Police recheck on buildings

POLICE are assessing whether stations and contact points they have vacated need to be checked to ensure they were properly cleared of sensitive evidence.

After the discovery by builders of evidence in a 50-year-old murder case, specialist search teams scoured the attic and cellars of the former Newark Police Station on Appletongate on Friday for anything else that may have been left behind.

The embarrassing discovery, revealed exclusively in last week’s Advertiser, was made during work to convert the station, vacated by Nottinghamshire Police seven years ago, into a piano school for Newark College.

A sealed evidence bag containing bloody bicycle handlebars labelled in connection with the unsolved murder of Arthur Cope in 1964, was found.

Mr Cope, a 57-year-old bachelor, was bludgeoned to death on October 12 in his caravan in Wharf Lane, Radcliffe.

The police search team on Friday found paperwork in the attic and the builders handed them audio cassettes belonging to Her Majesty’s Court’s Service.

An incident room has been set up by Nottinghamshire Police as they review the Arthur Cope murder case.

Although the handlebars were ruled out as the murder weapon, detectives are using the renewed interest in the case to appeal for information.

The murder weapon was never found.

The case was last reviewed in 1998 and the latest cold case inquiry will involve a re-examination of that review, as well as the original evidence.

The Advertiser’s coverage of the time shows police wanted to speak to a man in a green crash helmet seen on the Wharf Lane caravan site asking for money.

Despite extensive inquiries the trail went cold.

Superintendent Mike Manley said this week: “If anybody knows anything about the circumstances surrounding this terrible murder I would ask them to contact the incident room.

“There is no age limit for pursuing someone for the most serious of crimes.

“With the passage of time, people’s circumstances and relationships change and they may feel better able or willing to come forward with what they know.”

Mr Manley said some illegible paperwork was found in the cellar during the police search, but it was not be believed to be connected to the Cope case.

Mr Manley said: “We should be able to exit a building as a service without leaving anything behind, particularly anything of a sensitive nature.

“We have learned that lesson the hard way and are looking to see whether there are any other facilities we have left that we might need to revisit to ensure they have been properly cleared.”

The force has vacated 18 sites in the past two years. The sites, which included Collingham, Bingham, Radcliffe and Bilsthorpe, were either police stations or contact points.

Anyone with information relating to the murder of Mr Cope can ring the incident room on 0115 844 6913.