Page 210 of The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels
Watching the documentary, I realise we’ve discussed Amanda at every meeting since she died. There was something strange about the events at Ascot. They said Oliver shot Amanda, then a police marksman shot him. But if you boil this case down to its bare bones: two journalists, both working on the same controversial case, are shot dead and no independent witnesses saw what happened.
The police and security forces know that school very well because Lady Louise Windsor was still a pupil when the incident happened. Luckily, she was away from school that day – which made us wonder why armed police were on the scene so quickly …
Both Amanda and Oliver drove to the school, and both were allowed through the gates, apparently without being challenged. The roof of The Orchard Building is the only area in the whole complex not covered by security cameras.
You knew Amanda. Was there anything she and Oliver found thatcould have led to their deaths? I wonder if there’s a way to access her research. It could hold vital clues to why she (and perhaps Oliver, too) was there that day. Could they have been lured?
If you need any help looking into what happened, just let us know. In the meantime, may I extend heartfelt condolences from each and every member of Cold & Unsolved.
Best regards,
Cathy-June Lloyd
On the day my book was published I received an ornate, printed card, delivered by hand with a bunch of flowers:
MANY CONGRATULATIONS ON THE PUBLICATION OF YOUR BOOK. WE HEAR IT’S A FABULOUS TRIBUTE TO AMANDA. JESS AND GEORGIE ADESINA
Divine
by
ELLIE COOPER
The inside story, by Amanda Bailey’s former assistant
How eighteen years after their bloody suicide the Alperton Angels cult claimed two more innocent lives. As told by the woman who had to watch it happen.
ECLIPSE
True crime with a twist
Eclipse will make a donation to The Amanda Bailey Foundation to support care leavers with training and employment
CHAPTER ONE
At the age of twelve Amanda Bailey walked up to a female police officer in a crowded shopping centre and disclosed the abuse she was suffering at the hands of a family member. She requested that she be placed in council care and from that moment on she had to look after herself. She grew up to be a fearless, free-thinking individual who was prepared to take any route to expose the truth, whatever the cost.
At eighteen, and finally in a supportive foster home, she was awarded a coveted place on a local newspaper training scheme. Seemingly unfazed that everyone else was at least two years older, came from stable families and could boast good degrees from established universities, Amanda impressed the interview panel immediately. They liked to back one wild card every year.
I first met her a decade later, when job cuts in local newspapers had forced a move to the editorial department of a true crime publisher. I’d taken a position in accounts there, hoping to find an editorial role as soon as an opportunity arose. Two years on I was still waiting. Amanda lobbied hard for me to be her assistant. When I decided to study for a PhD in Criminal Psychology, no one was more supportive than Amanda.
***
Despite having gained many of her professional skills on that training scheme, Amanda never spoke positively about her time on it. I would discover why only after her death. Oliver Menzies, a history graduate whose mother’s friend owned the newspaper, was being out-performed by everyone around him and none more so than the young woman with the wrong accent who had failed to scrape a single A level.
He made digs and comments whenever the opportunity arose. But it was a trick he played one evening that would change the course of both their lives. A childish prank that led to her losing the sight in one eye. Amanda would never be able to forget how that experience destroyed her trust in others. And she certainly never forgot who was responsible.
When they met again years later, Oliver expressed his disdain for the vulnerable teenagers who had fallen for an outlandish story. Amandarealised he had learned nothing in the intervening years. In that moment she decided to show him what it meant to be vulnerable. She could have no idea how successful her plan for revenge would be. Because twenty years after the Alperton Angels were found mutilated in a derelict warehouse, this is no longer a story about people who thought they were divine. It’s about a man who believed he couldn’t be fooled, and the woman who wanted to teach him a lesson but underestimated the power of the mythology. It’s about two people who looked for the truth with dogged determination, but too late – in places that were no longer there, and with names that were constantly changing. They searched until it destroyed them. Their story attests to the power of an intriguing cult that remains a cautionary tale to this day.
Thatis the simple truth behind the mysterious case of the Alperton Angels.
This message is for you.
What you’ve just read is research material for a book that should be about a wrongful conviction. Gabriel Angelis didn’t kill Harpinder Singh, nor was he responsible for the deaths or post-mortem mutilation of Dominic Jones, Alan Morgan or Christopher Shenk.
He’s innocent, while the two people who killed Singh are free.
You could take all this evidence and start a process that might ultimately rectify that miscarriage of justice and expose a wider series of even more deadly cover-ups. But if you do, please bear something in mind.
