Case Overview
Derek Bentley remains one of the most controversial figures in the history of British criminal justice and capital punishment. Convicted of the murder of Police Constable Sidney Miles following a failed warehouse burglary in Croydon on 2 November 1952, Bentley was sentenced to death and hanged at Wandsworth Prison on 28 January 1953, despite the fact that he neither fired the fatal shot nor possessed the gun used to kill the officer.
The prosecution’s case centred on Bentley’s alleged words, “Let him have it, Chris,” spoken to his 16-year-old companion, Christopher Craig, who was armed with a revolver. Whether those words meant “shoot him” or “hand over the gun” has remained one of the most debated questions in British legal history and lay at the heart of one of the country’s most controversial murder convictions.
Bentley was illiterate, suffered from epilepsy following a wartime head injury and was widely regarded as having a mental age of around eleven years. Although Christopher Craig admitted firing the fatal shots, he could not legally be sentenced to death because he was only sixteen years old. Bentley, aged nineteen, therefore became the only one of the two who could receive the death penalty.
Following forty-five years of campaigning by his father, his sister Iris Bentley and, after Iris’s death, her daughter Maria Bentley Dingwall, the Court of Appeal ruled on 30 July 1998 that Derek Bentley’s conviction was unsafe, bringing to an end one of the longest campaigns to overturn a criminal conviction in British legal history.
This article examines the crime, the trial, the controversial evidence against Bentley, the meaning of the famous words “Let him have it, Chris”, the decision not to reprieve him, and why his case continues to be regarded as one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in modern British legal history.
Quick Facts
| Attribute | Detail |
|---|---|
| Full name | Derek William Bentley |
| Born | 30 June 1933 |
| Executed | 28 January 1953 |
| Age at execution | 19 |
| Place of execution | Wandsworth Prison, London |
| Executioner | Albert Pierrepoint (assisted by Harry Allen) |
| Victim | Police Constable Sidney Miles |
| Actual shooter | Christopher Craig |
| Most famous phrase | “Let him have it, Chris” |
| Conviction quashed | 30 July 1998 by the Court of Appeal |
Why Is the Derek Bentley Case Still Important?
More than seventy years after his execution, Derek Bentley’s case continues to be studied by lawyers, historians and students of British criminal justice. It raised fundamental questions about joint enterprise, the interpretation of spoken evidence, criminal responsibility, mental capacity and the exercise of the Royal Prerogative of Mercy.
For many people, the case came to symbolise the potential for irreversible miscarriages of justice when capital punishment was still available in Britain. The eventual decision by the Court of Appeal in 1998 to quash Bentley’s conviction reinforced its place as one of the defining legal cases of the twentieth century.
The Crime and Arrest
On Sunday 2 November 1952, nineteen-year-old Derek Bentley went out with his friend, Christopher Craig, who was just sixteen years old, intending to commit a burglary. Bentley was carrying a knife and a knuckle-duster that Craig had recently given him. Craig also carried a knife but, more significantly, was armed with a .455 Eley revolver. As Craig habitually carried a gun, it is reasonable to suppose that Bentley knew he was armed.
The pair first attempted to burgle two other properties but were unsuccessful. They eventually selected a warehouse belonging to Parker & Barlow in Croydon, Surrey. As they climbed onto the roof, they were seen by a young girl who lived opposite. Her mother immediately telephoned the police, and a patrol car carrying Detective Constable Fairfax and a uniformed police constable arrived within minutes.
When the officers reached the warehouse, Craig and Bentley attempted to flee across the roof. Detective Constable Fairfax quickly caught hold of Bentley and detained him. I deliberately use the word “detained” rather than “arrested”, because whether Bentley had actually been placed under arrest at this stage later became one of the important issues in the case.
Craig then decided to shoot his way out. He fired at Fairfax, wounding him in the shoulder. During the shooting, Bentley is alleged to have spoken the words that would become famous throughout British legal history:
“Let him have it, Chris.”
Whether those words were ever spoken, and if they were, what Bentley intended them to mean, became one of the central questions at his trial and remains controversial to this day.
Despite Fairfax having been wounded, Bentley made no attempt to escape. Instead, he remained beside the injured detective for approximately thirty minutes without being physically restrained. This is difficult to reconcile with the picture of Bentley as a violent young criminal determined to evade capture, as he could probably have overpowered the wounded and unarmed officer had he wished to do so.
Within minutes, additional police officers arrived, several of them armed. Craig continued firing at anyone who appeared on the roof. As Police Constable Sidney Miles emerged through the roof access, he was shot in the head and died almost instantly.
Craig eventually exhausted his ammunition and attempted to escape by throwing himself from the roof. He landed on the roof of a greenhouse approximately thirty feet below, breaking his back in the fall before being taken into custody.
Both Christopher Craig and Derek Bentley were subsequently charged with the murder of PC Sidney Miles. Whether Bentley should ever have faced a murder charge remains one of the principal questions surrounding the case. Although there were legal grounds on which such a charge could be brought, they took no account of his impaired mental capacity or the undisputed fact that he neither possessed nor fired the gun that killed the police officer.
The atmosphere in Britain at the time is also relevant. In 1952 there was widespread public concern about violent crime involving armed youths, and four police officers had been murdered during the previous year. Against that background, it is perhaps less surprising that the authorities decided to charge both young men with murder.
The Trial
Derek Bentley and Christopher Craig were tried together at the Old Bailey on Thursday 9 December 1952 before the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Goddard. Both pleaded not guilty to the charge of murdering Police Constable Sidney Miles.
Although the case has become synonymous with Derek Bentley, it is worth remembering that Christopher Craig was also standing trial for the same offence. The prosecution’s case against each defendant was very different.
The Case Against Christopher Craig
It is often assumed that the evidence against Craig was overwhelming because he admitted being present and had unquestionably fired at the police. However, the case was not quite as straightforward as is sometimes suggested.
There was some debate during the trial as to whether the bullet that killed PC Sidney Miles had actually been fired from Craig’s .455 revolver, and the bullet produced in court reportedly showed no traces of blood. Nevertheless, this issue was not pursued in any significant detail and Craig was convicted.
Even if it could not be conclusively proved that Craig fired the fatal shot, there is a strong argument that he remained legally responsible for the officer’s death. Had Craig not armed himself with a revolver and opened fire on the police officers, the fatal shooting would never have occurred.
The Case Against Derek Bentley
The prosecution’s case against Derek Bentley was entirely different.
Unlike Craig, Bentley neither possessed nor fired a gun. The Crown instead relied upon three principal arguments in an attempt to establish that he shared responsibility for the murder under the legal doctrine of common purpose.
These three issues formed the foundation of the prosecution’s case and ultimately led to Bentley’s conviction for murder despite the fact that he had not fired the fatal shot.
The Famous Words – “Let Him Have It, Chris”
Whether Derek Bentley actually uttered the words “Let him have it, Chris” has been debated for more than seventy years. Even if the words were spoken, there has always been disagreement over what Bentley intended them to mean.
The prosecution argued that the words were an instruction to Christopher Craig to shoot Detective Constable Fairfax, thereby demonstrating that Bentley and Craig shared a common purpose and were acting together throughout the incident. If that interpretation were accepted, Bentley could be held legally responsible for the murder of PC Sidney Miles, despite not firing the fatal shot himself.
However, another interpretation has always existed. The phrase “let him have it” can equally mean “hand it over” or “give him the gun.” If Bentley intended those words in that sense, they could have represented an attempt to persuade Craig to surrender rather than an encouragement to continue shooting.
Whether the words were ever spoken at all is also open to question. It has been suggested that they may never have been uttered and were instead relied upon later to strengthen the prosecution’s argument that Bentley and Craig were acting with a common purpose.
The Importance of “Common Purpose”
Under English law, two or more people who jointly commit a crime can each be held responsible for the actions of the other where there is a common purpose—that is, where they both intended, or could reasonably have foreseen, the criminal outcome.
A straightforward example would be a man and woman who conspire to murder the woman’s husband. If she deliberately lures him to a place where her lover kills him, she is equally guilty of murder even though she never struck the fatal blow, because both intended the same result.
Another example would be two armed robbers who exchange gunfire with police officers before escaping. If an officer is killed but it cannot be proved which robber fired the fatal shot, both may still be convicted because each willingly participated in the armed attack and shared responsibility for the foreseeable consequences.
In my opinion, however, the known and undisputed facts of Derek Bentley’s case do not fit comfortably into either of these examples. Bentley neither carried nor fired a gun, and his own actions during the incident were fundamentally different from Craig’s. Whether he truly shared Craig’s intentions remains one of the central questions in this case.
Bentley’s Detention – Was He Already Under Police Control?
Another important issue at the trial was whether Derek Bentley had effectively ceased participating in the burglary before the fatal shot was fired.
It is not disputed that Detective Constable Fairfax had detained Bentley on the roof before Police Constable Miles was shot. Bentley made no attempt to break free, assist Craig, or attack Fairfax during the half-hour gun battle that followed. The defence argued that Bentley was under arrest and thus no longer party to any joint enterprise, but Lord Goddard directed the jury that Bentley remained legally responsible for whatever Craig did while trying to effect their escape.
Lord Goddard’s Summing Up and the Verdict
Lord Goddard’s direction to the jury heavily favoured the prosecution. He gave little weight to Bentley’s mental limitations, the ambiguity of the spoken words, or the fact that Bentley was in custody when PC Miles was killed.
After deliberating for seventy-five minutes, the jury found both defendants guilty of murder, though they added a recommendation to mercy in Bentley’s case. Because Craig was under eighteen, he was sentenced to be detained during Her Majesty’s Pleasure (serving ten years before release in 1968). Bentley, having turned nineteen, received the mandatory sentence of death.
Appeal and the Home Secretary’s Decision
Bentley’s appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeal was dismissed on 13 January 1953. Despite widespread public protests, petitions signed by over 200 Members of Parliament, and the jury’s explicit recommendation to mercy, Home Secretary Sir David Maxwell Fyfe refused to advise the Queen to exercise the Royal Prerogative of Mercy.
Execution at Wandsworth Prison
On the morning of Wednesday 28 January 1953, Derek Bentley was hanged at Wandsworth Prison by Albert Pierrepoint, assisted by Harry Allen. A crowd of several hundred people gathered outside the prison gates to protest the hanging, pulling down the execution notice after it was posted.
Justice at Last – The Conviction Quashed
Iris Bentley led a determined, decades-long campaign to clear her brother’s name. In 1993, Bentley received a partial posthumous pardon recognizing that he should not have been hanged. Finally, on 30 July 1998, the Court of Appeal ruled that Lord Goddard’s summing up had misdirected the jury on common purpose and the burden of proof, quashing Bentley’s murder conviction entirely.
The injustice of Bentley’s hanging contributed directly to public unease with capital punishment, accelerating reforms that produced the Homicide Act 1957 and the eventual permanent abolition of the death penalty in Britain.
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