| Anne Ogilby killing | |
|---|---|
| Part of The Troubles | |
Victim Anne Ogilby |
|
| Location | Hunter Street, Sandy Row, south Belfast, Northern Ireland |
| Date | 24 July 1974 16.00 BST |
| Attack type | Punishment beating |
| Weapon(s) | Bricks, sticks |
| Deaths | 1 Protestant civilian |
| Perpetrator | Sandy Row women's Ulster Defence Association (UDA) unit |
The killing of Anne Ogilby, also known as the "Romper Room killing",[1] took place in Sandy Row, south Belfast, Northern Ireland on 24 July 1974. It was a punishment killing, carried out by members of the Sandy Row women's Ulster Defence Association (UDA) unit. At the time the UDA was a legal loyalist paramilitary organisation. The victim, Anne Ogilby, a 31-year-old Protestant single mother of four, was beaten to death by two teenaged girls after being sentenced to a "rompering" (UDA slang term for a torture session followed by death) at a kangaroo court. Ogilby had been having an affair with a married UDA man, William Young, who prior to his internment, had made her pregnant. His wife, Elizabeth Young, was a member of the Sandy Row women's UDA unit. Ogilby had made defamatory remarks against her in public regarding food parcels. Eight weeks after Ogilby had given birth to Young's son, the women decided that Ogilby would pay for both the affair and remarks with her life. The day following the kangaroo court "trial", they arranged for the kidnapping of Ogilby and her six-year-old daughter, Sharleen outside a Social Services office by UDA man Albert "Bumper" Graham.
A group of UDA women then followed the minibus which brought Ogilby and Sharleen to a disused bakery in Hunter Street, Sandy Row; this empty building had been converted into a UDA club and "romper room". After Sharleen was sent by Graham to a shop to buy sweets, Ogilby was tied to a chair and a hood placed over her head. Two teenagers, Henrietta Cowan and Christine Smith, acting on the orders previously given them by the unit's leader, Elizabeth "Lily" Douglas, proceeded to savagely beat Ogilby to death with sticks and bricks. As Ogilby screamed and pleaded for her life, Sharleen, who had already returned from the shop, overheard her mother being beaten and killed. A later autopsy report revealed that Ogilby had sustained 24 blows to the head and body, 14 of which caused a "severe fracture to the bulk of the skull".
Within weeks of the killing, ten women and one man were arrested in connection with the murder. They were convicted in February 1975 and sentenced to imprisonment. The killing caused widespread revulsion, shock and horror throughout Northern Ireland and remained long in the public psyche even at a time when bombings and killings were daily occurences. The Anne Ogilby killing was investigated by the Historical Enquiries Team (HET) which was established by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) to investigate the most controversial killings carried out during The Troubles.
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In about 1968, Anne Ogilby (born 1942/1943), a slender, dark-haired, attractive Protestant woman transferred to south Belfast from Sion Mills, County Tyrone. She lived a transient lifestyle, regularly changing her address.[2] Sometime prior to 1973, she began living with William Young, a married member of the then-legal Ulster Defence Association (UDA). Young came from the loyalist Donegall Pass area.[3] Ogilby was a single mother who by that time had three children: Sharleen, Stephen and Gary. The boys, however, had been put up for adoption after their birth, leaving the eldest, Sharleen as the only child in her care.[4]
When Young was interned inside the Maze Prison in 1973, she often visited him where he complained that his wife, Elizabeth never sent him food parcels, despite her having been provided with money by the Loyalist Prisoners' Association (LPA).[5] When Ogilby mistakenly repeated this in a Sandy Row pub, the local Sandy Row women's UDA unit of which Elizabeth was a member, overheard her words and became violently angry; especially as Elizabeth was able to prove that she had been sending her husband food parcels.[5] The group was already antagonistic towards her as a result of her affair with Young and her defamatory remarks only added fuel to their wrath. Sandy Row is a staunchly loyalist and Protestant enclave just south of Belfast city centre and the UDA have always had a strong presence there. The Sandy Row unit was not the only women's unit within the UDA during this period. There was a particularily active women's group on the Shankill Road. The members were highly-visible due to the beehive hairstyles they typically wore.[6]
On 23 July 1974, eight weeks after Ogilby gave birth to a premature son, Derek, fathered by Young,[4] five UDA women, including her lover's wife, Elizabeth Young (32), Kathleen Whitla (50, the second-in-command), Josephine Brown (18), Elizabeth Douglas (19), led by the latter's mother, the unit's commander Elizabeth "Lily" Douglas, "arrested" Ogilby at a friend's house in the Suffolk housing estate. They tried her in a kangaroo court held inside a disued bakery which had been converted into a UDA club in Hunter Street, Sandy Row. A total of eight women and two men presided over this "trial"; Elizabeth Young, however, had by then absented herself as she was not part of Douglas' "Heavy Squad". The "Heavy Squad" were the members of the UDA women's unit who meted out punishment beatings. Ogilby was grilled for an hour over her affair with Young and her calumnies regarding the food parcels. Ogilby was informed that if found guilty, she would be subjected to a "rompering". The notorious UDA "romper rooms" had been invented in the early 1970s by UDA North Belfast Brigadier Davy Payne.[7] Named after the children's television programme, these "romper rooms" were located inside vacant buildings, warehouses, lock-up garages, and rooms above pubs. Once inside, a victim would be "rompered" (beaten and tortured) before being killed. Although most of the victims came from the Catholic community, there were many Protestants who were consigned to the "romper rooms".[8]
Despite the women having found her guilty, the two UDA men present at the "trial" couldn't reach a verdict and gave orders that she was to be released. She went to the Glengall Sreet bus station where she got on a bus headed for the YWCA hostel she had moved to on the Malone Road. The women, however, had decided to "rearrest" Ogilby. It was alleged that this decision came about after she had made a sarcastic comment which had freshly infuriated the women.[5] Blocking the bus as it pulled out of the station into the street, Elizabeth "Lily" Douglas and her "Heavy Squad" boarded the bus and dragged her off into a waiting car. Minutes later, after being alerted by the bus station staff, the car was stopped by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), and the eight women and Ogilby were taken in to the RUC Queen Street station for questioning. All of the women were asked for their names and addresses; the majority lived in the Sandy Row area. Fearing the grisly fate that typically befell informers, Ogilby did not tell the RUC about the UDA kangaroo court and threats, therefore she, together with the eight women were released without being charged the following morning at 2.00 a.m. Ogilby returned to the police station a few hours later, visibly frightened. She was sent home in a taxi after refusing to give the RUC a reason for her distress. That same day inside a Sandy Row pub, Elizabeth Douglas told the other women that Anne Ogilby was a troublemaker who had to die and she speedily made arrangements to facilitate the "execution".[4][5]
That same Wednesday 24 July 1974 at 3.30 p.m., outside the Social Services office in Shaftesbury Square, Ogilby and her daughter were kidnapped by UDA man Albert "Bumper" Graham (26) whilst members of Elizabeth Douglas' "Heavy Squad" waited at the nearby Regency Hotel lounge bar overlooking the office. They had known beforehand that Ogilby had an appointment that afternoon at the Shaftesbury Square office. Anne Ogilby and Sharlene were abducted just as they left the office. Having made a pre-arranged signal to the watching women, Graham drove Ogilby and her daughter away in a blue minibus to the UDA club in Hunter Street, Sandy Row which had been turned into a "romper room". When the UDA women arrived, Ogilby made an attempt to escape but they grabbed and forcibly detained her. After Graham had sent Sharleen to a corner shop to buy sweets, Ogilby was dragged inside the former bakery, forced upstairs to the first floor where she was bound to a chair and a hood placed over her head.[4] She no longer put up any resistance.[9] According to retired RUC detective Alan Simpson, who devoted a chapter to the Anne Ogilby killing in his 1999 book Murder Madness: True Crimes of The Troubles, Ogilby was instead ordered by one of the women to sit on a wooden bench; although she was hooded, her hands remained untied.[10] Sunday Life newspaper, however, maintained that she was bound to a chair. Ciaran Barnes, a journalist writing for the paper, had conducted an interview with Sharleen Ogilby in 2010.[4]
Acting under instructions previously given them by the unit's leader, Elizabeth Douglas (who was not present inside the club), two members of the "Heavy Squad", teenagers Henrietta Cowan (18) and Christine Smith (17), both of whom were wearing masks,[10] proceeded to punch Ogilby forcefully in the face; the blows knocking the chair to the ground.[4] Still bound, Ogilby was kicked in the face, head, and stomach whilst blows from sticks rained down upon her. When the teenagers began dropping bricks onto Ogilby's head, Albert Graham and "Heavy Squad" member Josephine Brown (who was also masked), realising things had gone too far, began to panic and remonstrated with the girls to discontinue the attack.[10] Cowan and Smith did stop briefly to have drinks and smoke cigarettes.[4] Simpson suggested that during the attack, Ogilby had placed her hands inside the hood in a futile attempt to protect her face from the force of the bricks that the girls hurled at her.[10]
Meanwhile, Ogilby's daughter had returned from the shops; she began banging on the club's door and crying for her mother. Although by this stage Ogilby had sustained severe head injuries from the brutal assault, Sharleen heard her screaming and pleading with her captors for mercy. Ignoring the injured woman's pleas for her life and whilst dancing to blaring disco music, Henrietta Cowan resumed beating Anne Ogilby with renewed vigour until she lay dead on the floor.[11][4] Anne Ogilby had received (according to the later autopsy report) a total of 24 blows to the head and body with a blunt object, 14 of which had caused " a severe fracture to the bulk of the skull".[4]
Albert Graham drove Sharleen back to the YWCA hostel; as he left her on the doorstep he reassured the little girl that her mother was inside waiting for her. Sharlene was looked after by the hostel staff until she was placed in the care of the Social Services. Back at the UDA club, Henrietta Cowan removed the hood and saw that Anne Ogilby was obviously dead; the body was then wrapped up in a brown sack and carried downstairs. The killers then went to have a drink with Elizabeth Douglas to whom they recounted the details of the fatal beating.[11]
Elizabeth Douglas arranged for the body's disposal and unnamed UDA men later loaded it onto a van and dumped it in a ditch in Stockman's Lane near the M1 motorway.[11] It was discovered five days later on 29 July by motorway maintenance men. The RUC were immediately called to the scene which was then photographed and mapped. Ogilby, clad in a red jumper and grey trousers, was lying on her back partly submerged in 18 inches of stagnant water with her blackened and bruised face visible and her arms outstretched.[12] There weren't any identifying documents found on her. The press, along with local television and radio news bulletins, released details regarding her physical appearance and the rings on her fingers. Hours later, a social worker from the Shaftesbury Square Social Services office, who had been scheduled to meet with Anne Ogilby on 24 July, contacted the RUC telling them that Anne Ogilby and her daughter, Sharleen had arrived at the office late for the appointment but they had left inexplicably before the social worker could speak with Anne. She also informed the RUC that Anne Ogilby had not been seen since that afternoon.[13] The social worker was then taken to the mortuary where she confirmed that the dead woman inside was Anne Ogilby. One of Ogilby's brothers later positively identified her.[2] The police were told that Sharleen was in the care of the Social Services.[13]
Due to the location of the body, the murder investigation was allocated to the RUC B Division (West Belfast), based at the Springfield Road station where CID Detective Alan Simpson served. He formed part of the CID team set up to investigate the Ogilby killing.[14][15] After Sharlene was located in a children's home, she was interviewed by a female detective; she clearly remembered the events of 24 July. It was arranged for Sharleen to accompany three CID detectives in a car to Sandy Row and she was able to direct them to the disused bakery in Hunter Street. A Scenes of Crime Officer was sent to the scene to examine the building's interior and collect the evidence. Forensics later showed that the bloodstains police detectives found on the floor and on the items retrieved from inside the UDA club matched Ogilby's blood group.[16] Documents were also found on the premises bearing William Young's name. By that time the suspects had already been rounded up and taken in for interrogation. These were the eight women who had been inside the car with Anne Ogilby the evening of 23 July following the fracas outside the Glengall Street bus station.[17]
Anne Ogilby, aged 31 at the time of her death, was buried in Templepatrick, County Antrim and her children put into care. The Ogilby family received only £149 compensation from the State to cover her funeral expenses.[4] It was later revealed that Ogilby had planned to transfer to Edinburgh, Scotland as soon as her infant son, Derek was released from hospital (where he had been when she was killed on account of his premature birth).[4]
Ogilby's killing caused widespread revulsion and shock throughout Northern Ireland, even though it had taken place during the most turbulent period of the Troubles when bombings and sectarian killings had become commonplace.[4] Journalist Ciaran Barnes described it as being one of the most brutal murders of the Troubles; adding that its sheer savagery and the fact that it was carried out by women against another woman within earshot of her child has left a lasting impression upon the public psyche.[18] The UDA leadership had not sanctioned the killing;[19] and there was general condemnation from the UDA prisoners inside the Maze Prison.[19][20] According to Ian S. Wood, the UDA's commander, Andy Tyrie had not sufficient control over the many units that comprised the UDA to have been able to prevent the punishment beating from being carried out.[19]
According to Henry McDonald and Jim Cusack, Ogilby's death was typical of the "brutish male culture" that dominated the UDA and other paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland. In reference to this attack and other cases of "rompering", the authors argue that "rape and the beating and humiliation of women in working-class Belfast was as routine as gunfire but was subsumed in the maelstrom of violence engulfing the North".[21] In the wake of the Ogilby attack, the Sandy Row women's UDA unit was permanently disbanded by the UDA leadership.[20]
Within weeks of the killing, the RUC had arrested ten women and one man in connection with the murder; this group contained Douglas' entire "Heavy Squad".[4] On 6 February 1975 at the Belfast City Commission, teenagers Henrietta Piper Cowan and Christine Kathleen Smith pleaded guilty to murder. They were convicted of carrying out the murder and sentenced to be detained at Armagh Women's Prison for life at the pleasure of the Secretary of State.[4] Cowan and Smith, known inside Armagh by their nicknames of "Ettie" and "Chris", were described by Tim Pat Coogan as having come from a "particularly low stratum of Belfast society".[22] In point of fact, Smith was not the only member of her family to be involved in violent loyalist paramilitary activity. Her older brother, UDA gunman Frankie "Hatchet" Smith, had been shot dead in Rodney Parade, off Donegall Road, by the Provisional IRA in January 1973 after he gunned down Peter Watterson, a 15-year-old Catholic boy in a UDA drive-by shooting.[4][23] The 41-year-old leader of the unit, Elizabeth "Lily" Douglas, who had ordered the killing, had pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to ten years imprisonment. During police interrogation, she had maintained that Anne Ogilby's killing was executed as the result of a personal vendetta, stating "It was not a UDA operation, they had nothing to do with it. It was just a move between a lot of women, a personal thing".[4]
The others received lesser sentences: Albert Graham and Josephine Agnes Brown were sentenced to three years imprisonment on charges of grievous bodily harm and intimidation; the unit's second-in-command, Kathleen Whitla was given two years for intimidation; Maud Tait (21), Anne Marie Gracey (28), Elizabeth Douglas, Jr (19), Marie Carol Lendrum (23) were all sentenced to 18 months imprisonment for intimidation and an unnamed 16-year-old was given an 18-months suspended sentence for intimidation. Denouncing the UDA, the trial judge, Mr. Justice McGonigle stated, "What appears before me today under the name of the UDA is gun law, a vicious, brutalising organisation of persons who take the law into their own hands and who, by kangaroo courts and the infliction of physical brutality, terrorise a neighbourhood through intimidation".[18] During the trial, it had emerged that plans to kill Anne Ogilby had been formulated by the UDA unit several months before she was tried before their kangaroo court.[4] Elizabeth Douglas, a former brothel keeper who had a criminal record dating back over ten years, was lambasted by Justice McGonigle, "You ordered and directed the punishment of this girl. You chose and chose well those who were to carry out your directions".[24] The Northern Irish press dubbed Elizabeth Douglas "the Sandy Row executioner".[4]
Sharleen Ogilby later married and had children of her own. Elizabeth Douglas (Sr) died shortly after being released on compassionate grounds in 1979; Kathleen Whitla has also since died.[4] Henrietta Cowan and Christine Smith were both released from prison in December 1983 after serving nine years. Loyalist sources claimed Smith "deeply regretted" the part she played in Ogilby's killing.[4]
Belfast poet Linda Anderson wrote a poem entitled Gang-Bang Ulster Style, based on Anne Ogilby's killing; it was published in the August 1989, no. 204 edition of Spare Rib.[1]
The killing was investigated by the Historical Enquiries Team (HET), which was established by the PSNI to inquire into the most controversial deaths perpetrated during the Troubles.[4]