The Story of the Kirkheaton Police Killings - Huddersfield 1951. Written by a retired judge and former barrister, No Smoking Gun tells for the first time the full story of the murder of two police officers engaged in an undercover operation to bring to justice local poultry farmer and successful part-time burglar, Alfred Moore. The horrific nature of the crime shocked the town in 1951. The possibility that justice miscarried and that the wrong man was hanged for a crime of which he was innocent haunts the town to this day. The survival of one of the officers for just a few hours following the shooting enabled the prosecution to hold a bedside identification parade and take the evidence on oath of the dying officer without effective challenge in the absence of legal representation for the suspect. The strategy was one unique in the annals of criminal justice and effective in sending Moore to the gallows on the February morning in 1952 when the nation awoke to news of the death of its King.
The author convincingly calls into question whether in the haste to avenge a dastardly crime the denial of the fundamental human right to challenge evidence said to be decisive of guilt led on this occasion to justice miscarrying.