Former Broadmoor patient who shot dead five people in 1978 appears in court for making a bomb and possessing firearms

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

A mass killer who shot dead five people during a one-day “orgy of terror” in 1978 has been ordered to be detained indefinitely after he admitted possessing firearms and making an improvised explosive device.

The former Broadmoor patient Harry Street, who was released from indefinite detention in the mid-1990s, was caught with the makeshift bomb at his home last year. More than 50 homemade bullets, two pistols and a revolver were also discovered at the 70-year-old gun fanatic’s house in Birmingham.

Street, originally called Barry Williams, was detained under mental health laws in 1979 for the manslaughter of three neighbours in West Bromwich and a couple who ran a filling station in Warwickshire.

The pensioner had been due to stand trial at Birmingham crown court accused of making an improvised explosive device and possessing two pistols and a revolver with intent to endanger life.

But Street changed his plea and admitted making and possessing the explosive device between January and October last year, while the crown accepted his not guilty pleas to four other charges.

Street had already pleaded guilty at previous hearings to three charges of possessing a prohibited firearm and one count of putting a neighbour in fear of violence between 2009 and 2013.

Street’s trial was due to hear evidence from his neighbours in Hall Green, as well as two survivors of his 1978 shooting spree.

In submissions to the court last week, which could not previously be reported, Michael Duck QC, prosecuting, said the decision not to proceed with four of the charges had been taken after consultation with witnesses.

Crown lawyers had also taken into account the “overwhelming likelihood” that Street would again be detained indefinitely in a secure hospital, Duck added.

The prosecutor told the court: “I have taken the opportunity to speak to a number of witnesses who are particularly relevant to the decision-making process in this case.

“I also spoke yesterday to the officers in the case and the chief crown prosecutor for this area of the country.

“The crown takes the view that the interests of the protection of the public are adequately served by acceptance of the [four not guilty] pleas.

“It is quite apparent and would have been the crown’s case, that this man commits offences of the utmost seriousness when he is mentally unwell.

“The overwhelming balance of medical opinion is that this is a significant problem that will take a very significant time to resolve, if it ever does.”

Street, who is being treated at the high-security Ashworth hospital in Merseyside, had earlier admitted throwing items at neighbour Warren Smith’s roof, banging on and drilling into walls late at night, making threats towards him and, after the neighbour had moved out, driving past his new home.

1978 killing spree

Street’s killing spree in October 1978 claimed five lives and prompted front-page headlines that shocked Britain.

Then known as Barry Williams, Street was detained in Broadmoor indefinitely in March 1979 after pleading guilty to the manslaughter of his victims on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

The foundry worker’s attacks on members of the public were only halted after a 30-mile high-speed car chase across the Peak District.

Following his arrest by officers who overpowered him, more than 900 live bullet cartridges and a 0.22-calibre pistol were found stashed inside Street’s Ford Capri.

He began his rampage at about 7pm on 26 October, with the “matter-of-fact” killing of three of his neighbours, George and Iris Burkitt and their son Philip.

The parents were shot in the head, while their son was shot through the heart.

Street also gunned down the Burkitts’ 17-year-old daughter, Jill, who survived despite being hit in the back and thigh by five bullets after opening the door of the family’s home on the Bustleholme Mill estate in West Bromwich.

The initial rampage – in which 23 rounds were discharged from a Smith and Wesson handgun – also saw another neighbour shot in the chest and shoulder.

Street then drove to Stockingford, near Nuneaton, where he killed Michel and Lisa Di Maria, an Italian-born couple who ran a petrol station, by firing shots through the window of an office.

After the shootings, it emerged that Street, then 34, had a firearms certificate for a semi-automatic weapon he used legitimately at gun club ranges.

Two charges of attempted murder were ordered to lie on the file by a judge at Stafford crown court in March 1979, who described Street’s crimes as a “dreadful series of events” driven by mental illness.

Psychiatric experts told the court Street had an active paranoid psychosis requiring hospital treatment.

Street’s release, after he was deemed safe to be returned to the community, also attracted significant media attention.

A decision in 1994 to allow him to live in a bail hostel around six miles away from the scene of the West Bromwich shootings was described as “crass, insensitive and dangerous” by a local MP.

One of Street’s original victims also voiced anger at the decision to free Street. Judith Chambers, who survived despite being struck by two bullets, told a newspaper in 2003 that Street might one day attempt to repeat his slaughter.

Referring to her attacker by his original surname, she told the Sunday Mercury: “One of my fears is that one day he will decide to come back to Birmingham and finish the job off. If he ever got his hands on another gun, I dread to think what the consequences might be.

“Some day, someone will be sorry that Williams was let out.”