A LOCAL bobby once described his time on the beat in the Isles of Scilly as “like Heartbeat but less frenetic”.

But now residents of the usually idyllic islands off Cornwall are gripped by the possibility that their community may have had its first murder since 1976.

The body of popular barman Josh Clayton, 23, was found washed up on the uninhabited island of Tean in September 2015, ten days after he went missing after a drunken party on nearby Tresco.

Last week, the inquest into the young man’s death was halted dramatically after new claims emerged that Josh had been involved in a scuffle at the party with Eastern European seasonal workers.

There were also allegations that the party, organised by the son of friends of Prince Charles, had involved soft and hard drugs and that a girl had been sexually assaulted.

Police said it was the first they knew of the new claims.

Coroner Ian Arrow discharged the jury and concluded that the authorities would have to re-interview witnesses.

Meanwhile Josh’s family denounced the original police investigation and called for the case to be referred to the Crown Prosecution Service.

Before being halted, the inquest in Plymouth had also heard that Josh could have been pushed into the water, and that there is no evidence that he drowned.

Suddenly a tragedy that united islanders in mourning has set the close-knit community of 2,200 people speculating feverishly.

What really occurred that night on Tresco, an island that is owned by the Duchy of Cornwall and beloved by Prince Charles?

Could it be the first murder on the islands since January 1976, when a farmworker beat to death his son, Stephen Menheniott, 18, and buried him in a shallow grave?

That case made national news when the trial judge slammed the local island community which “in three years seems to have done nothing to help that boy, who was obviously in fear of his father”.

Meanwhile, Josh’s family believe his disappearance should never have been treated as a missing person’s inquiry, and that a third party involvement was likely.

One Scillonian said: “It is very hard to drown yourself on Tresco, especially when there is a very low tide, which there was that night. You would have to walk a long way to reach the water then wade out.”

It is very hard to drown yourself on Tresco

A statement released on behalf of Josh’s family on Friday stated that “the police investigation had failed them” and that Devon and Cornwall police had “lost the family’s confidence”. They have called for the investigation to be handed over to a different police force.

It is all a far cry from the gentle Heartbeat-style world of policing portrayed in blogs by local bobby Sgt Colin Taylor, who was based on the main island of St Mary’s for five years until September last year. He headed a team of three officers, one community support officer and a special constable.

He wrote that the height of crime he faced was a punch-up between chefs over whether rock salt or sea salt was best, and a pensioner parking a golf buggy on double yellow lines.

Last year the blog became a book, The Life Of a Scilly Sergeant and TV rights have been sold.

But not all locals are fans. One elderly man said on condition of anonymity: “I thought he was an idiot before. Now I think he’s a double idiot.”

Tresco is one of five inhabited islands of the 200 Scilly isles, and is two-and-a-half miles long by a mile wide. Since 1834 it has been leased from the Duchy of Cornwall by the Dorrien-Smith family, who run it as a tourist resort.

The current owners, Robert Dorrien-Smith and his wife Lucy, are friends of the Prince of Wales.

Their son Tristan organised the party at a remote drinking spot attended by Josh before his disappearance early on September 13.

Josh, originally from Taunton, Somerset, managed the bar of island’s Ruin Beach Cafe. The inquest heard Josh drank booze he had brought along and one witness said he was “smashed and looked vacant.”

Another insisted he had been his normal affectionate self.

RELATED STORIES

At 1.30am he tried to drive off in a golf buggy but a young woman stopped him and said she would walk home with him if he waited. When she came back several minutes later Josh had gone.

When his body was later found on rocks of nearby island Tean with his wallet, driving licence and credit cards on him it was thought by police, led by Sgt Taylor, to have been an accidental death.

Witnesses at the party were told to fill out forms telling what they knew. Painter and decorator Leroy Thomas, who had mentioned nothing about it on his police form, told the inquest Josh had clashed with a large group of Polish or Hungarian men, thought to be seasonal workers.

He said that during the row Josh’s T-shirt was torn. He added that later that evening Josh was “ranting and raving” before running off into a gorse thicket saying he was going to kill himself.

Mr Thomas, 42, of St Day, Cornwall, claimed he had reported the altercation to Tristan.

Tristan did not attend the inquest — despite a request from the Coroner that he should do so — because he is abroad.

Pathologist Dr Russell Delaney had earlier told the inquest there was no sign of drowning and that the cause of Josh’s death was unknown. No drugs were found in his system and he was only two and a half times the legal drink-drive limit.

There were bloodstains on his T-shirt but forensic tests were not done and the shirt was destroyed.

The pathologist admitted it was “possible” Josh had been pushed into the sea. But he also said he could have fallen or walked into the water, or been lying on the sand and washed out by the tide.

He said: “There were no injuries to show he had been violently assaulted prior to his death. There were no major traumatic injuries.”

There were no injuries to show he had been violently assaulted prior to his death

Lawyer Thomas Leeper, representing the Clayton family, said they wanted the case referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions as the police investigation had been “inadequate to date”.

He told the coroner: “Mr Thomas’s suggestion that Tristan Dorrien-Smith has information relating to the circumstances of Josh’s disappearance is of great concern in the light of Mr Dorrien-Smith’s failure to abide with your request to attend and give evidence at this inquest.”

Josh’s mother Tracey Clayton described her son as “a very loving, caring and selfless man” and insisted that it was completely out of character to leave the party without saying goodbye to anyone.

She said: “That simply wasn’t his style . . . He was very friendly and open and he simply wouldn’t have slipped away without letting his friends know unless something extraordinary had happened”.

Tristan’s father Robert Dorrien-Smith said in a statement: “We are extremely sad for Josh’s family.

“I observed what I believe to have been a very thorough police investigation. Tristan was interviewed. He made a statement at the time and although working abroad, Tristan, like us, will fully co-operate.

Getting anyone to speak on the record about the case is difficult in the tiny community where no one wants to be seen to break ranks.

Warnings were even posted on the online noticeboard instructing locals not to speak to reporters.

But St Mary’s shuttle bus driver Tim Dean said: “It is unthinkable that a crime has been committed but everyone just wants to know what happened. I can’t imagine what the young man’s family must be going through.”

And gardener Roger Hill, 65, said: “I knew Josh from him serving me in the bar. He was well-liked.

There is no good outcome for his family but I hope there was nothing sinister.

“In a place like this that is so quiet it is a shock for anything like this to be suggested.”

A spokesman for Devon and Cornwall Police said: "The Inquest into the death of Joshua Clayton has been adjourned and suspended following new evidence which only emerged during evidence on Tuesday 10th January 2017. This is the first time that Devon and Cornwall Police have been made aware of this new evidence and further investigations will be carried out as a result.”

Source: Read Full Article