While working as an Inspector in the District Attorney’s Career Criminal Task Force, I had a case with a guy who had committed a string of robberies. After we caught him, he was allowed to post bail. Surprise, surprise! He told Pearce, who was wearing his trademark Calvin Klein sweater and tinted glasses, that the cost to the public purse in apprehending him after a campaign that had started in December 1994 and finished on his arrest in April 1998 had been enormous. The threats were taken so seriously by Tesco that the company manufactured 100,000 special reward cards to be used in cash machines.

The victims are usually instructed to reply through the classified advertisements of a national newspaper, or to await instructions. This can lead to a period of evaluation and negotiation. The company tries to get into the mind of the extorter. Is he really serious in his threat? Is there a way to stop him? And will the price for paying him off be significantly less than the damage he could do? There is also a listing for a Douglas Cameron. Surely they don't mean Douglas Cameron MBE ( wiki), the legendary broadcaster? He extorted SoftCo through a letter he sent to them, and kept in touch with the company through personal ads where he signed himself as "Arthur Francis Grayson", which he said stood for "AntiFreeze Guy". Alone at his home, Pearce had started watching television compulsively and had been fascinated by the drama-documentary about the former policeman, Rodney Whitchelo, who was jailed for extortion in 1990. Pearce believed that he, with his marketing and PR skills, could do better. He set out to prove it. The fact that he killed people before requesting a ransom suggests a personal motive, even though it involves enriching himself. It can't be excluded that he is a disgruntled and/or former employee of SoftCo, though it is more likely that his rage was directed at society in general. Likewise, his choice of the product could be relevant or not. In all likelihood, he wrote letters to people in positions of power and, feeling ignored by them, he escalated to the poisonings. Also, the offender probably keeps a journal of some kind, detailing his activities and talking about his frustrations.I don't expect he has got any remorse whatsoever. He wasan arrogant man who looked at me like I was a piece of dirt during thetrial. They would put tape on one of the scanners so when the associate tried to scan their badge, it wouldn’t work. The workers had to input their four-digit ID into the computer to put up the assistance menu. And from there they would cancel the item. what’s known as “consumer terrorism” where dangerous substances are introduced to food or other consumer products, that put people’s health at risk. Sometimes done just for fun, and sometimes with criminal intent or even extortion, in extreme cases threats of chemical agents and neurotoxins have been used.

His ‘day job’ was working as a janitor at the county hospital. About a week before his case was set to come up for a trial, I received word from the Superior Court Clerk’s office that the case was going to be dismissed because the defendant had died. Your motivations were greed and an insatiable appetite for notoriety,' he told Pearce. 'These offences were particularly serious.' He had showed a cynical disregard for the safety of members of the public and it was only through good fortune that no one had been fatally injured. 'Your plan was to terrorise the public, particularly the staff of Barclays and Sainsbury's.'

a b Savill, Richard (5 May 2001). "Bungling letter bomber put on too few stamps". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 28 February 2016 . Retrieved 28 April 2011. However, she possessed immense charm and made people feel they wanted to help her. One day, as she was telling the Gray’s Inn librarian that she had not been successful in finding a pupillage, she was overheard by the great criminal advocate of his day, CGL Du Cann, father of Richard and Edward, who took her on. Later she joined the set of Edward Cussen, then senior Treasury counsel at the Old Bailey. Detective Sergeant Rodney Whitchelo either read the document or independently decided to act on the methodology we had outlined. He threatened a major supermarket chain that he would poison baby food if he was not paid off. The piece told the story of Rodney Witchelo who mounted a campaign against a supermarket and food manufacturers in 1988. On 17 February 2001, over six months after the receipt of the first demand and three months since the last letter from "Sally", the police made a major breakthrough. Detective Constable Alan Swanton, a junior detective on the case, spotted one of the people caught by the surveillance of the postbox who had yet to be identified. The man was carrying a fuel container, which Swanton believed had come from a nearby filling station. Officers obtained CCTV footage from the filling station, where their suspect had paid by cheque, and identified the man as Robert Edward Dyer. [1]

What he wanted was the completion of the grand plan,' she said. 'The object of the exercise was some form of mental stimulation.' Pearce, who had pleaded guilty last week, started his professional life with great ambitions, said Mrs Radford. He had embarked on a career in advertising and advanced upwards via a series of job changes. He had then run a restaurant, which had initially been successful, but had fallen foul of the economic climate. He had then moved into home renovations.Soon after his arrest and before trial, he escaped custody. He jumped into the Connecticut River on a moonless night and went under. Nobody saw the fellow swim onto shore and he disappeared into the night. I used to be a Park Ranger with the Los Angeles Police Department. Once I rolled up on a homeless guy with a pipe to his lips inside a park’s fenced-in daycare area. It was after hours and he had broken the gate to enter. In his possession were tools, and a half trash bag full of Mary Jane. Hertfordshire Police - who led the investigation because Tesco’s head office is in Welwyn Garden City - had 100 officers working on it at one point. Thinking we finally had the one killer piece of evidence we needed to end her reign of deceit, I brought the evidence to the supervisor. This was not ‘the final nail in the coffin’ so to speak, in fact, last I heard she still works there, not as a cashier though, so I guess that was a small victory.