Investigative Excellence Award-Win for Henry Blackshaw!

 

At the GMP annual awards ceremony, held on 14th October, Henry Blackshaw and Sergeant Lee Westhead jointly won the award in the “Investigative Excellence” category. Other finalists, in this category, included investigations into rape and conspiracy to murder.
This followed their work together on “Operation Marco”, an investigation into a historic fail to stop collision (a “hit and run”) which had caused the death of a five your old boy, in front of his mother, in February, 2003.

 
The initial police investigation, failed to identify the driver. The police had established which car was involved. Its owner, a man called Craig Chevelleau, had given a dishonest account, alleging theft of the car shortly before the collision. In general terms, he matched the description of the driver although none of the eye witnesses picked him out at the identification parades. Eventually, the case was shelved, with the general consensus that Chevelleau was responsible, but that it was not possible to prove it.

 
Lee Westhead led the reinvestigation in 2013. This cast a wide net and by following fresh lines of enquiry this lead to the identification of Nawnee Mackin, as the driver. He was an associate of Chevelleau, who, it was now discovered, had lied to cover up for Mackin, rather than himself.

 
Whilst the police had now “cracked” this case, there was still a lot of work to be done to get it to a stage where the CPS would be prepared to authorise the charge of the suspects. The principal issue in the case was one of identification; this was challenging due to the reliance on the evidence of people who had witnessed events 12 years earlier. Furthermore, the waters were muddied as a result of the false suspicion which had attached to Chevelleau from the 2003 investigation, and which had developed over the decade which followed. There had now been two separate, extensive investigations, the material from both of which needing reviewing and organising.

 
Lee Westhead and Henry had worked successfully together on another fatality case, in 2011/12. Lee contacted Henry, in October 2013, to seek his assistance in further building the case against Mackin. Henry agreed to work on a pro bono basis.

 
Through the following year, Henry and Lee worked closely together, developing strategies and enquires to build on the evidence already obtained. Also to analyse and present the case so that the CPS could properly consider its merits in reaching the decision to charge it.

 
Subsequently, in November 2014, Mackin and Chevelleau were charged respectively with Causing Death by Dangerous Driving and Perverting the Course of Justice.
At trial, in June, 2015, Chevelleau was convicted, but the jury could not agree in relation to Mackin. Mackin’s retrial was held in November, 2015. He was convicted and sentenced to nine years imprisonment.

 

Lee and Henry had previously received “Chief Constable’s High Commendations” for their work on this case, at a ceremony in May.