The Arrest

I just couldn't believe what they were telling me.

Police at the scene were said to be left ‘sick and shaken.’ One experienced officer vomited.When Clive and Elsie tried to go home, the police stopped them. They wouldn’t let them back into their home. They took the parents to the police station. At first, the police couldn't rule the parents out as murder suspects. When the police realised Elsie and Clive weren’t responsible they had the task of telling them their children had been murdered.Elsie was just 23 years old when she was told her world, as she knew it, was over. It was too much:“...this is when they'd told us that there had been a murder, that there was an investigation going on. And that's as far as I can really remember properly because there was a doctor there at the time because I went hysterical, which you would, and he gave me an injection, and I don't really… I never ever went back to the house. I wasn't allowed because I was screaming saying that I wanted to go and see my children and...and they said we couldn't do that...I wasn’t allowed to go to the mortuary.”Elsie Urry, Children’s MotherThe police turned their attentions to the only missing member of the household – McGreavy.It didn’t take the police long to locate him. At ten to four in the morning, PC Elliot found McGreavy in nearby Lansdowne Road.He was immediately arrested and apparently said:“What's this all about?”Former Editor of the Sunday Mirror, Paul Connew, covered the story as a young journalist;“At first, he denied it, but then, I think it was several hours after his arrest, he said, “It was me, but it wasn’t me”, and then went on to describe, in quite graphic, but measured detail, what he’d done, but couldn’t really explain why he’d done it.”Paul Connew, Media Commentator & Ex Editor Sunday Mirror

Everyone searched for a motive.“It was suggested by one of the psychiatrists that there may have been a sexual motive behind this, but there was no question...of him having sexually abused the children, either before that night, or during these terrible events.”Paul ConnewOne of the first reporters on the scene was Tony Bishop who had been called by the editor of the Worcester News in the early hours on Saturday 14 April. Memories from that morning still haunt him;“...we saw these horrible railings, and the blood was congealed on the railings.”Three children had been suddenly murdered and mutilated on a sleepy suburban street. But enquiries revealed that few neighbours had heard or seen anything suspect.A couple of guests of nearby neighbours did try and investigate but seeing nothing, they returned home.It was hoped the trial would somehow bring some answers and sense to the senseless killing spree.