According to neighbours, a “handsome” young man, about six feet tall and in his early twenties, was seen in the company of Norman Rickard entering Mr. Rickard’s Paddington, west London flat on February 10th, 1962. A week later Mr. Rickard was found dead in a cupboard in the flat. He was naked, with his hands tied behind his back, and had been strangled.

Mr. Rickard, a homosexual and a civil servant with the Admiralty, died on the night of Sunday, February 18th.