Coventry is a Cathedral city in the West Midlands of the UK. After Birmingham, it is the second largest city in the West Midlands and is the most centrally located city in the country. The Cardinal Newman Catholic School in Coventry is named after one of England’s foremost Catholics, Saint John Henry Newman. The school pride themselves with an association with his love of learning and his strong commitment to providing the best pastoral support for those in his care. The schools mission statement today reads as ‘Knowledge through the light of faith’ – but the faith of the entire area was tested to its limits one afternoon in 1992 after a shocking incident in the grounds of the school, and that is the focus of our story today.
When we pick up the story, 30-year-old Thomas Coleman lived in rented accommodation in Scots Lane, in the Radford area of Coventry. Thomas was a popular Irishman – he was quietly spoken, amiable and was always happy to help both friends and neighbours. Thomas had been keen to find work, but it had been difficult for him to secure paid employment. As a consequence, he embarked on a ‘City and Guilds’ horticultural programme, which aimed to help unemployed people get real world experience which would help them find a paid job. This particular programme was run on a site which was leased from the Cardinal Newman School and operated by Coventry City Council.
Much of Thomas’ family including his mother, brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews all lived back across in Ireland, though he had sadly lost his dad in 1988, whom he missed dearly. They had been very close. Alongside his horticultural training, he had also been devoting his time to religion and was described as something as a ‘born again Christian,’ – perhaps prompted as a consequence of having lost his Dad. He spent much of his time attending Bible classes at the Pentecostal Church in Coventry and was particularly active in these classes on a Wednesday evening and a Saturday morning, where he had established a group of close friends.
He had also made friends during his City & Guilds gardening work, including a man named Robert Green who was ten years his junior. The pair struck up a friendship of sorts, although the two men were markedly different people. For instance, Green sported a satanic symbol tattooed across his forehead – as you do – whilst Thomas Coleman placed great faith in his Christian beliefs – as you can see, not the most obvious of friends.
The site where they worked was an interesting one. Whilst flanked by sports pitches, it had been established with gardening very much in mind, and so contained the appropriate equipment and apparatus including an impressive polythene tunnel – for those who find such things impressive. The training centre was completely autonomous, and the buildings were all separate from the main school buildings.
On Thursday 27 February 1992 in the middle of the day, Thomas was working in a greenhouse with Robert Green. On this particular morning, Robert Green had brought with him to work an axe he had made at home. Strange as it could be if you brought an axe to your work, given the work he was doing on his course, this was not an instrument that caused any undue alarm. Quite what had been said between the two men that day is unclear, but what was crystal clear was the brutal violence that occurred next. Whilst Thomas was kneeling down trowelling cement in the greenhouse, Robert Green strode up behind him and began raining axe blows down onto his head. The sight and the noises were distressing, but there was nobody to help Thomas when he needed them the most.
Two young boys had been moving between lessons at the time of the attack, and, hearing a noise, they went towards it out of sheer curiosity. The horror of what they saw would live with them forever. Nearby workmen were also alerted to what was happening, four of whom also went across to check out what was going on. Once again, the sight was something they would never be able to ‘un-see’ ever again. The workmen and the two schoolboys required hospital treatment for the shock and trauma experienced. A fellow workmate raised the alarm, and when the paramedics arrived on the scene, they were confronted by the awful sight of Green berating the body, shouting that “Now the devil has taken you.” As he brought the axe repeatedly down upon his victim, he was heard to say: “Give satan praise, give satan praise.”
It was clear that Thomas was already dead when the emergency services arrived, and we can only wonder how any of them would recover from the sights they experienced that day. Picture the grim reality – they were met not only with a gruesome sight of a young man who had been murdered in a dreadful attack and decapitated, but the murderer Green stood over his mutilated victim, covered in blood and clearly exhilarated, axe in hand and yelling: “Satan made me do it, the Devil’s took you, the Devil’s took you.” How do the women and men of our emergency services just clock off and get on with everyday stuff after a shift like this?
With Thomas dead, Green, who was still snarling in fury then painted the same satanic symbol, which was tattooed on his forehead, into some newly laid concrete. Chillingly, he then also daubed the same symbol on to the dead man’s forehead. Green was taken into custody.
During this period police used the time to speak to Green about what he had done and also conduct searches in his home. They found that his bedroom was covered in posters and signs of the devil, with books and documents relating to the occult and satanism also being crammed into his flat. During police interviews it became clear just how obsessed Green was with this subject. Indeed, Green considered himself as something of a ‘Devil’s disciple’ – believing that he was acting on behalf of the devil itself and performing vile acts as a result. He boasted of animal sacrifices he had conducted, and a further manifestation of his obsession was apparent in the number of satanic tattoos on both his forehead and across his arms. It also became clear that this murder was pre-meditated when it was revealed that he had designed and crafted his own murder weapon. The axe that he had brought to work on the day of the killing had been made with a pointed metal head, designed, it appeared, with some sort of ritual killing very much at the forefront of his mind. But just what had driven Green to do this and why choose Thomas Coleman as a victim – a more gentle and harmless man it would have been impossible to find?
Green claimed he killed Thomas as that in the months leading up the murder, Thomas had been trying to install into him his own Christian beliefs and telling him how it could help him navigate a purer way through life. Green told police: ‘He started on me, pushing the Bible – and he went too far.’
Thomas Coleman’s murder of course caused shock in the community. Pastor Jim McGlade had just begun getting to know Thomas, but he said other members of the Immanuel Christian Centre had been truly shocked and devastated by the events which had seen one of their members so tragically killed. He said: ‘Everybody loved Tommy. He was actively involved in the Bible classes on Wednesday night and Saturday mornings. Everyone in this place is just numb. We are just waiting to see what happens as regards the funeral. Tommy’s an Irish lad and I think most of his family are in Ireland. He was well-liked. He was a quiet lad with a pleasant personality. We are just really shattered by it all. We are trying to help the best we can. I have been in contact with Cardinal Newman School to see if we can help in any way with the people who were in shock.’ Thomas’ neighbours back in Ireland could only echo similar sentiments of those offered by the church pastor – describing a well natured man that was always willing to help with things like clearing snow from people’s driveways in the winter time, putting bins out for older neighbours or any other such difficulties that may arise.
Then back in Coventry, there were questions posed about the future of the training school. Chiefs from Coventry City Council were immediately at pains to defend the school and distance itself from the violence which had occurred there, asserting that there was absolutely no possibility that the training school would be closed. One Director said: “The centre has a very good reputation in the city. It produces trainees of a standard to move out and gain employment. This was a one-off incident. It was not linked to the school, the centre or indeed the city council.” The principal education officer also spoke reinforcing the mantra that this was purely an unpreventable and random attack, by saying: “The school and the centre have been very good neighbours although they do not come into contact often. Nothing untoward has happened before yesterday. He continued that there were currently eighteen horticultural trainees who were supervised by two trainers – so lack of supervision hadn’t been an issue. And the welfare of staff at the training centre was a major priority and all were offered welfare meetings with specially trained staff. Counsellors were also on hand to speak with anyone that had been traumatised by the incident.
Detective Supt Malcolm Ross took charge of the inquiry into the murder. The Detective would later be involved in the Hillsborough football tragedy and was assigned to the West Midlands Police team tasked to investigate what happened that day. For now, though, he had a very grim job at his door with the investigation of one of the area’s most brutal murders. Green had denied murder but admitted the manslaughter of Thomas Coleman on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
In July 1992, the case arrived at Birmingham Crown Court where Robert Green announced to the courtroom that he believed he was the devil’s disciple, and he committed the act as he had received a message from the devil for him to make such a sacrifice. He told the court he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. The prosecution reiterated how the killer who was standing in the dock, was literally ‘obsessed with the occult.’ The KC said: ‘He regards himself in terms of a satanic instrument, one of the devil’s disciples.’ Interestingly he said that Green had become increasingly disturbed by Coleman’s Christian beliefs – but by the same token Coleman had become increasingly alarmed by Green’s attitudes. It was as though a melting pot of varying attitudes and beliefs was, certainly for one man at least, creating a vitriolic anger which was building – until Green could no longer control himself. He stated once more that it was Thomas Coleman’s religious views which provoked him into the attack. The KC continued: “Thomas Coleman was a thoroughly quiet and pleasant man who was wholly inoffensive to anybody. Thomas became very disturbed and upset about what he perceived to be the accused’s very wrong beliefs and attitudes. At the same time, the accused had become equally disturbed by the deceased’s Christian beliefs. It is clear that during the course of the few weeks preceding the killing, the accused became more and more determined to kill Thomas Coleman.’
Dr Margaret Munro was a consultant forensic psychiatrist at Liverpool’s Ashworth secure hospital, where Ian Brady, one of the Moors Murderers spent more than thirty years until his death in 2017. The psychiatrist spoke to Green in preparation for his trial, and in court she offered an insight into his mental state – again, with the usual proviso on this podcast with all so-called experts, that this was just one opinion, you can always pay for others. She advised the court that Green was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, and that Green had told her that the night before the killing, in his words, “The devil ordered his son to be consigned to hell.” He interpreted this as meaning that he had to kill someone, and Thomas Coleman’s contrary beliefs ensured that it was him. Anthony Palmer QC had the unenviable task of defending Green. A tough gig. In way of any kind of mitigation he claimed that his clients problems had more than likely begun when as a younger man he began taking LSD and then becoming enthralled by satanism. This combination was a dangerous time-bomb which gnarled away at Green for some time before he finally arrived at his horrible conclusion of ‘having’ to commit murder.
At the conclusion of the harrowing trial, the Judge addressed Green saying: “This was an appalling and pointless slaughter of a totally inoffensive young man. I am satisfied that at the time you were, and to a lesser extent still are, thoroughly deranged and deluded. You continue to present a danger to others and, although I regard this as much less important, to yourself.”
Considering the diagnosis of his mental capacity, Green was detained for an undetermined sentence under the Mental Health Act, which effectively meant that he could be held under this sentence for an unlimited period of time. However, despite the Judges assertion that he could still pose a threat to both him and others, he was – incredibly – released from this order after several years on the basis that he would have continued supervision within the community from mental health services. I appreciate I am no mental health or re-integrating offenders into the community expert, but I find this staggering – would you have wanted him living around the corner from You? I wonder what you make of this decision.
In December 2016 though, the Judges belief that he still posed a danger appeared to prove him correct. Green, who was now forty-six years old – was at a medical centre in Coventry receiving injections of anti-psychotic medication as part of his supervision. When he arrived at the centre he was clearly agitated and aggressive and the nurses, fully aware of his past crimes, were understandably jittery around him. Two nurses went into a treatment room with him, whilst two more members of staff waited outside the door. When inside the room his levels of aggression increased further and aimed it at the nurses when he was told about a potential change to his medication. He began pacing up and down and squared up to the male nurse, threatening to end his own life as well as theirs. He told them he could, I quote: “Kill you right now”, and that the worst they could do would be to send him back to secure psychiatric unit. He continued to make threats to the terrified staff, telling them: “You’ll all pay. I’ll do worse to you than I’ve done to others in the past.” But despite the chilling threats, and their absolute belief that he was certainly capable of carrying them out, the two nurses persevered and gave him the injections, after which, to their immense relief, he then left. Relieved staff were then able to call the police.
Pleading guilty to these charges of threats to kill, Green was due to be sentenced at Warwick Crown Court in February 2017. However, the case was adjourned for a psychiatric report to be prepared, and in this time, Green made a serious suicide attempt which left him hospitalised in a coma for six weeks and with permanent brain damage. This led to a succession of adjournments awaiting a final prognosis on his mental state, and all the while he remained unfit to attend court. The prosecutor referred the judge to a psychotic report which stated that Green had been detained as an involuntary patient in a psychiatric unit, with an indefinite restriction on his release.
At Warwick Crown Court the judge took an unusual course of action for such a serious offence, by imposing an absolute discharge. He explained his decision by saying the following: “Since that time, the defendant made a determined effort to end his own life, resulting in him being hospitalised in a coma for six weeks. The consequence is that he suffered injury to the brain with permanent effects on him. He was already diagnosed as suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, and he now has additional mental and physical injuries. The fact, I am told by a psychiatrist, is that he now requires twenty-four care, and he is in hospital as a compulsory patient, subject to a restriction as to his release. The opinion is that, for the foreseeable future, he remains a danger to himself and to anyone else he comes across, and he therefore remains under a restriction. I see no purpose in prolonging these proceedings and will therefore order an absolute discharge for those reasons.” He stressed: “I make it clear the order is made on a pragmatic basis, and not because the defendant was without blame.” So effectively the Judge issued the discharge as Robert Green was to be held in a psychiatric unit from which it would be very unlikely that he would ever be released. And that is the latest we know about Robert Green – maybe he is still being cared for at the hospital at our expense as you listen to this podcast. And remember, when he committed his last offence, he was just in his mid-40’s so he could conceivably require another forty years of around the clock medical assistance. Just to finish the story, Thomas Coleman’s mother Annie died in 2009, and so Thomas now rests at peace with both her and his father. With the strength of Thomas’ faith at the forefront of how he lived his life, we can hope that in death, he is afforded some solace of reunion with his parents.
So, what do you make of what we have heard today.
To me, this story is the very essence of my interest in true crime. Leaving your house in the morning as always just off to do normal things when extreme violence strikes. And what is even worse is that the attack was pre-meditated so that in the previous days whilst Thomas was just living life and chatting with Green, he had no idea that he was in fact living his last hours.
Poor Thomas. Just living his life, and it was through gaining experience in horticulture as he looked for a job that he came into contact with Green. How could he ever have known that Green had such mental challenges – we can imagine they had a number of conversations about religion, but Thomas could not have thought for a moment that his loose friendship would cost him his life.
Green did have an obvious satanic tattoo on his forehead, which you could argue was a sign of his interests. But, and correct me if I am wrong here, he wasn’t breaking any law by having whatever he wanted tattooed on his forehead. And if we ponder on the actual killing itself as Thomas was kneeling down, we can only hope that he lost conscious quickly and so was unaware of the horror of what was happening to him. And I mentioned the emergency services – you know, especially the police get a lot of stick, some of it deserved. But what sort of job can you do outside the emergency services where you are exposed to a situation like this as part of your normal work. And then how are you expected to just live normal life again a few hours later and do normal things like the washing up. You can see why people in these roles are naturally drawn to each other, as who else can ever really understand?
One other point here is the question of what society does with someone like Green. Recently with the appalling murders in Southport, people I knew who had always been totally against the death penalty were happy to make an exception for the killer, rather than pay to keep him in prison for the rest of his life – however long that might be, I don’t anticipate too long do you? It is similar with green – 24 hour round the clock care is super expensive and is he someone we want to spend that money on for the next forty years. I wonder what you think. But enough about Green.
As always, we must finish the story thinking of the victim of this most brutal attack, Thomas Coleman. As someone with a strong religious belief, Thomas Coleman would fully expect that when his time in this life was over, he would be reunited with friends and family in the next. Whether you have faith or not, let’s hope for Thomas he has found peace in death.
This story was covered in episode 430 of the UK True Crime Podcast under the title, ‘The Devil’s Disciple’.