Relief of cop who snared The Fox as serial rapist dies in prison
THE POLICE officer who led the hunt for Malcolm “The Fox” Fairley has spoken of his relief, after the serial rapist died in prison.
The offender’s reign of terror 40 years ago was dubbed “The Summer of the Fox” as he broke into homes in Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire, made a makeshift den of blankets and lay in wait for his victims to return home.
Sometimes he wore a mask and brandished a shotgun when he broke in at night as women slept.
His sex crimes in the summer of 1984 were fuelled by watching violent pornographic videos and were so horrific, many of the details remain known only to his victims, the police and the trial judge.
The 72-year-old died on Tuesday at HMP Hull, where he was serving six life terms.
Former Detective Chief Superintendent
Brian Prickett, of Bedfordshire Police, led one of the biggest investigations in British criminal history, involving 200 officers.
He said: “At least this way, he can never get out and hurt anyone again.
“I do not believe someone who was capable of what he did, however much time has passed, would have been safe to let out.
“He was due for parole but I doubt that he would have got it. The parole board knew my feelings.
“You cannot underestimate the fear that was felt by the public that summer.the pressure the team felt to catch him was immense
but we were incredibly determined to get justice for his victims. Many of the horrific details of what he did to his victims in their own homes were too depraved to be made public. The judge knew but, thankfully, Fairley pleaded guilty.”
Fairley’s crimes began on April 11 in Leighton Buzzard, then increasingly violent attacks followed in Dunstable and Tring. The area was dubbed the “triangle of terror”.
Police from different forces and from the Miners’ Strike picket lines were drafted in, while aerial surveillance, armed patrols and psychological profiling were used.
Mr Prickett said: “We’d learnt from the Ripper case about the importance of sharing information and recording it properly.
“We were receiving up to 300 calls a day and in those days there was no CCTV, DNA, ANPR on the motorways, or mobile phones.
“The only way we were going to get him was through old-fashioned detective work.”
On August 17, a similar attack to those in
the Home Counties occurred in Brampton, Yorkshire, with a married couple tied up and the wife raped. Fairley then buried his shotgun off the M18 motorway.
A farmer called police to say he had been ploughing his field and noticed a gauntlet was hanging in a hedge that had not been there the day before.
Police staged an accident on the M18 involving a bus, with forensic officers dressed as ambulance staff and emergency workers.
The retired officer said: “We needed to search an area just off the motorway where he’d backed up his car to bury his shotgun.
“We couldn’t risk him coming back before the evidence had been gathered. A tiny speck
of paint from his car, smaller than a finger nail, was found and from this forensics were able to work out that it was a yellow Austin Allegro only made two years ago.”
As they worked their way through the list of yellow Allegros, Fairley was arrested in Kentish Town, north London, on September 11. Scratches on his car’s paintwork matched the flecks they had found.
At St Albans Crown Court in February 1985, Fairley admitted indecent assault, three rapes, three aggravated burglaries with intent to rape while carrying a firearm and five burglaries.
Mr Prickett added: “We had a lot of evidence against him by then but once he was in custody, he became extremely co-operative and confessed.
“The Summer of the Fox was the most talked-about case of my career and I am extremely proud of the work we did to catch him but he never did give an explanation. He told me he had tried to stop but couldn’t.”
‘Fairley told me he tried to stop but couldn’t’ ‘Some details were too depraved to be shared’