Harold Maurice (Harry) Roberts (born 1936) is one of Britain's most notorious murderers and longest-serving prison inmates.

Roberts, who had a criminal history which included receiving stolen goods and robbery, was jailed in December 1966 along with two accomplices for killing three policemen in cold blood and broad daylight three months earlier.

The officers, in plain clothes, were all sharing an unmarked patrol car in East Acton, London, on August 12 1966 when they noticed that a Vauxhall estate car was making a lot of noise, so they decided to stop it for a routine inspection. At this stage they had no idea the car contained three men who were not only career criminals, but were actually on their way to commit another crime - they were intent on stealing another car to use as a getaway vehicle for a robbery they had planned.

Roberts and his accomplices - 36 year old Jon Witney (owner and driver of the car) and John Duddy, aged 37 - stopped their vehicle when the patrol car flagged them down.

When Detective Constable David Wombwell leaned into his car, Roberts shot him through the head with a Luger pistol, killing him instantly. Detective Sergeant Christopher Head, who had gone round the back of the car to question Duddy in the rear seat, immediately ran back to his own vehicle to attempt cover, but was shot in the back and slumped, alive but badly wounded, in front of the police car.

The third officer, Detective Constable Geoffrey Fox, who had remained in the police car, was then shot by both Roberts and Duddy. As his lifeless body lurched forward, his foot hit the accelerator and ran over the injured body of Sgt Head, killing him.

The three sped off in their Vauxhall, but a local couple who were on their way into the same street noted the registration number because of the erratic and dangerous manner in which it was being driven. Further down the street, they saw the carnage and realised why the car had sped off so urgently. They called the police.

With the registration number in their possession, officers immediately visited Witney, who told them he'd sold the car earlier that day for 15 pounds. He was still taken in for questioning. Later, he confessed to his involvement after the car was found in a lock-up garage which he had been renting, and bullets matching those used in the murders were inside it. Witney was charged with murder and, determined not to face the charge alone, implicated Roberts and Duddy, who were now Britain's most wanted men.

After going on the run separately, Duddy was arrested in Glasgow and flown back to London. The search for Roberts, despite help from his common-law wife, proved more difficult. A huge search of Epping Forest, where he had supposedly set up a hideout camp, proved fruitless. Ultimately, he was found asleep in a haystack in an adjoining area. Three months had passed since the officers were murdered and the trial of Roberts' two accomplices was due to start the following week.

Roberts was questioned at length and then charged. The trial date was reset so that all three men could appear at the Old Bailey together.

On December 12 1966, Roberts pleaded guilty to the murders of DC Wombwell and Sgt Head, and also admitted firearms charges, but denied the murder of DC Fox. The other two denied all charges, using a defence that Roberts had terrorised and threatened them. After a trial which lasted six days, they were found guilty of all charges and given life sentences with the recommendation that they each serve at least 30 years.

The judge, Mr Justice Glyn-Jones, described the killings as "the most heinous crime to have been committed in this country for a generation or more".

Duddy died in 1981 in the hospital wing of Parkhurst prison on the Isle of Wight. Witney was released in 1991, but Roberts remains in jail to this day, even though the 30-year recommendation expired in 1996. Though his name has never appeared on the frequently published lists of prisoners on a "whole life tariff", it is expected that he will die in jail. He is currently being held in a medium-security institution at Channings Wood, Devon.

In 2004, lawyers acting for Roberts lodged an appeal to the House of Lords over a ruling which was intent on keeping Roberts incarcerated until his death. Their complaint was that the evidence in the ruling had been kept secret from them, and that it was designed to combat terrorism only but had embroiled Roberts in its regulations. No decision has yet been taken regarding this appeal.

It would take an IRA bomb at the Harrods store in London in 1983 before a greater number of police officers would be killed in a single criminal incident. The shootings led to the creation of the Police Dependants Trust, which emerged from huge donations made to the families of the murdered officers. The Trust exists to help the families of officers who die while on duty.

External links

• The Police Dependants Trust (http://www.policedependantstrust.org.uk/)

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Harry Roberts is also the co-inventor of julmust and founder of Roberts AB in Örebro. After studying chemistry in Germany during the late 19th century he invented the soft drink together with his father Robert Roberts.