Investigating the Almost Perfect Murders: The Case of Russell Causley and Other Crimes

Anthony Nott joined the Metropolitan Police in 1971, which was a very different world from that of today. He describes his early experiences in the Met, including the arrest of a man for murdering a prostitute in Kings Cross. He was present when a fellow police officer was almost stabbed to death and witnessed an act of police brutality when he interrupted the beating of a petty criminal in a cell by the CID.

He transferred to the county force of Dorset in 1976 where, not long after his promotion to detective sergeant, he engaged in what would be a ten-year long investigation into the disappearance of Monica Taylor and the eventual conviction of her husband, Peter, for what was almost the perfect murder – Monica’s remains were never found. He then recounts a series of murder cases in which he was involved from the murder and decapitation of a woman in Bournemouth and the random killing of another, to the extremely violent killing of a gay man in Boscombe Gardens, Bournemouth, in which it took two years to bring the killers to justice.

While a detective chief inspector in Bournemouth in 1994, the chance visit of a detective sergeant from Guernsey, who was investigating a life insurance fraud, led to the reopening of a missing person inquiry from eight years earlier, and resulted in the conviction of Russell Causley for murder, despite his wife’s body never being recovered.

This book provides an insight into the methodical and transparent way in which the police investigate complicated crimes from riots to the almost perfect murders.

Anthony Nott MBE joined the Metropolitan Police in 1971, before transferring to the Dorset Police in 1976. He has been involved in the investigation of numerous homicides and was the senior investigating officer in the case of Russell Causley in 1996. The case was the subject of a four-part documentary series called ‘The Investigator A British Crime Story’ to which he contributed and was screened on ITV in July 2016. He has also written about his experiences in police reform in the Balkans and Middle East, while working on contracts with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. He retired at the rank of detective superintendent.