Major Project
This is your final Major Project module, where theory meets practice. The culmination point of your degree.
Lauren Bremner - Once A Negative
The idea for the project began when I watched a news segment discussing the tragic IRA bombing that occurred in 1974in the Mulberry Bush Pub located underneath the Rotunda. Having walked past this location four times a week for over two years and notknowing that this tragedy hadoccurred, felt wrong.I began seeing this location in a whole new lightand so the project ‘Once ANegative’was born. The aim of this project is to inform people ofthe horrificevents orincidents that have occurredat twenty locations, in the Midlands. The aim of this project is to make sure that we don’t forget these people, to commemorate them. The project is for Carl Bridgewater, the people killed in the IRA bombings in Birmingham, Geoff and Jean Newman, Lisa Potts and the nursery children, Brett and Bradley Wilson, Lee Raymond Harvey, Clinton McCurbin, James Brindley, Paul, Dawn and Samantha Ralph, Lesley Whittle, Kane Walker, Viktorija Sokolova, Rosie Ross, Shane Watson, Christine Ann Darby, Margaret Reynoldsand DianeJoy Tiftand Josef Stawinoga.
On 19th September 1978. Carl Bridgewater was found dead at Yew Tree Farm near Stourbridge, after being shot at point blank range in the head. He was delivering newspapers to the house; the elderly occupants of the house were not home at the time and so it was suggested by the police that he had disturbed an intruder or burglar. He was forced into the living room where he was shot once in the head with a shotgun.
Co-Operative Funeral Parlour, Walsall Road, Great Barr, Birmingham. On the 11th of November 2018, 23-year-old Kasim Khurum broke into the funeral home with the intention to steal anything valuable that he could find. However once inside, he opened several coffins before choosing his victim. He then proceeded to have sexual intercourse with one of the corpses. Kasim Khurum was sentenced to six years in prison
In November 2001 Richard Bawden was sentenced to live in prison for the horrific attack of 40-year-old woman in August 2000 in Gheluvelt Park, Worcester
In the early hours of November 21st, 1974 three bombs were planted in two pubs and outside a bank in central Birmingham, by the IRA. The first bomb to explode was located in the Mulberry Bush as pub located in the Rotunda. Ten people were killed in this explosion including two youths who had been walking past the premises. Several casualties had been impaled by sections of furniture and many had limbs blown off. A paramedic called to the scene described the carnage as similar to that of a slaughter house.
On Monday the 10th of September 2001 Geoff and Jean Newman were burgled for the sixth time in 10 years.
On the 8th July 1996, Horrett Campbell jumped over a two-foot fence and began hacking at the children with a machete. Lisa Potts the 21-year-old nursery nurse used her own body as a shield and saved some of the children from the attack.
On two occasions in April 2004 Ryan Jones and Kieron Anslow both aged 11 and two other boys, broke into the Wallaby enclosure at Dudley Zoo. They terrorised and chased the Wallabies around their pen. This resulted in the death of two of the Wallabies, one an adult and the other a baby which the boys drowned. All of which was caught on CCTV camera, however despite this, three of the boys were only ordered to pay a total of £1,100 in compensation and were given behavioural referral orders for 12 months, while the 9-year-old wasn’t prosecuted as he was too young.
Tavern in the town, New Street, Birmingham. Tavern in the town was a basement pub on New Street located directly beneath the New Street Tax Office. Patrons of the pub had heard the explosion at the Mulberry bush but didn’t believe that the sound they heard was an explosion. Police had started to clear the pub when at 20:27 the second bomb exploded, in a blast so powerful people were blown through brick walls. Their remains were wedged between rubble and live underground electric cables that supplied the city centre.
In February of 2002 Steven Wilson hit his wife Denise as she told him their marriage was over and then proceeded to speed off with their two sons Brett aged eight and Bradley aged seven. He drove them to Hill Top golf course where he parked in an isolated spot near the golf course. He slashed Bradley’s throat with a makeshift knife before finally killing him with a screwdriver, he then turned on Brett and plunged the screwdriver into the eight-year old's neck twice.
Tracie Andrews stabbed fiancé Lee Raymond Harvey 42 times with a pen knife after they had stopped in his car on a country lane, following an argument, on 1st December 1996.
On 20th February 1987, Police officers were called to Next in Wolverhampton city centre to arrest Clinton McCurbin for alleged shoplifting and use of a stolen credit card. During a struggle with two officers and a bystander, McCurbin was held in a neck-hold for several minutes, while stunned onlookers watched. He was 23 years old when he died from asphyxiation.
At 23:30 on the 23rd June 2017, James Brindley was on the phone to his girlfriend as he walked home from the pub, on his way he encountered Ammar and Aaron Kahrod. James was stabbed in the heart in a 35 second gap between two phone calls he made to his girlfriend.
After living with family friends Clive and Elise Ralph and their three children, Paul, Dawn and Samantha for over a year, David McGreavy murdered the children on Friday April 13th, 1973. McGreavy or the Monster of Worcester as he is now known, beat Samantha to death, cut Dawns throat and strangled Paul with a wire. He then further mutilated the bodies using a pickaxe before impaling them on the spikes of a neighbour’s fence. He was sentenced to multiple life terms in prison with a minimum of 20 years. However, in December 2018 McGreavy was legally cleared for release on parole.
The daughter of George Whittle a well-known local businessman, 17-year-old Lesley was kidnapped on the 14th of January 1975, her body was discovered on the 7th of March 1975.
At 15:30 on 27th January 2019, Kane Walker aged 31 was found unresponsive in an underpass, it was -2C. Paramedics were called but he was pronounced dead at the scene, the death shocked the city.
West Park, Wolverhampton, this is where the life of Viktorija Sokolova aged 14 came to an abrupt end. On April 11th, 2018 Viktorija headed to West Park to meet a 16- year-old boy, they had planned to go to the “black house to smoke cannabis.” Her killer had however lured her there to have sex, when she refused, he raped her and brutally murdered her by continuously hitting her in the head with a hammer type weapon 21 times.
At 1pm on the 12th May 2001. Rosie Ross and a friend were sunbathing on a wall in Centenary Square, Birmingham. Unbeknownst to them believing that he needed to kill a women Inderjit Kainth, had been carrying a kitchen knife for over a month. As Rosie lay on a wall Kainth came and sat next to her before plunging the knife into her stomach, fleeing soon after. Two off duty doctors attempted to save Rosie however she died later in hospital. When asked why he killed Rosie, he stated that it was because “she had her eyes closed.”
On July 28th, 2012 Shane Watson was murdered in a completely unprovoked and horrific attack, in which Shylon Wishart and James Cartwright stripped, punched, kicked, stamped and urinated on Watson in an alleyway in Springfield Grove, Sedgley. Wishart was sentenced to serve a minimum of 16 years, while Cartwright was sentenced to serve at least 13 years. Sentences that are not nearly long enough for the sickening and ferocious attack. Despite hundreds of people signing a petition to permanently close the alleyway it still remains open today.
In 1969 Raymond Leslie Morris, The Monster of Cannock Chase was sentenced to life in prison. For the murder of Christine Ann Darby age 7, while he was never charged for the murders of Margaret Reynolds age 6 and Diane Joy Tift age 5, Morris is still considered the chief suspect of their deaths. Morris died in prison in 2014, after serving 45 years by which time he was one of Britain's longest serving prisoners.
Josef Stawinoga or Fred is better known as the Tramp who lived in a tent on the Wolverhampton ring road for more than 30 years. Until he died in October 2007 aged 86. During his life he received visits and meals on wheel because he refused to move to indoor accommodation. He never claimed his pension or benefits and so his family were to inherit a substantial sum.
©2020 Lauren Bremner