Douglas Wakefield (Jail)

Douglas Wakefield was convicted of the murder of his uncle Derek Wakefield 43.

Douglas Wakefield and his uncle Derek Wakefield were at home and talking in in the front room. Douglas Wakefield said that he had had about 15 pints of beer during the day. Douglas Wakefield had previously told Derek Wakefield that he was thinking of getting a gun and sticking up a post office but had not told him why. As they were talking, Douglas Wakefield, who had previously associated with homosexuals, told Derek Wakefield that the reason that the wanted to stick up a post office or a bank teller was because he wanted the money to get a sex change.

When Douglas Wakefield told him that Derek Wakefield started laughing at him and making fun of him and so he picked up a belt and from the side of a chair and strangled him with it.

He said that he didnt think he could choke him properly because the belt was too wide and so he got a copper hammer from the shelf on the fireplace and hit him with it a couple of times and said that blood from his head went on the floor.

He said that Derek Wakefield was still breathing right heavy and so he got a garden fork out of the passage and started sticking itin his neck. He said then that he knew that Derek Wakefield was dying because he could see his eyes were going.

He said that whilst he was doing that he was shouting at him and calling him all sortsofnames..

Then he went out into the front garden and dug a hole around midnight and then rolled Derek Wakefield up in a blanket and tied him up and then dragged him out into the garden and buried him.

After he said that he mopped up all the blood with newspaper which he said was all thick and clotty and wrapped it up in a parcel and put it in the coal house and then washed the hammer in the sink.

He said that there was only a bit of earth on top of him and so on the Friday he dug a deeper hole in the back garden and transferred his body on the Saturday night at about 2am. He also threw in the parcel of blood stained newspaper and the belt.

He said that the chair that Derek Wakefield had been sitting in had holes in it from the fork and blood and so he burnt iton the back garden.

Earlier on 9 April 1974 a partner in a family furniture and fancy goods shop at 3 Foundry Approach, Leeds 9 said that he closed up his shop at 6pm and locked the doors and checked the windows. When he came back the next morning he found a large 6 foot6 inch square window had been broken and some of the goods in the window display had been knocked over. He said also that two ornamental china horses, one a brown shire and the other a grey shire in full harness were both missing. He said that they were quite rare and difficult to obtain and worth about £21.95 each.

Later on 10 April 1974 two men had been out fora drink at the Fairway Hotel in Foundry Approach, Leeds 9 and after closing time at 10.30pm they walked down to Compton Road fora chinese meal which they ate and then walked back up Foundry Approach when they met a lad standing on the street corner who asked them for some money. They told him no but he tapped their pocketstosee if theyhad any and a jingle was heard and the man asked what that was and they said they only had 11p and stated walking away from him. as they walked away theman grabbed oneof the two men by the collar and pulled him backand said 'Arnt you going togive me us any money then?' and they asked him what it was for and the man said 'For a bird' and they told him to fuck off and turned to walk away. One of the men said that he then felt his shirt ri at the back and said he turned around and said they only had 21p and the shirt was worth £3,but then his friend pointed out that he was bleeding from the back. They then went off and called the police.

The man later identified Douglas Wakefield at theleedsMagistrates Court as the man that had stabbed him with a pair of sissors.

After the men called the police the police then went to 26 Foundry Place with Derek Wakefield where they spoke to Douglas Wakefield and told him that he resembled a man that had recently attacked twoother men and Douglas Wakefield said 'My fucking uncle's grassed on me'. they took a statement from Derek Wakefield but he refusedtosign it onthe grounds of reprisal from his nephew Douglas Wakefield.

Later at Gipton Police Station the police woke Douglas Wakefield upat 1.20am on the same day and told him that they were satisfied that he was the same person that was responsible forstabbing a youth earlier in the street and Douglas Wakefield replied 'Why dont you fuck off im telling you nothing you prove it'.

Later at 1.45am the police spoke to Derek Wakefield and told him that they had found two ornamental horses at his house that had been stolen earlier from a nearby shop and Derek Wakefield said 'I know what you mean, I saw them this morning when I gotup at ten o'clock.' when he was asked if he knew where they came from Derek Wakefield said that Douglas Wakefield had got them. They then asked him if he knew they were stolen and Derek Wakefieldsaid 'Dont be bloody daft i've more sense than to take stuff like that'. the police then asked him if he didnt take them then who did and Derek Wakefield said that it was Douglas Wakefield but told them not to say that he had said so.

When the police asked Douglas Wakefield about the ornamental horses he denied stelaing them and said that it was Derek Wakefield that had stolen them. He said that they had all been out drinking and that he had left him and then Derek Wakefield had come home later with them stuffed under his coat. The police then told Douglas Wakefield that Derek Wakefirld had told them that he had pinched he china horses and Douglas Wakefield said 'Hes a fucking liar, i'll kill him when I get hold of him. Hes always going off o his own and I know hes screwing since he came to live at my house theres been trouble. The cunt even screwed my meters.

the police asked him again if he had stolen the ornamental china horses and he replied about that it was Derek Wakefield thathadstolen them. they then said that he must have known they were stolen and Douglas Wakefield said yes and so the police asked him why he had allowed them to be stored at his house and Douglas Wakefield said that he was going to sell them down at Fforde Green. the police then said that they were not satisfied with ither his or his uncles explanations for the theft of the china horses.

They were later both charged with burglary and recieving.

On 3 May 1974 both Douglas Wakefield and Derek Wakefield appeared at Leeds Magistrates Court. Douglas Wakefield was charged with an offence of Section 18 wounding and burglary and DerekWakefield was charged with burglary where they were committed to the Crown Court and given bail that required that they both report daily to gipton Police station and both lived at 26 Foundry Place.

The last day that Derek Wakefield reported on bail was 9 May 1974 at 11.55pm.

Around 6-7 May 1974 a relation, (Douglas Wakefield was her nephew) said that Douglas Wakefield had asked her if she knew where he could get a gun forholding up a bank or something. She said that about a week before they were arrested they were drinking around midnight at 26 Foundry Palce with some friends when an argument started and Douglas Wakefield went off and got a garden fork and came backand told the guests to leave. She said he didnt look like he was about to attack them but the threatening appearance of the fork and its sharp prongs was enough to make them leave without any further argument.

She said that about 6.45pm on Thursday 9 May 1974 she went to the Fforde Freene pub with Douglas Wakefield after leaving Derek Wakefield at home in bed. She said they went to the Fforde Greene and then on to the Pack Horse where they met her brother and then later Derek Wakefield came in. She said that they were talking about the usual things and stayed until closing time. she said that she left the pub with her brother leaving Douglas Wakefield and Derek Wakefield in their normal normal manner towards each other.

She said that the next day, 10 May 1974, she went to the Fforde Greene pub where she met Douglas Wakefield and she asked him where Derek Wakefield was and said that he told her that she had gone to her sisters in Polton-onDearne.She asked how he could go there without any money and Douglas Wakefield told her that he must have had his Giro or something adding that he had found an envelope behind the toilet. After the pub she went back with Douglas Wakefield to 26 Foundry Place and said that when she went in she noticed that the fireside chair was missing from the livingroom adding that it was the one that Derek Wakefield normally sat in. She said that she asked Douglas Wakefield about the missing chair but said that he didnt reply and said that when she went into the kitchen she could see Douglas Wakefield out through the window trying to set fire to the missing chair by holding a piece of burning paper underneath it. She said that she thought that he must have been burning the chair so that Derek Wakefield would not have anything to sit in when he came back.

She stayed at 26 Foundry Place for a few nights and gradually became more converned about Derek Wakefield and together with another person they started to try to find Derek Wakefield and one evening, 18 May 1974, started calling the sister to find out if he had gone there but they found out that he hadnt and that he also hadnt been answering his police bail. They later went to 26 Foundry Place where they examined the fresh mounds of earth in the front and back garden and saw the garden fork sticking in the ground. they also found a back containing some of Derek Wakefields personal items. In the patches of fresh earth they found pieces of burnt chair and springs.

Having failed to find anything they went home but discussed things and decided that because he had not gone to his sisters and had not signed bail and had left things behind they decided to call the police which they did at about midnight.

The police went to 26 Foundry Place at 5am on 19 May 1974 where they dug up the areas of fresh earth and found the body of Derek Wakefield all wrapped up.

In May 1976 he was convicted of the attempted murder of a prison officer. He tried to garot him and cut his throat in Wakefield Prison.

In September 1976 he strangled, stabbed and battered a fellow prisoner, Brian Peake, in Parkhurst in the psychiatric wing and was convicted of manslaughter. He bludgeoned him to death with a piece of wood with nails sticking out of it. He later told the prison governor, 'I have killed Derek. Derek came in and I killed him. I went berserk. I don't remember'. However, when he was told that Brian Peake was dead, he said, 'I don't believe it, it was Derek'. It was noted that a startling similarity were the puncture marks, which were said to have resembled those that he inflicted on his uncle with a garden fork.

In 1981 it was reported that he had spent about six of his seven years in prison in segration or isolation.