"Let Him Have it, Chris"

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I’ve been watching the sea. There hasn’t been the trace of a ship. Perhaps we’ll never be rescued.”

The 1991 feature film Let Him Have It, starring Christopher Eccleston as Bentley and Paul Reynolds as Craig, relates the story, as do the songs "Derek Bentley" by Karl Dallas (in which the lyrics imply that Bentley was guilty but sympathise with him), " Let Him Dangle" by Elvis Costello, "Let Him Have It" by The Bureau, and "Bentley and Craig" by Ralph McTell, whose mother was a friend of the Bentley family, also covered by June Tabor (on Aleyn, TSCD490, 1997). Bentley was released from Kingswood school on 28 July 1950, a year early, though he was told that he would remain under the care of Kingswood until 29 September 1954, by which time he was dead. He was a recluse for the rest of 1950, rarely venturing out of the house, breaking his isolation in January 1951. His voice lifted into the whine of virtuous recrimination. They stirred and began to shout him down. a b c Yallop, David (1991). To Encourage the Others. New York: Bantam Books. ISBN 978-0-552-13451-4. Maxwell Fyfe's autobiography, published in 1964, refers to the factors which he took into consideration: "the evidence of the trial, medical reports, family or other private circumstances ... and police reports, ... the available precedents, and ... public opinion". He went on to say that Bentley's case also involved the issue of the police force, since it was a police officer who was killed. Maxwell Fyfe then stresses that a reprieve would mean the Home Secretary is "intervening in the due process of the law". [10]

Thirdly, there was disagreement over whether Bentley was fit to stand trial in light of his mental capacity. The Principal Medical Officer responsible was Dr Matheson and he referred Bentley to Dr Hill, a psychiatrist at the Maudsley Hospital. Hill's report stated that Bentley was illiterate and of low intelligence, what we would today describe as having learning difficulties. However, Matheson was of the opinion that whilst agreeing that Bentley was of low intelligence, he did not have epilepsy at the time of the alleged offence and he was not a "feeble-minded person" under the Mental Deficiency Acts. Matheson said that he was sane and fit to plead and stand trial. English law at the time did not recognise the concept of diminished responsibility due to retarded development, though it existed in Scottish law (it was introduced to England by the Homicide Act 1957). Criminal insanity– where the accused is unable to distinguish right from wrong– was then the only medical defence to murder. Bentley, while he had a severe debilitation, was not insane. The well-known phrase 'don't judge a book by its cover' applies in various domains, but sometimes a cover that catches your eye can conceal a valuable gem inside, as I discovered with this book. Both Craig and Bentley were charged with the murder of PC Miles the following day, 3 November 1952. They were tried by jury before the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Goddard, at the Old Bailey in London between 9 December and 11 December 1952. Christmas Humphreys, Senior Treasury Counsel, led for the prosecution. [7]

The other fundamental focus of this movie is capital punishment. It will not be wrong to say that the public’s general sense of unease after Derek Bentley’s execution led to the abolition of death penalty in Britain in 1965. There has always been a raging debate on the use of death penalty for culprits of serious offences such as rape, murder and terrorism to name a few. Whether it is impactful in terms of delivery of justice is a question that cannot be answered in a few sentences. My view is that death penalty is not the answer. I feel like we see the unsettling twins and imaginary friend trope a lot in horror, however, it can still creep me out when it's done right, and it was in this one! There were a number of moments in this that put me on edge and genuinely gave me a little spook. I also really like grief as a topic in horror, I feel like it adds an element of unreliability to the characters, which is another thing I enjoyed in this.⁠Smith, K. J. M. (September 2010). "Goddard, Rayner, Baron Goddard (1877–1971)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (onlineed.). Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/ref:odnb/31152 . Retrieved 16 August 2014. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) William Friend’s Let Him In is the perfect spooky read for October. With its eerie little twin girls, an old mansion in England called Hart House, and a menacing shape-shifting entity, this novel had me hooked from the first chapter! and them little ‘uns was wandering about down there where the fire is. How d’you know they aren’t still there?”