MP raises debate on murder events
Jan 19 2008 by Katie Campling, Huddersfield Daily Examiner
EVENTS leading up to the murder of a man in Ravensthorpe are to be raised in Parliament.
Mike Wood, MP for Batley and Spen, will raise a debate in Parliament on Tuesday about the way police and the Crown Prosecution Service handled incidents before the death of David Burrows.
Mr Burrows was murdered at his family’s firm M&B Haulage and Waste Paper in Ravensthorpe by Mirfield mechanic Gavin Hogg in September 2005.
Mr Hogg, 35, ran GL Autos, next to M&B Haulage at Low Mills Industrial Estate, and had been in a two-year dispute with the Burrows family about rubbish, access and land.
There had been many incidents during the feud and on the day before the killing, Hogg had been convicted of common assault and criminal damage following an attack on Mr Burrows’s 62-year-old father, Darrell.
He dragged Darrell Burrows from his car and pulled him to a canal bank where he attacked him. He had told a neighbour he would kill Mr Burrows and make it look like an accident.
Hogg was on bail awaiting sentence for this offence when he committed the murder on September 14.
He deliberately rammed Darrell Burrows’s car and when he came out to see what had happened, Hogg attacked him, his son David and their business partner, Clive Hoyland, with a knife.
After surgery, Darrell Burrows and Mr Hoyland, 52, survived, but 42-year-old father-of-two David died of his injuries.
Hogg was jailed for life at Leeds Crown Court last April for murder and was also given eight years each for two counts of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
He was told he would serve a minimum term of 20 years but appealed, arguing he should have been found guilty of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
But he was refused permission to appeal by London’s Criminal Appeal Court.
Within weeks he was found hanging in his cell at Armley Prison in Leeds.
Mr Wood has been working closely with Mr Burrows’s family and Mr Hoyland, who complained officially about the way police responded to reports of threats and harassment from Hogg before the murder.
Mr Hoyland said too little had been done too late.
He said: “Had it not been for the inept conduct of the police my nephew would still be alive.
“I told the police time and time again that Hogg was extremely dangerous. My concerns were ignored on numerous occasions.”
Mr Hoyland complained to the Independent Police Complaints Commission, who conducted an investigation.
In March 2007, the IPCC produced a report which said there was no evidence of criminal action by West Yorkshire Police officers, but a number of failings which required disciplinary action.
The report found that an officer at Batley Police Station failed to act after Darrell Burrows complained about harassment from Hogg, who was on bail.
The report also documented systematic failings in police procedures before and after the murder.
West Yorkshire Police said it would implement the actions recommended in the report.
But Mr Hoyland said he felt the report was a whitewash and said it did not exonerate the police from their responsibility.
