West London’s horrible history
AS much as we love west London, there’s no denying it has had its share of truly horrible crimes which have left the nation shocked.
From serial murderers, to heartbreaking schoolgirl abductions, and the brutal murder of our police officers, events that have unfolded on west London’s streets and inside its homes have often found themselves on the front pages of national newspapers, and even made international news.
Here, we takes a look at some of the grisly crimes and the criminals who have left their unwanted mark on the area.
Our timeline starts in a rundown area in Notting Hill, just after the Second World War, with a crime which still continues to captivate the nation.
So let us take you to Rillington Place, home of John Christie...
The address in Notting Hill is one of the most notorious in the country.
In the 1950s, crowds would gather outside to stare in morbid fascination at 10 Rillington Place.
It was the home of serial killer John Christie, and where many of his victims were discovered in a kitchen alcove and buried in the garden.
His victims included his wife and several prostitutes.
Before justice caught up with him, he let his neighbour Timothy Evans – whose wife Beryl was among his victims – wrongly hang for her murder.
Despite the passing of decades the name of the murderer or his address has always remained part of the national psyche.
The nude murders
This was a series of murders which saw the perpetrator dubbed Jack the Stripper because of the comparisons to the Jack the Ripper case.
Eight prostitutes were killed in west London in the 1960s. The killings were also known as the Nude Murders, as all victims were stripped naked, strangled and left by the Thames in Hammersmith, Brentford , Ealing, Chiswick, Kensington and Mortlake.
The murderer was never caught.
Shepherd’s Bush Massacre
The murders of three unarmed police officers in cold blood on Braybrook Street in 1966 shocked a nation.
Arch-villian Harry Roberts, along with Jack Witney and John Duddy, gunned down Detective Sergeant Christopher Head, 30, Temporary Detective Constable David Wombwell, 25, and PC Geoffrey Fox, 41 on August 12, in a crime that would be known throughout the country as the Shepherd’s Bush Massacre.
A moving ceremony held in 2016 marked 50 years since their murders, with among those attending the widow and children of one of the fallen officers. Roberts was released from prison in 2014 after serving 48 years in prison.
First murder of its kind in over a century
Mum-of-three Lakhvir Kaur Singh killed her lover Lakhvinder Cheema, 39, with a poisoned curry after he got engaged to a younger woman.
She was handed a life sentence after using the herb aconite after he ended their secret 16-year affair.
Two weeks before the wedding, Singh sprinkled the toxin – also known as Wolfsbane – over a vegetarian meal she served to the couple in January 2009.
Mr Cheema was blinded and paralysed within an hour and died shortly after arriving at hospital. Girlfriend Gurgeet Choough, 22, fell into a coma but survived.
Singh, from Marlborough Road, Southall, was convicted of murdering Mr Cheema and grievous bodily harm with intent on Ms Choough.
She is the first person to be convicted of murder by aconite poisoning since 1882, when Dr George Lamson was sent to the gallows.
She was told she will serve a minimum of 23 years in jail for her crimes.