Crown Court
| DOI | 10.1177/002201837604000204 |
| Date | 01 April 1976 |
| Published date | 01 April 1976 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Crown
Court
Comments
on
Cases
KIDNAPPING
R. v.
Anderton.
In
November
1975 the
defendant,
Brian
Anderton,
was sentenced
to twelve years
imprisonment
by
JupP
Jafter being found guilty of
kidnapping
achild on
the
unanimous
verdict
oftheJury.
As well as the
charge
that
in
May
last
he
kidnapped,
abducted
or stole
Vanessa
Carr
(now six years old),
Anderton
was
indicted
for
demanding
£100,000
with
menaces,
and
for stealing amini-car,
of
which last he was
acquit-
ted.
The
minor
stealing charges were not pressed.
The
defendant,
a fish
and
chip
shop
proprietor
with a family,
had
heard
that
another
family,
the
Carrs,
living some miles
away
at
Whitefield,
had
winnings on the Pools
of
half
amillion pounds.
The
prosecution
case,
presented
by
MissJ.
Bracewell, was
that
the accused
took the little girl on
her
way
home
from school,
and
drove
her
in his
car
to a motel on the
East
Lancashire
road called the
Greyhound;
where he
kept
her
in his
room
over-night,
and
pursued
his blackmail schemeover
the telephone to
the
Carrs.
Fortunately
two residents in Lowton Street
had
seen vital incidents;
one
of
them
the cruising
car
on the previous
day,
so
that
he took the
number;
and
the
other
the
actual
taking
of
Vanessa.
The
police were therefore on
the
track
of
Anderton
and
after
his
car
was
chased
down
the
East
Lancashire
road he
abandoned
Vanessa,
and
sought
to
run
offoversome playing-fields on the outskirts
of
Salford,
throwing
away
items
such
as a bottle of
ammonia
as he went.
(
These
were collected by Salford school children who were subse-
quently
praised
by
theJudge
).
When
the police
caught
up with Ander-
ton he could
not
give a satisfactory
explanation
ofhis
run
and
was taken
into
custody.
The
defence raised by
Anderton
was
one
of duress, to the effect
that
someone
had
telephoned
him
threatening
the
abduction
of his own
child
ifhe
did
not
capture
Vanessa.
This
defence was
undermined
by
the
evidence
of
a fellow
prisoner
on
remand,
(named
Hudson
and
unconnected
otherwise with
the
trial) who was known to be trying to
get
bail
at
that
time
and
who
was
approached
by
Anderton
to make
certain
telephone
calls ifhe
gained
his liberty.
The
nature
of
such
a call
would
be to
threaten
to
kidnap
achild
of
the recipient
if
the
latter
did
not
undertake
some
other
kidnapping.
Suitable
victims were to be
discovered first.
The
object
of
this
(had
it
taken place) was to give
background
to
Anderton's
story
that
he
had
received
such
a
threat,
as a
result
of which he
had
picked up
Vanessa,
and
after.taking
her
to the
Greyhound,
had
found it to be a hoax.
Cases
were referred to, in the
79
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