Hitmen by Wensley Clarkson Read Free Book Online

Nottingham Crown Court when the jury returned their verdict on Colin Harrold. Harrold swayed and grasped the bar of the dock as the jury gave a unanimous verdict, finding him not guilty of the murder of his wife.
    Less than an hour later, the same trial judge Mr Justice Moreland said Harrold’s best friend Darren Lake’s evidence was ‘probably, essentially truthful’. Moreland told the 31-year -old former nightclub bouncer: ‘You were the actual cold-blooded and merciless planned murderer of a woman who, seconds before you attacked her, was treating you as a friend and with whom you falsely pretended to be friendly. It is however to your credit that you have pleaded guilty and, at risk to your own life, have given evidence for the Crown.’
    As Colin Harrold walked free from Nottingham CrownCourt and returned to the same £400,000 house where his wife was murdered, his only words to the waiting packs of journalists were: ‘I am relieved.’
    Meanwhile Detective Chief Superintendent Chris Cook, who’d led the investigation, said, ‘We placed the facts and circumstances surrounding the case before the court and now, quite obviously, we must abide by the decision of the jury.’ The jury’s verdict had effectively rejected the prosecution’s case that Colin Harrold wanted Diane dead so he would be free to continue his playboy lifestyle.
     
    Colin Harrold inherited his dead wife’s share of their £400,000 home just one year after her murder. Harrold was also named as chief beneficiary in Diane Harrold’s will which meant he inherited her £30,000 estate, apart from some jewellery, which went to her brother. He also got more than £100,000 in legal aid because on paper he claimed to be virtually penniless at the time of his arrest and subsequent trial. There were also rumours that he’d sold his life story to a national newspaper for £40,000.
    On the first anniversary of his wife’s murder, Colin Harrold was to be found hand-in-hand with his so-called ‘former mistress’ Tania McCarter. The couple were photographed frolicking on a beach in Israel. Harrold had been so paranoid about being spotted in the company of Ms McCarter that they’d flown out to Tel Aviv on separate flights from the UK. One former friend said, ‘What they are doing is disgusting. What came out in the trial would have shamed most men into keeping their head down. It’s almost as if he’s dancing on Diane’s grave.’
    Meanwhile some of Diane’s relatives spent that same anniversary in Scunthorpe, where they placed flowers on Diane Harrold’s grave. One said, ‘He appears to have chosen to commemorate the anniversary in a slightly different way. The brass neck of the man is incredible.’
    After his controversial acquittal, Colin Harrold sold his dead wife’s beauty salon business and also came to an ‘arrangement’ with the Inland Revenue over unpaid taxes. A couple of his few remaining friends even claimed he’d also spent £4,000 on liposuction of his flabby midriff.
    Harrold made an appearance on his local radio station to assure people that they should not be scared of him. ‘It’s important that people are aware of what I am about so they are not worried if they pass me in the street.’ During the hour-long interview with a local radio station in Peterborough, he spoke of his ‘shock’ at his arrest. ‘I was inside for 10 months. My grief was day and night all the time I was there. For someone to say this guy doesn’t care about Diane, his wife, is just crazy.’
    After hearing Harrold’s interview on the radio, Diane’s brother, Darren Hawley, commented, ‘What he has said is very interesting. I used to believe that Colin Harrold was a nice person, but I don’t think he is fooling anyone any more.’
    So Colin Harrold continues to live a life of luxury in the house where his wife was so cruelly bludgeoned to death and then drowned by his best friend. ‘I’ve got absolutely nothing to hide. Why should I leave