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IN MEMORIAM
William Bill CLIFFORD
Former member of R.E.M.E.
& veteran of World War II. Three medals were awarded
for his service in 1923/1924 to Interred
2001
"At the age of 77 years, Bill's life
was brought to a tragic and untimely end at his home in Aldershot, Hampshire,
prompted by the continued barbaric and callous acts of a group of youths who tormented
and hounded him, the failure of his neighbours to intervene, the
unwillingness or inability of the Police to come to his aid, and his
impending prosecution in court for allegedly owning and pointing an air
pistol at the offending youths in an attempt to protect himself and frighten
them off. All of these factors together drove him to take his own life."
These verses are taken from ' I have merely changed the plural to the
singular to fit the context. |
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Report published in the “
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Taunted to death Pensioner is found hanged after being
charged for retaliating against harassment by
teenagers By Bill Mouland and James Mills |
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A WAR veteran was found hanged on the day he was due in court for waving an air pistol at a gang of teenagers who were making his life a misery. The body of Bill Clifford, 77, was found by police in the kitchen of his tiny home after he failed to appear before magistrates. He had been tormented and taunted by the youths who banged on his door, spat in his garden, pushed eggs through his letterbox and smashed his windows with stones. Driven to the end of his tether over several months, he eventually resorted to brandishing the air pistol, and was arrested and charged. His family believe the retired taxi |
. Victim: Bill Clifford and his two-storey home in the
close where his neighbours knew he would always help |
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driver – known as “the gentle giant” because of his 6ft 6in frame and his willingness to help his elderly neighbours – simply could not face the shame of going to court. In a letter to his sister Betty, 65, he had written that he had had enough and told her: ‘We are not going to have any tears.’ She said: ‘He was a lovely man and a good man. He would help anybody. ‘But the yobs flung eggs at his door and spat over his garden. When he complained, one of the parents told him, “If I get hold of you, I will cut you up into pieces”. It’s terrible. The kids were the end of him.’ Mr Clifford’s brother Ray, who is Betty’s twin, said: ‘I think he was ashamed of having to go to court. ‘He knew what he was going to do and hung himself. I can’t believe parents will let their kids do what they do today without checking them. If that had happened in my day, I would have got a bloody good hiding. ‘Bill was a right gentleman, a man from the old school. Discipline meant everything. His values in life were very high. ‘If somebody was doing something wrong, he would say “Hey, what’s your game?” He was a big man, he felt he should sort it out. Neighbours said some of his tormentors had walked past Mr Clifford’s home laughing after finding out that he had died. One said: ‘They stuck two fingers up at it and spat in the garden.’ At first, Mr Clifford had no problems when he moved to his one-bedroom housing association home at Laburnum Close, a neat cul-de-sac in Aldershot, Hampshire. The bachelor had left another part of town because of the drug addicts living there. But then, said his brother, the teenaged 11 to 16 began taunting Mr Clifford, the proud holder of three medals for his service with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers in France and Belgium in World War Two. ‘During the night, they would just hang around,’ said Ray Clifford. ‘They used to kick his door. ‘They would push eggs through the letterbox and banged the door, frightening the life out of him. He used to chase them off. He was not prepared to take it lying down. ‘They would taunt him knowing they would get a rise out of him. He rang the police but they said they could not do anything unless they caught them at it. ‘If he had a problem, he would deal with it on his own. The night he got arrested he would not even phone his family or get a solicitor.’ Last month, a confrontation with the tearaways boiled out of control. Neighbour Jean Betts said: ‘The gang is very destructive and vile-mouthed. One night, they started causing lots of trouble and two nights later it was even worse. |
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‘Bill went out. I thought he was going to have a heart attack because he was in such a state. ‘I heard him say “I’m going to get my gun”. The police came and one of the kid’s mothers turned up and was very foul-mouthed. The police had to take her round the corner to calm her down.’ Mr Clifford was charged with possessing a weapon and using it to intimidate. He died on May 3, shortly before he was due to be moved to new accommodation, but the tragedy has just emerged. His funeral is on Friday. Next-door neighbour Eileen Bowron, 73, said: ‘Bill was a good neighbour and friend. We will miss him. He kept the close tidy and would check everyone was safe.’ Single mother Paula Cooke, a 35-year-old divorcee living round the corner. Admitted her son Jamie Gibbons, 13, was one of those who tormented Mr Clifford. She claimed, however, he had ‘brought it on himself’ and accused him of shouting at her daughter Lauren, ten, and threatening her with a whip. Her son was nowhere to be seen yesterday although Mrs Cooke produced an angelic school photograph of him. ‘He is excluded from school and is out with his mates,’ she said. ‘I admit he can be a bit of a nightmare and mouthy. ‘My son has been in trouble. The kids would provoke Mr Clifford and I can’t say he was not a part of that.’ Mrs Cooke admitted she was the woman who had to be restrained on the night of the air pistol incident. Hampshire Police refused to comment before an inquest on June 12. |
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Daily Mail COMMENT |
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BILL Clifford isn’t a name
that has the slightest resonance in the corridors of power. He wasn’t a grandee, a crony or a Tory turncoat
to be welcomed into the governing establishment. He was just another
pensioner who never received the help he so desperately needed. Now he lies in a mortuary while the
Ministers who promised to be tough on crime prepare again to trumpet a commitment
to law and order. But what does their election bombast mean
to the countless people who understand Mr Clifford’s ordeal only too well? Nobody intervened to protect this
77-year-old war veteran during months of torment at the hands of young thugs.
The authorities became involved only after he was driven to the despairing
action of driving off the gang with an air pistol. Then the police and the Crown Prosecution
Service proved full of zeal. They charged him with possession of an imitation
firearm and intimidation. Mr Clifford has been found hanging at his
home. His sense of betrayal can only be imagined. It would be comforting if such
heavy-handedness and lack of common sense in the machinery of justice was a
rarity. Sadly, it is anything but. While three crimes out of four are
unsolved – the highest figure since 1993 – the authorities’ attitude too
often seems perverse. Only last week this paper reported on the
folly of the CPS, in hounding an 11-year-old schoolboy to trial on a charge
of racially-aggravated assault, after a mere playground scuffle. Meanwhile, in these post-Macpherson days,
police are so demoralised and fearful of being smeared as ‘racist’ that they
are reluctant to stop suspects. It gets worse. There are 1,600 fewer
officers in Britain today than in 1997. London has far fewer police than
comparable cities. Whole swathes of the country are left virtually
unprotected. Small wonder that violent crime has surged by 16 per cent. New Labour complains of the ‘negative’
campaigning in last night’s Tory broadcast, which blamed two rapes and a host
of other crimes on the Government’s early release of 33,000 prisoners. But millions of citizens live in fear of
crime. Millions are sickened by the failure of the justice system to answer
their concerns. Hard questions must be asked. For doesn’t
the death of Bill Clifford tell us more about law and order in Britain today
than official reassurances ever will? |
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