News

Llangolman: Cooper and a string of coincidences

Published

3 years ago

January 18, 2021

IT’S December in Pembrokeshire – the run up to Christmas – and the bodies of two wealthy siblings are found in their fire-damaged rural home.

Both suffered horrific injuries before their deaths. But, because of the fire, little evidence is found.

We could be talking about Richard and Helen Thomas’ deaths at John Cooper’s hands in their Scoveston Manor home.

But we’re not.

We’re talking about a mysterious double murder that took place almost a decade earlier, in the Pembrokeshire village of Llangolman.

John Cooper kept trophies and keys from his criminal career. Police found hundreds when they searched his home.

Cooper was charged and convicted of 2 double murders, rape and sexual assault in 2011.

Before then, Cooper was convicted of robbing over 30 properties in a crime spree stretching back to him stealing a car, assaulting a police officer and ABH between 1961-65.

Brother and sister Griff and Patti Thomas lived in the small village of Llangolman, near Clunderwen, for over 70 years. Neither married so they kept each other company in their small rural farmhouse, Ffynnon Samson, in the picturesque Preseli Hills.

Their lives passed relatively uneventfully until sometime before 8:25 am on Saturday, December 11, 1976.

While on his rounds that day, a local postman, Nigel Rossiter, stumbled across a horrendous scene at Ffynnon Samson.
Mr Rossiter collected what he thought was the outgoing post from the Thomases home. But it was the post he’d placed there two days before. When the postman noticed this, he knocked at Ffynnon Samson’s door to check on Griff and Patti.

There was no reply.

Worried about the elderly pair’s welfare, he let himself in.

The scene which greeted him was horrendous.

“Going into the house, I had to go into a good bit of the room because there was a big chair or something in the way. I could see this charred body in a nest of cushions, and a made-out thing, like, as if it was a nest,” Mr Rossiter told the inquest into the siblings’ deaths.

What Nigel Rossiter saw were the badly charred remains of Griff Thomas on a settle. Mr Thomas’ body was so severely burned that only his feet could be made out.

Nigel, understandably shocked, ran to a neighbour’s house to raise the alarm.

It wasn’t until Mr Rossiter returned to the scene with the Police that they found Patti.

Patti Thomas’ body was found slumped over a table on a magazine rack in the parlour. She had been brutally beaten to death with a heavy dining room chair which was found covered in blood.

When the Police arrived on the scene, they collected 174 items of evidence. House-to-house enquiries began with over 150 statements taken. Forensic experts descended on Ffynnon Samson with 430 fingerprints taken from the house.

The local constabulary, headed by Detective Chief Superintendent Pat Molloy, proved Griff and Patti Thomas were both killed sometime between Griff’s last visit to the local shop for his daily paper and some shopping at 4 pm on Tuesday, December 7 and the discovery of their bodies on Saturday.

Griff didn’t make his daily call to the local shop for his newspaper on Wednesday, December 8. It’s, therefore, reasonable to suppose he didn’t because he and Patti were already dead.

Griff’s watch was found to have stopped ticking at 8:20. Dyfed-Powys Police believe that the Thomases met their demise on Tuesday evening.

Of the 430 fingerprints taken from Fynnon Samson, 2 couldn’t be traced.

Locals widely accepted someone else had been in the house that night. Police found Griff’s blood AND one of the unidentified fingerprints on a sewing machine that had had its cover placed back onto it by persons unknown.

They were left-hand fingerprints, but Griff’s left arm was so severely burned that his fingerprints couldn’t be taken.

Although a thorough search didn’t find a murder weapon, it did find £2,700 in Patti’s purse.

That discovery derailed the murder investigation.

Dyfed-Powys Police began treating what happened to the Thomases as a murder-suicide.

When an inquest into the unexplained deaths was opened in Haverfordwest in February 1977, officers stuck to that explanation.

The ’77 inquest heard how it was believed that Griff Thomas had rowed with his sister over ‘pocket money’ she gave to him.

The inquest also heard it was believed that the severely arthritic Griff had beaten his sister to death with a chair before committing the ghastliest of suicides.

How Griff sustained a fractured skull wasn’t explained; nor was how a person of calm temperament suddenly snapped into a murderous rage. Griff’s severe rheumatism wasn’t mentioned.

The inquest’s summary reads: “Something must have happened between the old couple, and it could have been that Miss Thomas provoked her brother by either hitting him or pulling his hair and he then retaliated.

“It was possible that Mr Thomas had provoked his sister by starting a fire. Though seriously injured, he carried his sister from the house’s kitchen into the living room where she was found sitting on a magazine rack. He could have headed back to the house’s kitchen, collapsing in a doorway where his blood was found before getting to his feet and then either falling back into the fire or throwing himself on it.”

On February 17, 1977, an inquest jury deliberated and returned the verdict that Patti Thomas’ death was manslaughter at her brother’s hands. Griff’s death was, however, left open.

Rhydwilym Baptist Chapel in 1976

The Thomases were interred at Rhydwilym Baptist Chapel where both siblings were dedicated members of the congregation attending church the Sunday of both their deaths.

Due to the inquest’s verdict, Griff was, for many years, denied a headstone as it was believed he had killed his sister in a moment of insanity. He now shares a headstone with Patti though.

44 years later and many locals still believe someone else was there that night.

Whatever you might think, it’s believed John Cooper was in the Llangolman area at the time doing fencing work.

We also know for sure that the key for Griff and Patti’s locked bureau was never found.

The similarities between the two pairs of siblings’ deaths at Llangolman and Scoveston are striking.

We asked whether the Police explored possible ties between the Llangolman deaths and Cooper.

A Police spokesperson didn’t deny Cooper was a person of interest in Griff and Patti Thomas’s deaths.

They said: “Dyfed-Powys Police will examine any specific new information containing detailed knowledge or evidence, and any further decisions would be based on the results of the examination of that new material.

“There is no intention to re-investigate any incidents on speculation alone.”

The day after Cooper’s conviction in May 2011, Dyfed-Powys Police were understood to have been planning to “review the circumstances” of the 1976 deaths.

It seems that review yielded no new information in the decade since. Dyfed-Powys Police must be happy with the way their 1970’s predecessors investigated the deaths at the time.

It’s a shame the evidence taken from Ffynnon Samson won’t be scrutinised with modern DNA testing techniques and the same thirst for justice which saw John Cooper convicted of two double murders some 21 years later despite police not finding any new evidence they didn’t already possess as part of Operation: Huntsman.

As of going to press, Griff and Patti Thomas are no closer to the justice they deserve than they were in February 1977.

When this article initially ran, we printed the picture and named Llangolman Church as being the place of burial for the Thomases and that Griff didn’t have a headstone today. We later found these details to be incorrect, so we have rectified this for the online version of the story.

News

Too many children in Wales living in poverty – Lib Dems want action

Published

9 hours ago

April 25, 2024

Tom Sinclair

THIS week in the Senedd, the Welsh Liberal Democrats renewed their demands for the implementation of child poverty targets.

According to a report from the Bevan foundation, 29% of children living in Wales are currently experiencing poverty (an estimated 190,000 children).

The same report highlighted that the largest percentage of children living in poverty are from working households or in couple households.

The Welsh Lib Dems are now renewing calls for the Welsh Government to create a set of targets for reducing child poverty, which the party argues will allow for more accountability.

The party has previously called for the implementation of targets, citing recommendations from the Calling Time on Child Poverty Report published in November last year.

Commenting, the Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats Jane Dodds MS said: “The latest statistics on childhood poverty in Wales paints a very distressing image of families across the country struggling to make ends meet.

Over the course of the last six years, the proportion of children in poverty has skyrocketed. Fuelled by worsening economic conditions and a complete lack of action from both governments in Westminster and Cardiff Bay.

We cannot act complacent about these figures nor accept the clear lack of progress in fighting child poverty, behind each statistic is a child that the state has failed.

It remains painfully clear that the Welsh Government is failing to make any meaningful progress in this fight, which is why they must follow through with the implementation of clear set targets that will allow for further accountability.

We as a party have continuously called for the creation of these targets and we will not be silenced. For the sake of future generations we urge the Welsh Government to listen.”

Crime

Welsh constabulary areas record another increase in shoplifting

Published

9 hours ago

April 25, 2024

Tom Sinclair

RETAIL trade union Usdaw is deeply concerned by today’s police recorded crime statistics showing that in 2023 there were significant increases in shoplifting across all constabulary areas in Wales. In the whole of England and Wales there has been a persistent upward trend since the pandemic, which continued with a 37% increase and has now risen to the highest level in 20 years.

The Office for National Statistics released figures showing a 39% increase in shoplifting incidents across Wales and by constabulary area as follows:

Dyfed-Powys +11%
Gwent +47%
North Wales +23%
South Wales +51%

Usdaw’s 2023 annual survey of over 5,500 shopworkers found that 60% had suffered incidents of violence, threats and abuse that were triggered by shoplifting and armed robbery.

Paddy Lillis, Usdaw General Secretary says: “Shoplifting is not a victimless crime, theft from shops has long been a major flashpoint for violence and abuse against shopworkers. Having to deal with repeated and persistent shoplifters can cause issues beyond the theft itself like anxiety, fear and in some cases physical harm to retail workers. This 39% increase in shoplifting across Wales is further evidence that we are facing an epidemic of retail crime, which is hugely concerning.

“Our members have reported that they are often faced with hardened career criminals in the stores and we know that retail workers are much more likely to be abused by those who are stealing to sell goods on. Our latest survey results show that 7 in 10 retail workers suffered abuse from customers, with far too many experiencing threats and violence. 60% of respondents said theft from shops and armed robbery were triggers for these incidents.

“The scale of assaults, abuse and threats towards shopworkers and extent of the retail crime epidemic has been a disgrace for many years. This has been made worse by police cuts and a failure to legislate to protect retail staff. Usdaw has long called for action that includes a standalone offence for assaulting a shopworker and that has been vehemently opposed by this Government and their Conservative MPs on many occasions.

“Recently the Government performed a long overdue U-turn after many years of sustained campaigning by Usdaw and others. Our members have had to wait too long for their voices to be heard and common sense to prevail. We will have to see the detail of what Ministers are proposing and we are clear that it must be at least what we won in Scotland three years ago. It also cannot fall short of Labour’s commitments to 13,000 more uniformed officers, patrols on high streets, banning repeat offenders and ending the perverse £200 threshold for prosecuting shoplifters.

“The dither and delay by this Government on this issue over many years, has led to thousands of shopworkers needlessly suffering physical and mental injury. Today’s stats should ensure that their promise to legislate is done speedily. We hope that whatever the Government is proposing will be substantial and effective in giving shopworkers, key workers in every community, the respect that they have long deserved and regrettably too often do not receive.”

Business

Paramount’s key role in transformation of McArthurGlen Designer Outlet

Published

10 hours ago

April 25, 2024

Tom Sinclair

FAST-growing Welsh company Paramount is relishing the challenge of creating an “irresistible dining destination” after winning the contract to play a key role in the multi-million transformation of the McArthurGlen Designer Outlet Bridgend.

The Cardiff-based design, build, fit-out and refurbishment specialist will spearhead the re-development project of the shopping centre after being handed responsibility for revamping its popular food court over the summer.

In the coming months, the development will see the Food Court transformed into three modern, and bright restaurants, welcoming new food and beverage brands to the centre and creating more than 100 new job opportunities for the local community.

Paramount’s Construction Director, Paul Thomas, said: “The team behind the scenes at McArthurGlen Designer Outlet Bridgend have fantastic plans for the future and we’re delighted to have been entrusted with the mission to help turn their exciting vision into a reality.

“Paramount prides itself on creating places where people want to be, and my team are relishing the opportunity to help create what will be an irresistible dining destination. It’s certain to be a complex project, but we have the expertise and local knowledge to deliver outstanding results in close collaboration with our project partners.”

The owners of the shopping centre, which has been attracting local people and visitors for more than 25 years, have promised a “substantial investment to redevelop the Food Court area and replace it with new and exciting restaurants”.

Now the Paramount team is ready to lay the groundwork by removing some existing structures around the Food Court and will then introduce a series of new features as part of the overall facelift. These include new glazed entrance doors within glazed curtain walling shopfront, render and a new entrance lobby with new stairs and lifts.

The work to completely develop the Food Court in the shopping centre starts this week, and is expected to be completed in late autumn. As a result, customer favourites including Nando’s, McDonald’s and Chopsticks will be closed while work is under way.

Patrick Finney, Head of European Construction, McArthurGlen Group, said: “After celebrating our 25th anniversary last year, we’re extremely pleased to welcome Paramount on board in this important step of revitalising the Food Court area.

“These are exciting times for everyone at one of South Wales’ best-loved retail complexes and we know Paramount will work closely with us to create a truly special place for diners and shoppers of all ages.”

Paramount, whose turnover reached £45 million in 2023, employs 60 people who own a majority shareholding of the business – 51 per cent – following completion of an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) scheme in 2021, a deal which marked a major milestone for Paramount after a period of sustained growth.

The company is well known across Wales and England where it has created high-quality inspirational space for a number of leading companies. These include the multi-million-pound redevelopment of Hodge House and Fusion Point One in central Cardiff, and the fit out of Par 59 bars in South Wales and South West.

Over the next few months, Paramount’s construction team will also be completing on a multi-million-pound social housing development in Porthcawl, Mid-Glamorgan with Valleys to Coast.