Why did they do it, Mum?

This was to be the question on everyone’s lips in one of the biggest manhunts ever in Southampton after a senseless murder that robbed the city of its innocence in 1972.

On April 1, Easter Saturday, shy shop attendant David Skeats had broken the habit of many months when he went out for a drink at his local pub, The Queen in Southampton High Street, rather than stay at home to watch the Saturday night film.

After leaving the pub at about 10.50pm with best friend Bob Downer, the pair stopped under a street light outside St Michael’s Church, Castle Way, where they chatted idly about football and fishing.

A group of four youths walked past and then suddenly turned and confronted the pair. “What are you looking at, mush?” one of the gang said.

In a scenario more reminiscent of London in 2008, the petty quarrel was to lead to a young life being taken by a knife, but in 1970s Southampton such a tragedy was almost unthinkable.

“One of them started fighting with him (David). He just went straight into him and he dropped like a brick as he went in,” Downer later described. “I went for the others. I thought they were going to start something. Dave shouted out ‘Help me.’ I kicked the boy he was fighting. Then one of them came up and put a knife into him.”

“The bastard’s stabbed me,” David yelled as the blade plunged six inches into his stomach.

The youths ran off. David, who had worked at the Greenham Tool Company in Avenue Road, struggled to his feet began to walk the few yards to his Castle Way flat.

Two married couples drove past the church at precisely the time of the fatal fight.

They intended to help, but when they saw David stand and walk they assumed he was unhurt and they drove away.

l Continued on page 28 Mortally wounded, David collapsed within sight of his home. His parents, who had been in bed, rushed into the street. An ambulance took the teenager, with his mother, to the Royal South Hants Hospial, where he died.

Easter Sunday should have been a happy celebration, but instead of celebrating her birthday, Mrs Skeats was left trying to come to terms with loss of her son.

The crime also shocked the wider community, as the Echo’s sombre editorial demonstrates: “The crime is one which the city clearly cannot and will not tolerate. Yet already marauding gangs of youths hell-bent on mischief are a familiar part of life in our towns.

“Even in a small place like Lee-on-Solent we noticed this week a paint-sprayed slogan near the seafront: “Lee Boo Boys.

“It is a trend which makes you think of all that is evil in American society. There, gun-toting, knife-packing thugs have driven people from the streets and taken over many of the parks.

“A far cry from the situation here? We think not. Already ordinary people cast a wary eye and move aside from packs of howling yobs seen regular in Hampshire towns.

“We think these signs are ominous. There is a real and dark threat to good order and civilised life in this country.”

A broken column of lowers – symbolising a young life cut off – stood among the tributes at the funeral service.

A £1,000 reward on the head of the killer was organised by the Echo and a special police appeal was broadcast at the Southampton v Manchester City match at The Dell in front of more than 27,000.

This was a case of murder before the eyes of some 35 people – people who happened to be looking out of windows overlooking Castle Way, passing St Michael’s Church in cars, sitting in George’s Restaurant or simply walking about in the street.

But this was a case where none of the witnesses realised at the time that murder had been committed, they thought they had seen a street fight.

The police had, at the outside only one witness – Downer. From this 16-year-old lad, in a deep state of shock, they had to get information vital to the instant search for the offenders.

Downer said that four youths had been involved. The youth had run off somewhere in the direction of the Civic Centre. They gathered a rather sketchy idea of what the youths looked like and what they were wearing.

No-one, at that stage, had any positive idea of how the youths had made their getaway and the weapon used in the attack could not be found.

Like all good detectives, Det Supt Arthur Offer and Det Chief Insp Arthur Moyce had a hunch that the murder was somehow connected a football match between Saints and Crystal Palace, played in London on the day of the knifing.

Hundreds of Southampton youths, and others from Bournemouth, Brighton, Portsmouth and the North of England were questioned. Working at the civic centre police station, police completed and filed thousands of index cards with meticulous care.

It meant that if a person mentioned a pub, a christian name, a description of clothing or person, a nickname or a vague address, police could instantly lay hands on the statements of other people who had mentioned the same pub, christian name or description.

This was the system that threw up the name of Christopher Dodson, a 19-year-old labourer from Valley Road, Chandler’s Ford.

During an interview with police, 19-year-old William Greedy – who subsequently proved one of the most vital witnesses for the prosecution - said he had been drinking at The Queen’s Pub with Dodson on Easter Saturday.

Using their cross-reference system, police found Dodson had previously denied being in Southampton at all that night.

Dodson – along with his mates Alastair Taylor,17, Richard White, 23, and Jeremy Wood, 16, - denied being in Southampton on the night in question, although they all admitted they had been to Crystal Palace in a party of four.

The net was beginning to close. It was simply a question of finding out who had been lying, and why.

It is ironic that the four might have never been caught had they, at least in part, told the truth about their movements that evening.

Had they agreed, at the outset, that they had visited pubs in Southampton, the evidence of Greedy would merely have been corroborative and not proved anything.

Racked with guilt, it didn’t take long for Dodson to crack under questioning. He told police it was a day that began with him going to see the Saints play Crystal Palace in London and ended with him going home to bed scared, to read the bible and pray.

Dodson told police: “It wasn’t a pre-meditated murder. Skeats came towards me, leaning forward. I am not sure he had been hit or not.

“I walked about two paces and Skeats, the boy who died, was in front of me. He seemed to come towards me. He got caught on to the knife, it seemed to me. I didn’t push, knowingly, or deliberately push the knife at him. I was pretty drunk.

“We got back to the car and I think it was Jerry who said Skeats couldn’t be hurt bad because he was walking. I said I wished I never had a knife and never wanted to see one again.”

Dodson and the others found out David was dead when they heard the news on Radio Solent the following day.

“I wanted to tell the police what had happened. I wanted to tell someone. I tried to tell my mother on the Monday but you can’t just turn round and tell your mother and father ‘look I killed him.’ It is not that easy,” he sobbed.

Dodson told police he had hidden the murder weapon in woods in Chandler’s Ford and it was later found in a rabbit hole with the aid of an army mine detector.

The gang was arrested on April 29, almost a month after the fatal fight. At the trial at Winchester Crown Court in July, Dodson denied murder while his three friends faced charges of providing a false alibi.

In court, Dodson was made to hold the knife he admitted he had used in the fight. “Do I have to? Do I have to?” he said. The key question for the jury was whether Dodson had intended to stab David, or if it was simply a tragic accident and the teenager had somehow become impaled on the knife.

Throughout the three-and-half days of the trial, Mrs Skeats was there in court with her husband, William. Also in court was Dodson’s parents, clinging to the belief their son was not to blame for what had happened.

The jury decided he was to blame and the teenager was sentenced to life imprisonment while his friends all pleaded guilty to providing a false alibi.