To Encourage the Others

The Murder Case that Shook a Generation

On 2nd November 1952, two teenagers were trapped by police on a warehouse roof. In the course of what the national press were to describe as 'a Chicago-style gun battle', P.C. Sidney Miles was shot between the eyes and died.

16-year-old Christopher Craig and 19-year-old Derek Bentley were subsequently arrested and sent to trial. They came to personify the disaffected youth of post-war Britain, but Derek Bentley became much more. His story and ultimate fate are unique in the annals of criminal history.

Originally published in 1971, and the subject of a controversial television play, To Encourage the Others dramatically re-opens a case which still demands that justice be done.

There are many reasons why David Yallop is considered the world's greatest investigative author. To Encourage the Others is one of them: as powerful an argument against capital punishment as has ever been published.