Michael Hames

The Dirty Squad

Little, Brown. 2000.

My second outing with them was on the afternoon following the IRA bomb explosion in Regent's Park, in July 1982. The bomb went off under the bandstand while the Band of the Royal Green Jackets were playing. Several people were killed and many were injured. We were called in to help the Anti-Terrorist Squad to search the park and recover evidence. When I arrived with fifty cadets I briefed them as well as I could about what they were going to deal with, and I tried to prepare them for the terrible things they would see. I kept the briefing as dispassionate as I could

The author was later to become head of Scotland Yard's Obscene Publications Branch, known as the Dirty Squad, but at this time was in charge of the Police Cadet School at Hendon. They had previously assisted in searching for the dismembered remains of the serial killer Dennis Nilsen's victims. This was to prove even more gruesome.

It was a scene of absolute carnage. There were limbs and chunks of bloodied flesh in all directions for a distance of 100 yards from the bandstand. There was a crazy jumble of chairs, hats, tree branches and people's clothing. The cadets formed a line across the park, then they knelt, and began a fingertip search...They crawled through pools of congealed blood, holding their hands up when they found anything and passing it back to the officers with their plastic bags...The cadets also performed a sweep of the bushes at the side of the park and found more evidence, including a leg from one of the dead. None of them showed any sign of distress. They acted impeccably