Farsley double murder author seeks police memories of hunt for 1970s cop killer

Richard Jones is a serving member of the Royal Navy but has turned a childhood fascination with little-known disasters and tragedies into a publishing career.

His passion for ensuring these events are not forgotten has led him to run a blog on the topic, successfully campaign for memorial plaques and write almost a dozen books.

"These things are going to be lost to history," he said. "It's like the First World War. There's nobody left who lived through it now. It's a race against time to get people's stories."

Although Richard was born in Farsley and lived there until his early teens, he had never heard about the fatal shootings that shocked the community back in 1970.

Night watchman Ian Riley and father-of-two Inspector Barry Taylor were both killed at Sunny Bank Mills on February 15 that year, prompting a manhunt and questions in parliament.

Burglar Neil George Adamson, 31, went on to plead guilty to their murders and was jailed for life three months later.

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After hearing mention of the murders around 10 years ago and finding very little information online, Richard started to carry out his own research.

Newspaper front pages in library archives showed just how significant the case had been at the time, yet he had never heard it discussed as he was growing up in Farsley in the 1980s.

Richard, 39, said: "I thought 'how is this not more widely known?' It took me a long time to find out what happened to the killer. He died about 20 years ago in prison."

Keen to hear from those who were around at the time, he set up a Facebook group that eventually led him to connect with two relatives of the victims.

The creation of the group also led to the hosting of a memorial event to mark the 50th anniversary last month.

"Unfortunately I was at sea so I couldn't be there, but I was so pleased to see it on the front page of the YEP," he said.

"Nobody had known about it and now it was front page news again, getting people together, having the ceremony. I'm pleased there's hopefully going to be two memorial benches going in too."

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Now Richard wants to hear from anyone else who can share their memories of the case so that their valuable recollections can be preserved as part of his planned book.

He would like to make contact with people who remember the night of the murders and what happened, particularly any police officers that worked with Insp Taylor.

"I want to hear from any police officers who were there that night or involved in the search," he said. "I can't imagine what they went through, knowing there was a cop killer on the loose."

To contribute towards the book, email shipwreckdata@yahoo.co.uk or leave a voicemail message on 07764 858706 with your contact details.