Canal Boy jailed for £127,000 castle raid
Tearaway given taxpayer-funded narrowboat holiday as teenager 24 years ago steals jewels of king’s mistress
A CRIMINAL nicknamed ‘Canal Boy’ after being sent on a taxpayer-funded holiday to mend his ways has been jailed for stealing treasures collected by Camilla’s greatgrandmother – while he was on parole for another raid.
Clinton Bowen was given the nickname at 15 when he was sent by social services on a £12,000 three-month narrowboat break in 1996 in a bid to steer him away from crime.
At the time, his mother said: ‘He’s an absolute horror, destructive and violent and with no respect for anyone or anything.’
Yesterday, Bowen, 39, was jailed for four years for raiding a 15th-century castle and stealing £127,000 of jewellery and artefacts from the Alice Keppel Collection. At the time of the burglary, he was on parole after being
‘A high-volume burglar’
released early from a four-year prison sentence for another burglary.
On September 9 last year, Bowen was one of four men who burgled Sudeley Castle, where Henry VIII’s sixth wife Catherine Parr is buried. They targeted a collection of irreplaceable items on display as part of an exhibition called ‘Royal Sudeley 1,000, Trials, Triumphs and Treasures’.
Alice Keppel, mistress of King Edward VII, was the Duchess of Cornwall’s great-grandmother and the grandmother of the late Lord Ashcombe, whose widow Lady Ashcombe owns the castle in Winchcombe, Gloucestershire.
Among the items taken were gifts from the King, including a £15,000 Cartier enamel and rose gold fob watch, and two snuff boxes valued at £90,000. None of the items has been recovered and no other arrests have been made.
Bowen was identified by DNA on a snood found in the castle gardens. But he maintained his innocence until Wednesday when he changed his plea in the face of the damning evidence. He was sentenced to four years in prison at Gloucester Crown Court yesterday.
Judge Mark Horton said: ‘This was an extraordinarily serious burglary which was highly organised and targeted extremely expensive jewellery – some of which is priceless in its own context.’ He said of Bowen’s appalling criminal record – 21 previous convictions for 33 offences, dating back to the age of eight: ‘You have a lot of convictions for being a high-volume burglar, for which you have served a number of prison terms.’
Following Bowen’s canal cruise, social workers set up a scheme of private tuition and an activity pro
gramme to stop him from getting bored and being tempted back to crime. None of it worked.
The benevolent treatment handed out to Bowen and three other young criminals from Gloucestershire in 1996 prompted a national furore.
The others were Bowen’s brother ‘Pocket Money Boy’ Casey, ‘Safari Boy’ Mark Hook and ‘ Pyjama Boy’
Vincent Smith. Hook was sent on an 88-day Egyptian and African holiday, Casey Bowen was given £60-a-week pocket money so he could buy what he wanted instead of stealing it, and Smith was sent to a controversial children’s home in North Wales from which he promptly escaped.
All four have remained regular offenders in Gloucestershire.