Today’s story comes from the Isle of Sheppey, an island of 36 square miles off the northern coast of Kent, neighbouring the Thames Estuary, about 40 miles south-east of central London with a population of about 40,000. There are three prisons on the Island so close to 3,000 inmates are based there. There is a lot of history around the Island including being attacked by Vikings and occupied by the Dutch, but today it is probably best known for the many holiday camps across the north coast, which is the focus of today story.
You will have seen people with metal detectors scouring our beaches at low tide looking for bits of treasure. And so was the case at low tide on the north coast of the Isle of Sheppey on the morning of Wednesday 7 August 2013. The tide was low as the detectorist roamed the sand looking for any secrets revealed by the tide ebbing away. Then out of the corner of his eye on the tide line he spotted something unusual. As he approached, he could see to his horror that it was the dead body of an adult man. And it was very clear that this man had not died of natural causes – he had been violently attacked and it seemed to his untrained eye, murdered. Detectives would later confirm this as the man had in fact suffered 62 blows to his body – blunt force injuries and it looked as though he had been stamped on.
The police press conference brought this news to the wider public, confirming that a body had been found between the Little Groves caravan site and Isle of Sheppey Holiday Village, in Leysdown – the most popular part of Sheppey for holidaymakers. The man, yet to be identified, had clearly been the victim of a violent attack.
Addressing the media, the lead investigator Det Ch Insp Clayden said: “Immediately it became apparent we were dealing with a murder investigation. The injuries that had been sustained were clearly caused by other parties. It was a vicious attack that had been subjected to the gentleman, clearly with the intent to kill him.”
He added, “The gravity of the assault suggested that it was someone who was known to the assailant, or assailants, and on that basis, no-one should really be concerned about their own personal safety.” Finally, he made clear that police wanted to speak to anyone who saw or heard anything near the beach between 8pm on the Tuesday night and when the body was found early the following morning.
If you know the Isle of Sheppey, you will know that it is a pretty transient place with over 50 holiday camps and lots of people just visiting for a weekend or a few days, so detectives were aware of the urgency needed in speaking to as many visitors before they left the area. With this in mind, Detective Clayden told how officers would be present at caravan parks in Sheppey that night with other officers at Warden Bay village hall “24/7” over the coming days so potential witnesses could report anything they had seen or heard that might be of interest to the inquiry.
The police needed a break. And quickly. Nobody had been reported missing and the area around the head had been so severely beaten it was hard to distinguish any features. The man had been naked from the waist down and there was no wallet or any other means of identification. The only potential clue they had to his identity was a distinctive silver signet ring in the shape of a dragon with red eyes found nearby. The image of this was circulated online in the hope that someone would recognise such an unusual piece of jewellery.
Three days later on the 10th of August, detectives named the victim as 34-year-old Gary Pocock from Dagenham in East London. Gary had been staying for the summer at Leysdown on the Isle of Sheppey. During the summer this is the bustling part of the Island with many people owning chalets and caravans in the area as well as people who just stayed for a holiday one year before going somewhere else the year after. Inquiries into Gary revealed that he was a caretaker who could be seen as a little vulnerable. For example, before his mum and Dad had died, they had been concerned enough to ask his friends to look out for them once they had gone. He was pretty introverted and not always as comfortable as he would like in social situations and tended to spend a lot of his spare time on fantasy games such as World of Warcraft. Places where he could lose himself in another world. At the time of his death, he was living with his partner and her children – everyone told officers how the relationship was a strong and happy one.
He had inherited some money following the death of his parents, so he asked his friend Mark Terry, who lived locally, for some advice on how to invest this money. He had known Mark through family connections and had also carried out some odd jobs for him such as gardening and a bit of building. Mark was a bit of a geezer and also had a couple of chalets on the Isle of Sheppey where he was very well known. His advice to Gary was to get a chalet on the Isle of Sheppey. To Gary, this sounded a great way to spend the cash as it would be a place his partner and young children could enjoy with him by the seaside and weeks later the purchase had all gone through and Gary and his family were en-route to spend the summer on Sheppey, in a chalet just a few places away from Mark Terry, his wife Lisa and his family. The sun was shining, Sheppey was packed, and life was good.
On the night of the 6 August, Mark arranged a boy’s night out with Gary, his son and some of his friends and people whom he knew on Sheppey. The first venue was the nightclub Merlin’s, which was a super busy venue. After a few beers here, they moved on down the busy promenade past all the amusement arcades to the ‘Talk of the Town’ pub which was another really popular place for people to go. But by the next morning, whilst all the others were home, there was no sign of Gary, and his partner was understandably worried. Mark Terry called by and told her that the night before when they were out, Gary had got together with another woman, and he had been seen leaving the Talk of the Town with her. He had no idea where he was now, presumably still with the woman from the night before. Lisa Terry spent a lot of time with her offering the support that a good friend does as there was still no news from Gary. It was out of character from him, and she thought maybe he was just too embarrassed about what had happened to come back. But then news of the body being found spread around the park – it was one of those places, where lots of people knew one another and spend a lot of time socialising, so the news didn’t take long to spread. Wendy was more than concerned fearing that this could explain why Gary hadn’t come back the night before. Then she received a text saying ‘Can I come home tonight x’ from someone who said it was Gary, but the phone wasn’t Gary’s number. Still, she thought there must be some simple explanation for this, and her main sense was relief that Gary was safe and well and not the poor man who had washed up on the beach that day. She set off for home in Dagenham but on her arrival, there was still no sign of Gary and when he still wasn’t home by the next morning, she was seriously worried. Then looking through social media, the saw the picture of the signet ring found on the man from the Isle of Sheppey and her heart sank. She knew for certain now that Gary was dead. Next, she called her friend mark Terry back on Sheppey to tell him the news and Mark called the police. He was on the phone for a couple of minutes explaining they had all been out for the night and that Gary had gone off with another woman from the Talk of the Town pub. He just didn’t know how he could have ended up dead.
The beach was secured by the police as they scored the area for any clues. Sheppey does not have houses looking directly over the sand – it is very low lying, and this would be a major flood risk – so nobody would have been likely to see what had taken place on the beach. But officers did discover a bloody tooth – presumably from Gary – and some marks in the sand suggesting the body had been dragged down to the sea. This led them to believe that Gary’s body had actually been put in the sea after he was attacked to take his body away, but that it had washed up again the next day on the incoming tide. If the tides had been different that day, there is a strong possibility that his body would have been taken out to sea and never discovered. Also washed up on the beach were two baseball bats, one of which was broken in half and officers believed this was almost certainly two of the weapons used in the attack. But still, detectives were no closer to knowing who had killed Gary or why. They checked out CCTV and knocked on the doors of the 1000 or so caravans and chalets close to where Gary had been found as they looked for any witnesses or leads that could help the investigation. But detectives were also very aware that Mark Terry and his mates had been out with Gary the night before he was killed, so he was probably the last person to have seen Gary alive. Could he or anyone else in that group of friends have possibly been involved in any way?
Meanwhile, the friends and other locals posted flowers near the spot where Gary had been found. And Mark Terry and his son, 21 year old Matthew Terry who had also been out with the group on the night of Gary’s attack, both spoke to local television cameras, talking about their shock, sense of loss and desire that whoever had done this to their friend Gary was caught and brought to justice.
Despite having been in the sea, forensics came back positively on the two baseball bats. They both contained the DNA of Gary confirming they had been used in his attack. Under tape on one of the bats was a fingerprint which was matched to a 19 year old man from the Isle of Sheppey, James West. Analysis of the CCTV from a number of sources on the route showed the group that night was Gary, Mark Terry – his friend from London Christopher Bones, and a 15 year old local man, Ritchie Zborowski. At one stage when the group was in the Talk of the Town pub Matthew Terry left the group and drove towards the house of James West. Was this significant? And more CCTV from just after midnight showed the four main men walking from the pub on to the beach – Gary, Mark Terry, Christopher Bones and Ritchie Zborowski. But 40 minutes later, only three of the group were captured on cctv – there was no Gary. They had told police that Gary had met a girl in the Talk of the Town pub, but it was quite clear from the cctv that the four men had left that pub together to go to the beach. A week later, the five men in the group were arrested and each one was interviewed separately. Detectives knew for certain the story they had told was a lie. They had DNA from James West which linked him to one of the baseball bats used to hit Gary. Now it was time to see how they behaved under pressure and whether any of them would tell the truth about what had really happened on that evening.
All denied having any knowledge of what had happened to Gary and stuck to the story about him having left Talk of the Town with another woman. So, the police needed more evidence from some of the other leads. One of which was the text sent apparently from Gary to his partner from another phone number. This phone was traced back to a man in the Dagenham area who said he had been approached at a bus stop by a youngish man saying he had argued with his girlfriend and needed to borrow his phone to send a text. The man was happy to allow him to do this. The question for the police was who was this young man? Buses carry cctv in London and detectives identified over 50 buses that had passed the bus stop where the text had been sent in the hour or so around that time. This was a lot of cctv to sift through. Finally they found the moment and they saw the man walking away to get in a waiting car, but they couldn’t quite make out the car registration, but now knowing what they were looking for they checked other bus cctv in the area looking for images of the car and finally clocked it as it sat at traffic lights and got a perfectly clear view of the full registration. The car belonged to Matthew Terry. This was a massive step forward in the investigation or as detectives on the team would call it, a ‘golden nugget’ moment as this meant the five men were going to have some serious problems trying to talk their way out of this.
And finally, on the fourth interview, one of the men cracked. Zbrowski told how he was there when Gary was attacked but he felt he had to be due to the influence of Mark Terry. But he was clear that he had nothing to do with the attack and in fact it revolted him, and he was scared. Detectives discovered he was involved in sexual activity with a girl within hours of the attack, demonstrating little in the way of revulsion. But that aside, this was another key moment as detectives now had enough evidence to charge all five men with murder under the law of joint enterprise – which, as you are probably aware, means you are seen as guilty for someone else’s death, because you were part of the situation that could have encouraged the incident, or were part of it without trying to stop it from happening.
The trial took place the following year at Maidstone Crown Court and all five men pleaded not guilty to murdering Gary Pocock.
The reason for the attack was laid out by a local Sheppey man, Mark Thacker. He told how he was with one of the men on trial, Jamie West, who was a friend of his when Mark Terry – who he knew well and saw as a mate – invited them to go to a second Chalet that Mark Terry owned, which was empty and being redecorated at the time. Matthew Terry, Christopher Bones and Ritchie Zborowski were also at this meeting. Thacker told how there had been rumours that Gary had acted inappropriately with an underage girl – these rumours were not in any way substantiated I should point out, they were purely rumours. Thacker claimed Mark Terry said that Gary needed to be “beaten up, warned off and sent back to London. He didn’t say nothing about killing him,” added Thacker. “He said we should beat him up. I said he had to get cold, hard evidence because I couldn’t go on word of mouth.” In an earlier recorded interview with police, Thacker said: “I said: ‘I’m not on this, I’m not doing this.’ I didn’t know if it was true or not. I wanted to know it was 100% true. Family-run garage R Jackson Motors in Herne Bay close
“Whoever done this has gone OTT,” he said. “The idea was to beat the geezer up and get him off the site. That’s what I thought the plan was.”
The gang lured him to the beach after a night’s drinking. And Gary can’t have suspected a thing, why would he, he was on holiday having a great time and out for drinks with people he saw as his friends. Being attacked was the last thing on his mind. But when it happened it was brutal. One of the gang said that at first he tried to run away but when caught, he went down and never got up again as they laid into him as he screamed in pain and terror. Once it was over and he was no longer moving, Mark said they had to dispose of him so he was dragged to the sea where it was hoped he would never wash up. Then on the way home, the group discussed the alibi to cover their actions. CCTV of this footage was pretty sickening as Bones was cheering, clearly pleased with his work that night.
Ritchie Zborowski told the court that while he witnessed the fatal attack, he did not take part and nor did the other local man, 19 year old Jamie West and he alleged that Bones, his friend Matthew Terry and his father Mark Terry were responsible for the attack. He said: “I knew it was going to happen, but I didn’t know when or where. Chris seemed all bubbly up for a fight. I put on that I was happy… I was panicking. Matt run over and smacked him all over the head, I’ve seen him go down and then he tried to run. Then I saw the hit, connected straight on the back of his head. Gary fell to the floor screaming. He couldn’t run because Mark, Chris and Matt were punching him, kicking him, hitting him with the bat. Then there was an explosion of blood. Mark was opening his legs and stamping on him seven to eight times. I saw Matt hit him with the bat 20 to 30 times, bringing it down from around his head.”
The opening of his legs to hit Gary in the genital area and the pulling down of his trousers is of course symbolic for what they believed he had been guilty of doing. It must have been utterly agonising for Gary.
After returning to their chalet at just before 1am on 7 August, Mark Terry ordered the group to remove their clothing and take showers and the clothes were bleached. Christopher Bones was said to be pouring celebratory drinks for all. Matthew Terry and Bones returned to the scene of the crime at 3.30am to check the body had been taken out to sea and reported to the rest of the group that it had gone.
Mark Terry, the ringleader, did not even have the courage to go into the witness box during the trial, reserving his bravery for a 5 to 1 fight against a defenceless man on a beach.
But his son Matthew – who incidentally had wanted to be a police officer – made clear in his evidence that his dad was involved. He told how he had returned to London when his dad phoned him on the evening of August 7.
“It felt like the conversation lasted for ages,” he told the jury. “My dad phoned me and told me first of all that the body on the beach was Gary’s. I remember I was silent. He didn’t tell me too many details, but he said: ‘I had a hand in it. I was a bit lost for words really. I was a bit shocked. He said he needed me to do something for him. He wanted me to go to the shop and buy a SIM card and send a text to Gary’s girlfriend saying I’m Gary, that I’m all right and I’m in the local area. He said do it off a SIM card that can’t be traced. I didn’t know what to say. I said: ‘I don’t want to be involved in anything’ and he said: ‘You are involved.’ I remember those few words. I just sat there for a while. I didn’t know what to do. It felt like forever. I just didn’t know what to do. I wasn’t looking at time. It was as if time just paused.”
Matthew Terry was with his pal Bones at the time. “He asked me what was the matter and I explained it to him,” he continued.
“I think he was prompting me. I was trying to make excuses – I didn’t have her number, couldn’t afford a SIM card, what if I was caught on CCTV, what shop to do it? He wasn’t annoyed but he was very assertive. He was saying: ‘I need you to do it.’ He sounded desperate.” So, in the end he did it with a bus drivers mobile. Matthew Terry continued: “Now I think I should have made a different decision and not done it but at the time that didn’t go through my mind. He wanted me to do this and what else could I do? When done he texted his dad ending with a smiley emoji to which his dad replied: “That’s good son” and ended his text with two kisses.
Like the others, Matthew terry denied playing any part in the actual murder.
At the conclusion of the 10 week trial, the jury convicted 44 year old Mark Terry of murder and he was sent to prison for a minimum of 26 years. His son 21 year old Matthew Terry was also convicted of murder and sent away for 19 years. 21 year old Christopher Bones was also found guilty of murder and sent to jail for 18 years. 15 year old Ritchie Zborowski was convicted of murder and got 13 years in behind bars.
19 year old Jamie West was found guilty of manslaughter for which he will spend 7 years in prison and Mark Terry’s wife Lisa admitted perverting the course of justice by telling a witness not to inform police some of the men had showered following the violence.
None showed any emotion except Zborowski who waved to the public gallery.
After the trial, Senior investigating officer Det Ch Insp Jon Clayden of Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate, said: “From start to finish, the web of lies this group attempted to spin to cover up what they had done is nothing short of staggering.
Following a lengthy and thorough investigation, we were able to prove beyond all reasonable doubt that four members of this group were responsible for this callous and unprovoked murder of a man they previously viewed as a good friend. One other member was found guilty of manslaughter.
Our deepest sympathies remain with Mr Pocock’s partner and his family who have had to go through a trial and have what happened that night dragged back up. I do hope the fact these five have been tried and found guilty for the horrible and cowardly crime they committed will be of some comfort to those close to Mr Pocock.
Another shocking story. When you read more about Mark Terry you appreciate that he was someone that people looked up to, especially the younger people in Sheppey and near his home in Barking. He seemed to get respect. But in this case, because of his age and influence in the group he should have been the person to stop the attack progressing, but instead seemed to wind-up his much younger companions on the night out. I think the cctv of Christopher Bones punching the air in celebration after the murder is about as sickening as it gets. Rather than wondering what the hell he has just done, he seems high on the exuberation of the evening’s events. He will have at least 18 years to consider his actions and reflect on them. And that is another of the things with this case, from what I can see the younger men are not stupid – Christopher Bones and Matthew were at university and yet they have just tossed their lives away for just a few moments of extreme violence as part of an out of control pack. It makes no sense. And if we feel like that, we can only imagine how Gary’s family and friends feel. To be murdered by his mates on a night out apparently due to an incident with a young woman – by the way, the police confirmed that they received no complaint of any inappropriateness from Gary. But even if there was a report, this should have been dealt with in the correct way, not by a vigilante group dishing out their own form of justice.
Our thoughts of course go out to Gary’s family, friends and partner who has not just lost a partner but a loving father to her children. It was bad enough to experience Gary’s death, but with the extra pain caused by the fake text claiming he was alive and then sitting through a 10 week trial hearing every miniscule detail of events it must have been terrible. And how can she ever get over the fact that the ringleader was Mark Terry, probably the closest person to a best friend that Gary Pocock had ever had…
This story was released as episode 416 of the UK True Crime Podcast, ‘Horror on the Beach’. The following sources were used:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_of_Sheppey
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-23603453
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMPsosstNnE
https://www.casemine.com/judgement/uk/618d6198b50db9a0d4cb936f