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It was a barking dog that first raised the alarm that something was wrong. When the dog’s owner went to see what was disturbing his hound he found the body of a teenage girl who had been badly beaten and strangled – and he glimpsed the killer.
Pamela Hannah Edwards was just 16 when she was murdered in a dark alleyway near her home in a killing which shocked he close-knit community of Sandfields in Port Talbot. And it soon emerged that the killer was from the same community and in fact knew the victim.
Miss Edwards was a happy and sociable youngster and after leaving Glan Afan Comprehensive School she found work on a stall in Aberavon Market Hall. On the evening of October 9, 1969, the teenager – from Adare Street in Sandfields – attended the Gas Works’ Club in Aberavon with a friends. Also at the club that night was 21-year-old William James Totterdale, a recently-married man and father-to-be. During the course of the evening Totterdale and a group of male friends left the social club to go to the Vivian Hotel before he returned alone to the Gas Works’ Club. Later that night Miss Edwards and Totterdale left the club in quick succession. It appears the pair went to a lane off Newbridge Road near the River Afan but exactly what happened next only one person really knows.
At around 11pm an off-duty British Transport Police officer, Thomas Breeze, was returning home when he heard his dog Suzie barking excitedly and incessantly from the rear shed where she was kept. When Mr Breeze went to investigate he found the body of Miss Edwards, partially dressed and badly beaten about the head, laying in a rear lane off Newbridge Road. He also saw Totterdale walking away. His shirt was open, his clothing was disturbed, and he had dirt on his knees. The police were alerted to the find and the scene was cordoned off.In the early hours of the following morning officers went to Totterdale’s house in Owen’s Place and arrested him. He was taken to the police station and questioned about his movements the previous night and when asked about the state of his clothing he said had he had been in a fight. South Wales Police detective inspector Douglas Killick would later say Totterdale appeared to be “dazed” during his police station interview and was biting his nails and continually “wetting his fingertips”. He said of Totterdale: “He was speaking more to himself than to us. I would say he was in a shocked condition.” Totterdale was charged with Miss Edwards’ murder and just 12 hours after the body of the teenager was found he appeared at Port Talbot Magistrates’ Court where he was remanded into custody.
The matter went to trial at the Glamorgan Assizes Court – the forerunner of the modern crown court – sitting in Cardiff in February 1970 with Totterdale being represented by eminent Welsh barrister Tasker Watkins VC QC. The defendant denied murder saying that on the night in question – and unknown to him at the time – he was suffering from hypoglycaemia, a condition in which the blood sugar level is much lower than normal, and said he must have blacked out.
Giving evidence Totterdale told the jury that on a typical Thursday night out with friends he would drink eight or nine pints of beer or cider. He confirmed he had known Miss Edwards and that he had walked her home on a previous evening. He said on the night in question he had drunk seven and a half pints and that he and Miss Edwards had left the club and gone down the lane together where they kissed. He said he then started feeling dizzy and couldn’t remember what happened next. He told the court: “The next thing I remember was a man standing beside his car. I shouted to him somebody was dead. I looked behind me and saw something white lying on the floor. I guessed it was Pamela. I went back and knelt beside her and then got frightened and walked home.”
Cross-examined by barrister Phillip Owen for the prosecution the defendant denied he had fancied Miss Edwards for some time and denied he wanted anything more than kissing in the alleyway. He denied losing his temper when he couldn’t “get his way” with the teenager and trying to “force that which she was not willing to give”.
The court heard evidence of a post-mortem examination which found Miss Edwards had suffered “considerable physical violence about the head and face” but the cause of death had been asphyxia due to strangulation. There was no evidence of any sexual assault. Home Office pathologist Owen Glynn Williams agreed with the prosecution barrister that the attack on the teenager has been “frenzied and maniacal”.
The court also heard evidence from medical experts who confirmed the defendant was suffering with hypoglycaemia and professor Robert Mahler from the Welsh National School of Medicine in Cardiff told the jury that common symptoms of the condition included trembling, fear, and “irrational behaviour in public”. Asked by the judge if alcohol had a similar effect the professor replied that the manifestations may have been the same.
The court also heard from psychiatrist John Hughes who said he had examined Totterdale on three occasions and could find no evidence of a mental disorder. Another psychiatrist, Dennis John Power, told the jury that in his opinion the defendant knew what he was doing at the time of the incident. Addressing the jury he said: “He clearly appreciates the difference between right and wrong, appreciates the charge, and realises the purpose of the court. I think he is perfectly fit to plead. It is now my opinion that he knew what he was doing at the time.” However the jury also heard an opposing view from forensic expert professor Francis Camps who said nobody could say the defendant was not suffering a hypoglycaemic episode at the time of incident and in his view Totterdale had not known what he was doing.
In his closing speech defence barrister Mr Watkins asked the jury to find the defendant not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. He said: “What has puzzled many people in this case is why such a brutal attack could have been perpetrated on this poor young innocent little girl.”
In his summing up the judge, Mr Justice Nield, told the jury to consider the medical and witness evidence and told them they did not have to approve of Totterdale’s conduct in “going with this girl with his wife at home expecting a child” as “that is a matter you are not concerned with”. He told the jurors Miss Edwards had been subjected to “fearful violence” and there was no doubt she had died at the hands of the defendant but “a crime of murder is only committed if there is a specific intent and you must decide was there an intent to murder the girl”.
After deliberating for some 65 minutes the jury of 12 men found Totterdale guilty of murder. Mr Justice Nield told the defendant: “You have been found guilty of murder and I impose the prescribed sentence of life imprisonment.”
WALES ONLINE