FORENSIC ACE I nailed the Bullseye killer with a flake of blood & a glove fibre
Two letters and three numbers marked the beginning of the end for the Bullseye killer after he had evaded capture for 25 years. For top forensic scientist Professor Angela Gallop and her team, BB109 was the crucial link in the chain that finally led to John Cooper being brought to justice for two double murders.
Brother and sister Richard and Helen Thomas, 58 and 54, were killed in their home near Milford Haven in 1985, and holi daymakers Peter and Gwenda Dixon, 51 and 52, were murdered on the coast path four years later.
But two decades on, their killer had yet to be caught.
Over six million viewers have been gripped by The Pembrokeshire Murders, a three- part ITV drama about the cold case review that finally nailed him.
Angela helped find the evidence so desperately needed by senior investigating officer Det Supt Steve Wilkins – played in the drama by Luke Evans.
She had initially been brought in to review DNA samples, but when nothing new emerged from her searches she persuaded Dyfed- Powys police to widen the tests – as viewers saw last night.
Angela, who is group CEO of Oxfordshire- based Forensic Access, said: “After 18 months we had what I would politely describe as a frosty meeting with the police. They were frustrated that we had not found the nugget Steve wanted.
“I understood why they were, so I asked them to expand their remit and let me look at more than DNA. I wanted to explore textile and fabric links, as they had in other cases led us to DNA.”
Forensic examination of t extile fibres had already helped Angela and her teams crack high- profile cases such as the murders of Stephen Lawrence, Damilola Taylor and Rachel Nickell, and helped prove the innocence of the wrongly convicted Cardiff Three and Colin Stagg.
Det Supt Wilkins told her they just need to find “that golden nugget” of evidence to nab hi s main suspect, Cooper – played by Keith Allen.
All four of Cooper’s victims had been shot at close range, and the Thomases’ home had been set on fire, destroying crucial evidence. The Dixons’ bodies were found close to the path on the edge of a 200ft clif f, about six miles from where the Thomases were killed.
Peter had been forced to hand over his bank card and PIN number, which was used four times to withdraw money. A member of the public gave a description of a man wearing shorts acting suspiciously as he withdrew cash, which formed the basis of a police sketch.
Last night the drama showed how officers conducting the cold case review were desperate to find a picture of Cooper at t he t i me of t he murders to compare it to the sketch. They had no luck – until they discovered he had appeared on darts- based TV game show Bullseye in May 1989, a month before the Dixons’ murder.
Officers got a freeze frame showing him standing in the same position as in the sketch.
C o o p e r , t h en s er - v i n g 1 6
years for armed robbery and burglary, was interviewed in jail , but was then released on parole in 2008.
Police feared it was only a matter of time before he struck again. Angela says: “The pressure was on them – and us.”
Finally, after nearly three years, Angela found traces of fibre on a glove that had been labelled as exhibit BB109. It was the breakthrough they needed.
She says: “We knew Cooper discarded a lot of his offending gear in hedgerows, including blue knitted acrylic gloves. I think he thought they could not be linked to him.
“One of the gloves was made of fibres that matched some of t he f i bres on branches and Peter’s belt. It had been tagged by the police as exhibit BB109. “We went on to find BB109- type f i bres on Peter’s shorts, j umper and l eg
BB109 is how science helped bring an evil man to justice
ANGELA GALLOP TOP FORENSIC SCIENTIST
tapings – strips of sticky tape that can pull off anything from surfaces – along with exposed parts of Gwenda’s body and her sweatshirt.
“Then we looked under the microscope at more tapings. One piece was a pair of Gwenda’s khaki shorts found in Cooper’s kitchen. Under the microscope we spotted a tiny f lake of blood.
“DNA pr of i l i n g on t hat f l a ke produced a full profile matching it to Peter. The chances of it being anyone
else’s were less than one in a billion. That was our nugget, I thought.”
Under a microscope the scientists found the stain the f lake had come from. Again it matched Peter’s DNA.
Angela called Det Supt Wilkins. “I think we’ve found your golden nugget,” she told him. She says: “It was a moment of satisfaction.”
Fur t h er e xaminations s howed the shorts had been rehemmed by Cooper’s seamstress wife. Within the
folds were vital BB109 fibres. Angela says: “I believe Cooper had swapped his own bloodied clothing for Gwenda’s shorts to return home in.”
Her t eam al s o f ound e vi dence linking him to Richard Thomas. In the shorts pockets were two types of fibres similar to those on part of Richard’s sock, found at the murder scene.
Tests on Cooper’s black- painted sawn- of f shotgun , discarded i n a hedgerow, found blood on the surface.
DNA testing showed it to be Peter’s. Finally, they had enough to nail C o o p e r , w h o w a s handed a whole of life term in 2011. The diagnosed psychopath, now 76, was a gambler and, while no clear motive has been established for the killings, he was also a violent abusive husband and father. Angela, played by Anastasia Hille in the drama, says: “He wasn’t as smart as he seemed to think.
“These days science is always one step ahead of t he crooks I have helped bring to justice, and d that h pleases l me.”
She was awarded the CBE in 2015 for services to forensic science.
She says: “I am pleased for all the victims’ f amilies that I get them answers to what must be the most terrible thing to happen to anyone.
“BB109 i s one of my f av ourit e exhibits for what it represents – that science helped the police bring an evil man to justice. That’s why I do and love my job – justice for all.”
Angela’s work is in her autobiography, When The Dogs Don’t Bark. She appears in Thursday’s ITV 9pm documentary The Pembrokeshire Murders: Catching The Gameshow Killer.