When police arrived, pub customers formed a wall of silence. Both were carried out on stretchers, the former with eight stab wounds from a stiletto knife, the latter with head injuries from a pool cue. On a Saturday afternoon in March, three days before Sutton magistrates revoked the licence, two men, aged 27 and 37, crossed the threshhold for a pint of beer and a game of pool. He has been quoted as describing Taylor and Bond as 'keepers of the peace'.īusiness as usual followed. But Mr Spetali denied that his 'nice pub' had been tarnished by the murder.
#BRITISH TAVERN KEEPER CROSSWORD TRIAL#
When the trial ended last July, the police said they would see 'if there are matters that need to be brought before the licensing justices'. Evans killed himself with pills from the prison hospital. Three other witnesses were moved to secret addresses.Ĭrabb was sentenced to life imprisonment, Taylor to nine years (later reduced to seven), and Bond to two years (after giving evidence for the prosecution). Crabb and his assistants were arrested, partly because their disposal efforts were witnessed by five young girls. One bit subsequently floated to the surface of a pond in Reigate. Crabb then quartered the torso with a chainsaw, and persuaded others, including Bond, Gary Taylor and Tyrone Evans to help dispose of the remains. With the exception of a gold molar, which Crabb kept as a souvenir, these were burnt (to impede identification). The dead man was loaded into a horsebox and taken to a caravan site where his head and hands were chopped off and all teeth removed. There were 40 others in the pub who apparently noticed little that was out of the ordinary.
Outside, a passing schoolgirl heard the 'loud bang.' Inside, Mr Davison gasped: 'You got me', and died. Crabb pulled out a sawn-off shotgun and shot Mr Davison at point-blank range. Mr Davison refused and was confronted by Bond's 'associate,' Anthony Crabb. On 28 May, 1992, Mr Davison, Mr Williams's former employee, was told to leave the pub by Michael Bond, a Spetali bouncer. In 1982, Alvin Williams, a 19-stone Welshman, sub-leased the premises and spent pounds 30,000 on refurbishment, receiving none of the financial support from the brewery he says he was expecting. The brewery then opted for a sub-tenant system. The National Association of Licensed House Managers decided on a boycott and the pub was boarded up for a year. Managers came and went, some enduring only days in the job. But by then the pub was attracting criminal elements.
Until the end of the 1970s, the St Helier was a 'managed house' - run by brewery managers, rather than licensed sub-tenants. Mr Spetali, who has a club in Piccadilly, sublets the St Helier from Whitbread. The present licensee is Kay Vogt, who manages the premises for an Italian club owner, Carlo Spetali. Until then, the pub is allowed to stay open.
Next month they will respond to an appeal by the St Helier against the revocation of its licence. 'It's very sad to see it has deteriorated to such a low ebb,' he said. In 1964, Paddy Kane, a Labour member of Sutton borough council who lives on the estate, had his wedding reception in the pub. For years it remained a focal point for the estate. In 1936, the St Helier Arms (as it then was) opened. But when the money ran out, Whitbread, the brewer, bought a 99-year lease on the property. It was originally built by the old London County Council in 1934 as a community centre for the St Helier estate, whose 10,000 properties made it the second-biggest (after Dagenham) in pre-war Britain.
How did the tavern achieve such frightening notoriety? Reporters on the local Surrey and south London newspapers readily forgo bylines when they write about the pub. 'I enjoy having legs under me to walk around on,' a resident explained. 'Unfortunately, it has become a symbolic meeting place for villains who view it as a safe place.' But complaints tend to be anonymous. 'I don't think that's far wrong,' agreed Mr Newark. 'The best thing anyone could do is to pull it down and put a police station there,' said another. 'You wouldn't want to go anywhere near the place in the evening,' said one. 'I wasn't exactly surprised at what happened,' the shopkeeper shrugged. The police have asked for witnesses to come forward - without much hope that they will. The victim, a 36-year-old local man whose name has not been released, is recovering in hospital. Before running off, they also attempted to shoot his companion. They then tried to slice open his throat with a knife. Two men in stocking masks casually selected a victim and shot him in the face with a sawn-off shotgun. At 9pm last Sunday, for example, at least one shopkeeper on the far side of the roundabout had a clear view of the St Helier forecourt where drinkers lounged in the cooling evening.
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