Could a 1980s Tube poster hold key to mystery of ‘Neil Dovestone’?
FASCINATING THEORY IN CASE THAT BAFFLED DETECTIVES
IN December, 2015, the body of a man was found lying on a remote country track above Dovestone Reservoir in Saddleworth, Oldham.
With him, police found three train tickets, £130 in cash, all in £10 notes, and an empty medicine bottle, emblazoned with Arabic writing.
The tragic case went on to baffle detectives for many months.
There was international intrigue, and international investigations.
Who was the man, why was he at the Indian’s Head summit and how did he die?
It was discovered he boarded a train to Manchester Piccadilly railway station via London Euston on Friday, December 11 – just two days after he flew into Heathrow from Lahore, Pakistan, where he had been living for 10 years.
At Piccadilly, he ate sandwiches then travelled by train to Saddleworth.
Once there, and despite wearing smart clothing and shoes not suitable for walking, the man went into The Clarence pub in Greenfield and asked the landlord for directions ‘to the mountain’ – the steep summit in the Chew Valley. He thanked the publican and left. He was never seen alive again.
After an often frustrating and complex police inquiry lasting some 13 months, the man initially given the name ‘Neil Dovestone’ by mortuary technicians was revealed as Londonborn, 67-year-old David Lytton, a retired London Underground Tube driver.
Tests revealed poisoning and an inquest heard he died after ingesting Strychnine, a highly toxic substance used in rat poison. But mystery still surrounds what a man with no obvious connections to Oldham was doing on Saddleworth Moor.
Now a retired teacher from Cheshire reckons he has solved the puzzle – and it’s all to do with a 1980s advertising campaign.
Robert Nield, 63, was brought up in Saddleworth and knows the area well.
In the 1980s, he would visit London and recalls seeing huge posters advertising Oldham as a place to work on display on walls and in lifts across the London Underground network. The posters featured an image looking out over Greenfield and the Chew Valley.
Mr Nield said Mr Lytton was working at the time as a Tube driver and probably saw the posters every day.
He believes it’s the only credible link between him and the area.
Mr Nield, who taught physics and maths and has researched the tragic case extensively, told the M.E.N.: “I grew up in Saddleworth and know the area well. In the 1980s, I occasionally visited London for a few days and remember seeing, to my astonishment, in a lift on the Underground, a large poster-advert showing a view across Greenfield towards Chew valley in the distance. Oldham was written in large letters underneath.
“The poster, probably one of several in the Underground, was part of an advertising campaign to attract new business to the town in the 1980s.
“Being a London Underground driver – 1985 to 2005 – there’s a high probability Mr Lytton saw the posters and was struck by the memorable, unexpected image of beautiful scenery associated with a northern mill town.
“Mr Lytton had no map in his possession. However, it’s plausible that he researched Oldham on the internet during his time in Pakistan – 2006 to 2015 – and found pictures corresponding with the image in the posters .
“That would explain how he knew the general area and found Greenfield.
“Nobody has been able to find any connection at all between David Lytton and north west England, let alone Saddleworth and Chew Valley.
“It seems to me, especially in view of his occupation in the 1980s, that the only credible link connecting Mr Lytton and the precise location of his death are the London Underground posters of the mid to late 1980s, which he would almost certainly have seen regularly during that period. I remember reading the small print. It was an ad campaign to try and get businesses into Oldham and the surrounding area.”
Mr Nield used Google Maps to recreate the scene depicted on the posters.
The image he believes is roughly correct was taken outside the entrance to Saddleworth Golf Club. The Indian’s Head summit can be seen to the top right. He doesn’t know who ran the advertising campaign.
The 1980s, the inquest heard, also corresponded with a tragedy in Mr Lytton’s personal life. He became changed and withdrawn and never recovered from the death of his unborn child.
“There might have been an association in his mind, good or bad, with the poster and his personal tragedy,” Mr Nield added.
The inquest was told Mr Lytton moved suddenly to live with a friend in Pakistan in 2006.
His former partner gave a statement saying he was a shy and reserved man who liked to be alone.
She said he had lived in a flat in London which was ‘devoid of furniture,’ as he preferred to eat out at cafés and food markets, and slept on a foam mat.
Mr Lytton’s family painted a similar picture at the inquest, after which a coroner recorded an open verdict.
He had no links at all to the Saddleworth area, his brother confirmed.
Mr Nield said: “I think this is a credible link – an image he always remembered.”
I think this is a credible link – an image he always remembered Robert Nield