Police accused of critical delay in hunt for dog walker’s killer
POLICE in Norfolk have been criticised after it emerged that the investigation into the murder of an 83-year-old dog walker was delayed by two days because they thought he had been attacked by an animal.
The body of Peter Wrighton, a retired BT engineer from Banham, near East Harling, was found by another dog walker at around 10.45am on August 5.
When police arrived on the scene, the nature and severity of Mr Wrighton’s head and neck injuries meant his death was declared “unexplained from the outset” by officers.
According to Det Supt Andy Smith, “a number of possible reasons and explanations” were left open, adding that “an animal attack was considered”.
A post mortem examination on Sunday confirmed Mr Wrighton’s fatal injuries were the result of what a police spokesman called “multiple incisions to the head and neck, most likely with a knifelike implement.” It was then that police appealed for residents to check their bins for a murder weapon. However by that time, the bins had already been emptied.
The hunt for both the killer and murder weapon is ongoing, but as more than 100 officers use sniffer dogs and metal detectors to comb the 993-acre area of Thetford Forest in which Mr Wrighton’s body was found, locals in the nearest village, East Harling, have questioned the police response.
“The animal thing is a total waste of time. Anyone round here could have told them it wasn’t anything like that,” one local business owner insisted.
“The scariest thing you’ll find in those woods is Muntjac deer.”
“The bin lorries were there the next morning, which is a bit of a joke,” a dog walker living nearby told The Telegraph.
“It’s a bit like they’re making it up as they go along.
“It’s been nearly a week, the bins have gone, it’s rained heavily to cover tracks – how are they ever going to find him at this rate?”