Read Online Children Who Kill: Profiles of Pre-Teen and Teenage Killers by Carol Anne Davis - Free Book Online
Authors: Carol Anne Davis
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Sagar continued to feel sorry for Bruce Lee as a result of his sad childhood. He visited him in prison to make sure that none of the other prisoners were beating him up. By now Bruce had been on remand in prison for several weeks without a single visitor.
Ron Sagar also spoke to the prison doctor who confirmed that Bruce was immature and indifferent. But he was also streetwise as a result of his very toughlife. Other professionals who spent time with him confirmed that he was perceptive and alert.
The trial
Bruce Lee’s trial, on 28th January 1981, only lasted for a few hours. He was charged with twenty-six counts of manslaughter and ten counts of arson. The victims were aged from six months to ninety-five years old. It was noted that he had a grudge against four of the victims , though the grudges were trivial. (That is, they seemed trivial to someone who was thinking rationally – not to a rage-filled youth who’d been mocked and rejected all his life.)
Bruce’s defence was one of diminished responsibility though he pleaded guilty to each of the charges. He was sentenced to be detained indefinitely in Park Lane Special Hospital near Liverpool under the Mental Health Act.
Change of heart
Bruce had initially wanted to go to such a hospital – but in time he changed his mind and decided he’d rather be in prison or have his freedom. This decision may have been prompted by newspaper reports which cast doubt on his convictions, suggesting that a physically handicapped boy could not have climbed into houses to set these fires. But Bruce had shown RonSagar how he held the petrol can – and he clearly was not without dexterity as he could even ride a bicycle. He’d also held down a job at the local cattle market for a while.
Most of the fires had originally been viewed as accidents, caused by gas leaks, lit cigarettes and so on, and a newspaper suggested the fires were still nothing to do with Bruce Lee. But several of the victims had attended the same special school as Bruce and several others had had arguments with him. There were too many such factors for it all to be coincidence.
Whatever his prompting or motivation, Bruce withdrew his confession. He now said that he didn’t like fire or watching fires. (But he’d been seen in the crowd watching one fire and was shooed away from the door of another house shortly before a fire started inside.) He also admitted that he’d changed his mind many times about everything, but that he now wanted to go to prison rather than stay in the special hospital. Bruce’s legal counsel explained that it was difficult to take instruction from the youth as he kept changing his mind.
Meanwhile a newspaper made allegations that Detective Superintendent Ron Sagar had influenced Bruce to confess to the fires in order that the police could clear their books. But this made no sense as most of the fires that Bruce had confessed to weren’t being treated as arson. Instead, they had been viewed as acts of negligence or as accidents.
That said, there have been many miscarriages of justice where educationally-subnormal or otherwisevulnerable youths have been questioned at length without a responsible adult or a solicitor present. (Two such cases are outlined in a later chapter, Watch Me Bleed.) But Ron Sagar had given Bruce tea and food and had spaced out the interviews. And Bruce would later write to Ron, wishing him well.
After a judgement about the case, the Lord Justice said that the police had behaved admirably and that certain sectors of the media owed Ron Sagar an apology. A full account is given in Ron Sagar’s own impressively detailed book Hull, Hell And Fire: The Extraordinary Story Of Bruce Lee. The book shows the full complexity of the case and also delineates the courage that Ron Sagar showed in taking on a powerful media in a determined effort to clear his name.
A fair cop
In March 2002 this author travelled to Yorkshire to interview Ron Sagar. The former Detective
Ron Sagar also spoke to the prison doctor who confirmed that Bruce was immature and indifferent. But he was also streetwise as a result of his very toughlife. Other professionals who spent time with him confirmed that he was perceptive and alert.
The trial
Bruce Lee’s trial, on 28th January 1981, only lasted for a few hours. He was charged with twenty-six counts of manslaughter and ten counts of arson. The victims were aged from six months to ninety-five years old. It was noted that he had a grudge against four of the victims , though the grudges were trivial. (That is, they seemed trivial to someone who was thinking rationally – not to a rage-filled youth who’d been mocked and rejected all his life.)
Bruce’s defence was one of diminished responsibility though he pleaded guilty to each of the charges. He was sentenced to be detained indefinitely in Park Lane Special Hospital near Liverpool under the Mental Health Act.
Change of heart
Bruce had initially wanted to go to such a hospital – but in time he changed his mind and decided he’d rather be in prison or have his freedom. This decision may have been prompted by newspaper reports which cast doubt on his convictions, suggesting that a physically handicapped boy could not have climbed into houses to set these fires. But Bruce had shown RonSagar how he held the petrol can – and he clearly was not without dexterity as he could even ride a bicycle. He’d also held down a job at the local cattle market for a while.
Most of the fires had originally been viewed as accidents, caused by gas leaks, lit cigarettes and so on, and a newspaper suggested the fires were still nothing to do with Bruce Lee. But several of the victims had attended the same special school as Bruce and several others had had arguments with him. There were too many such factors for it all to be coincidence.
Whatever his prompting or motivation, Bruce withdrew his confession. He now said that he didn’t like fire or watching fires. (But he’d been seen in the crowd watching one fire and was shooed away from the door of another house shortly before a fire started inside.) He also admitted that he’d changed his mind many times about everything, but that he now wanted to go to prison rather than stay in the special hospital. Bruce’s legal counsel explained that it was difficult to take instruction from the youth as he kept changing his mind.
Meanwhile a newspaper made allegations that Detective Superintendent Ron Sagar had influenced Bruce to confess to the fires in order that the police could clear their books. But this made no sense as most of the fires that Bruce had confessed to weren’t being treated as arson. Instead, they had been viewed as acts of negligence or as accidents.
That said, there have been many miscarriages of justice where educationally-subnormal or otherwisevulnerable youths have been questioned at length without a responsible adult or a solicitor present. (Two such cases are outlined in a later chapter, Watch Me Bleed.) But Ron Sagar had given Bruce tea and food and had spaced out the interviews. And Bruce would later write to Ron, wishing him well.
After a judgement about the case, the Lord Justice said that the police had behaved admirably and that certain sectors of the media owed Ron Sagar an apology. A full account is given in Ron Sagar’s own impressively detailed book Hull, Hell And Fire: The Extraordinary Story Of Bruce Lee. The book shows the full complexity of the case and also delineates the courage that Ron Sagar showed in taking on a powerful media in a determined effort to clear his name.
A fair cop
In March 2002 this author travelled to Yorkshire to interview Ron Sagar. The former Detective
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