 |
|
In the summer of 1978, Mrs Olive Curry was working as a kitchen assistant in The Fisherman's Mission in North Shields, Tyneside. Mrs. Curry worked at the Mission between 1978 and 1979, generally between 1-5pm, Monday to Friday.
During that summer a good-looking dark-haired young man and his fair-haired male companion occasionally visited the Mission.
The dark-haired man was of average height and had a mop of curly black hair; he was typically dressed in a white tee shirt and jeans. His fair-haired companion was short and stout with straight fair/sandy hair and wore a long fawn scruffy belted mackintosh that was buttoned up to the neck.
What attracted Mrs. Curry's attention to the pair was the marked difference between the clean looking dark-haired man and his grubby looking fair-haired companion.
The dark-haired man spoke to Mrs Curry, initially asking "Couldn't you get a better job than this then?". As the weeks progressed and the pair became semi-regular visitors, the young man explained to Mrs Curry that he lived in Bradford with his teacher wife Sonia and lived in a nice house, which he was buying. He referred to his companion for confirmation of this. And his companion nodded.
Something that appeared odd to Mrs Curry was that sometimes the dark-haired man called his companion "Col" and sometimes "Trev". The fair man rarely spoke but when he did, Mrs Curry recognised that he spoke with a Sunderland accent and had a slight speech impediment.
One week during that summer the dark-haired man appeared with a suntan having either been on holiday or certainly having been sunbathing?
Late in the summer the dark-haired man told Mrs Curry that he wouldn't be in that part of the country any more as he had been re-routed.
In January 1981 Mrs Curry heard the news that lorry driver Peter William Sutcliffe had been arrested and charged with the 'Yorkshire Ripper' attacks and killings.
It emerged that Sutcliffe lived in Bradford, had a teacher wife called Sonia and was buying his own house. When his photograph appeared Sutcliffe, who had a mop of black curly hair, was shown to have a beard; something that the dark-haired man who visited the Fisherman's Mission did not have.
Due to more than two years having elapsed between when she saw the men and when Peter William Sutcliffe was arrested, Mrs Curry was unable to recall the exact dates that the men came to the Mission. However, she does recall that on one of the occasions the dark haired man had told her that that day he had travelled through Alnwick on his way to North Shields.....
|
|
|
|
