Local police praised for investigation
(From The Orcadian dated October 18, 2001)

Killer Paul Bullen was arrested just hours after the grim discovery of a body in a Kirkwall flat.

The lifeless body of Mr Thomas Miller (47), better known as Tommy, was found by Kirkwall police in an upper storey flat at 22 Bignold Park Road at 9.20pm on Tuesday, May 29, after receiving a 999 call from someone in the nearby area.

The officer in charge of Orkney’s most recent murder inquiry, Detective Chief Inspector Gordon Urquhart, praised the way local police handled the investigation.

“It was first class work with a satisfactory result,” he said.

Paul Steven Bullen (21) was sentenced to life in prison – with a recommendation he serve a minimum of nine years – on Monday at Edinburgh High Court.

Somewhat unusually in murder cases, Bullen pled guilty at the earliest opportunity to him, as DCI Urquhart explained: “It is unusual to plead guilty. We were quite surprised as most run to trial or go to a reduced charge.”

He continued: “This one, rightly so, was not reduced. There is no doubt in my mind it was clearly a murder.”

As far as the sentence is concerned the DCI said people should reflect on the fact Bullen received a life term.

“He has been given life imprisonment, folk should take that point of view. He has been given a minimum sentence, which is something new in Scotland. There is now a requirement to give a minimum sentence; that came in within the last few weeks.

“I cannot comment on whether I think nine years was enough or not; that is what the judge decides after taking into account the full circumstances of the case. Bullen can be assessed for parole at that time.”

The change in sentencing came into being earlier this month, when it was decided judges should decide the term a life prisoner serve before being reviewed by the parole board for release, rather than government ministers.

Justice Minister and Orkney MSP Jim Wallace said: “It will now be for a High Court judge to decide how long a life prisoner requires to serve to satisfy the requirements of retribution and deterence.”

He stressed that it would not mean life prisoners being automatically released when the recommended term expires.

DCI Urquhart (45), who is deputy of Crime Support Unit at Inverness Police Headquarters, has gained considerable experience on murder investigations.

He and a colleague drove through the night and arrived in Orkney on Wednesday morning, May 30 – the day after Mr Miller’s body was found.

Mr Miller – a local, unemployed man – had been living in a bedsit at 22 Bignold Park Road, Kirkwall, a property which is owned by Orkney Islands Property Developments Ltd, who lease four of the six, self-contained bedsits to Orkney Islands Council. They use the bedsits to house homeless, single people.

Prior to that Mr Miller had been a jewellery worker and an employee at Dounreay nuclear establishment and Flotta oil terminal. He was born and schooled in Orkney and had two children, a son and daughter.

Around 30 police officers from Kirkwall, Stromness and Inverness were drafted in to investigate the crime. A forensic team, known as the Scientific Support Unit, from Inverness, and a female consultant pathologist also arrived on Wednesday morning to carry out a search of 22 Bignold Park Road.

DCI Urquhart said: “It was a good inquiry as far as Northern Constabulary is concerned. In situations like these we were dealing with things in the outer isles. Orkney and Shetland have logistical things to overcome; we have to get specialist officers there.

“We managed that, while allowing local officers to get on with their work.”

The team from south were only in Orkney for three or four days, although investigations, such as door-to-door inquiries and interviews were carried out locally for much longer.

“There was a limited number of people involved in the inquiry, on top of that spreads out a network of people who become involved because they are in contact with the witnesses or the accused,” DCI Urquhart explained.

“You have a scene of crime at the premises and possibly other places, at Mr Bullen’s house, you have searches to carry out for weapons if any were used, house-to-house inquiries to do. These things are all valid and have to be done to cover everything. It is like a tree with a huge root system.”

DCI Urquhart said it had been a very different operation to the murder inquiry – which remains unsolved – following the death of Indian waiter Shamsudden Mahmood in June, 1994. He was gunned down by a masked killer.

DCI Urquhart was a member of the investigative inquiry team.

He said: “There was not that huge, ongoing grind of the previous murder inquiry in Orkney which went on for weeks and weeks and weeks.”

The yellow police crime tape was removed from the property of 22 Bignold Park Road and the policeman standing guard was allowed to return to the police station shortly after the tragic events of May 29.