearance. Heathway also had other problems – like its location. Dagenham, Essex, is hardly the sort of place to inspire happiness. They say it peaked in the 1960s when the local Ford factory was churning out saloon cars at a rate of hundreds per day. Then came the lay-offs. Thousands upon thousands of Dagenham residents suddenly found themselves unemployable. It marked a turning point in the town’s fortunes. Now, its biggest claim to fame is that it is the birth place of film star Dudley Moore.
But Dagenham has retained one thing – its reputation as a typical lower-middle-class London suburb. A place where armed robbers learn how to saw off shotguns. A place where Sharon and Tracey are two of the most popular names. A place where net curtains prevail in virtually every front room window. For behind that petty, finger-wagging façade there are a thousand sins being committed.
Marriages come and go in Dagenham these days. The family unit is frequently split in two by divorce. Neighbours are often locked in bitter feuds. But despite all this, the residents of Heathway like to keep up appearances. It might well be a scruffy little street littered with waste in every gutter. But it was still home to hundreds of ordinary, law-abiding citizens.
Then there was Barbara Miller. She never reallyfitted in. Her parents George and Gladys sometimes wondered what they had done to deserve Barbara. She was just not the same as their five other children.
For a start Barbara did not even want to be a girl. Throughout her
Similar Books
