Image Credit: Cambridgeshire Police
A team of Cambridgeshire Police officers has been praised for bringing a killer to justice 12 years after he murdered an 86-year-old woman.
Detective Superintendent Iain Moor, now retired Detective Inspector Dave Grierson, Detective Sergeant Simon Oldfield, Detective Sergeant Dan Harper, Detective Constables Gareth Purdy and Nigel Ebdale, and assistant investigator Graham McMillan, all received a judge’s commendation after David Newton was convicted of the murder of Una Crown.
They received their commendation at an awards ceremony at Hinchingbrooke House, in Huntingdon.
Det Supt Moor described the conviction as his ‘career result’ following the largest disclosure exercise undertaken by Cambridgeshire Constabulary.
He said: “I’m hugely proud of the effort of the team. I’ve dealt with some big cases but this was my career result.
“The main thing was to do it for the family. There were some mistakes in the initial response, so it was good to come full circle and get justice for Una and her family.”
Mrs Crown’s body was discovered in her bungalow in Wisbech, on Sunday 13 January, 2013.
Her death was initially treated as unexplained but, after a post-mortem examination concluded Mrs Crown had died from stab and slash wounds to her neck and chest, a murder investigation was launched.
Newton was interviewed at the time but denied any involvement.
He was not charged until 2024, when new forensic testing revealed male DNA was likely to have come from him.
Det Supt Moor said: “During the review cycle, some new DNA testing was available on one of the samples.
“We managed to get a profile from that sample that matched somebody who was arrested in 2013 but never prosecuted.
“We put together a new investigation and had to review a lot of the material.
“There were more than 10,000 items and some of those were 300 to 400-page documents.
“It could’ve been anything upwards of 30,000 pages of information that the team reviewed.
“It was the largest disclosure exercise undertaken by Cambridgeshire Constabulary for a single case.
“We had to have a dedicated team of officers just to do the disclosure material review. It was a significant investigation.”
Mr Justice Garnham’s commendation stated: “The conviction was the result of what, after a difficult start, was an impressive police investigation. It necessitated analysing more than 10,000 items of material for disclosure to the court – the largest ever general disclosure exercise by Cambridgeshire Constabulary.”