Leading Brighton detective dies

The detective who put child molester Russell Bishop behind bars has died at the age of 70.

Tim O’Connor was found dead at his Brighton home last month.

The retired Detective Superintendent served with Sussex Police for most of a career spanning 30 years.

He was the Detective Chief Inspector in charge of Brighton CID when he led the investigation that resulted in Bishop being jailed for life.

Bishop was convicted of abducting, molesting and attempting to murder a seven-year-old girl from Whitehawk at the Devil’s Dyke in 1990. Bishop, a roofer who was 24 at the time of his conviction, is still in prison.

He came to public attention four years earlier when he was charged and acquitted of the “Babes in the Wood” murders. The murder of Karen Hadaway, 9, and Nicola Fellows, 10, in Wild Park, Moulsecoomb, remains unsolved.

Mr O’Connor was born in Cahir in Tipperary and left school to work as a labourer at 13 years old with no qualifications.

He left Ireland for Manchester where he worked as a welder before applying to a number of forces to become a police officer.

Within five years he had been promoted to Sergeant. He became an Inspector in 1983 and a Detective Inspector based in Brighton in 1984.

He was put in charge of Brighton CID in 1988 serving in the role as a Detective Chief Inspector for three years. He was later based in Hove for a spell.

He then took up a post with the Home Office as a Detective Superintendent working in counter-terrorism.

He was awarded the Queen’s Police Medal in 2000 and retired in the same year.

Mr O’Connor had enlivened the send-offs held for countless colleagues when they retired or left their jobs with his ability to tell a good story with his direct manner and laced with humour.

His funeral is due to take place at noon on Friday 19 July at St Thomas More Roman Catholic Church in Braybon Avenue, Patcham.

Long-serving former Argus crime reporter Phil Mills said: “He was one of the most personable people I’ve ever met and one of the best coppers I’ve ever dealt with.

“He was a great character and would have audiences in tears of laughter at CID dinners and with his leaving do speeches.

“There will be lot of people very saddened by the news. He was a well respected and very likeable man. It was an honour to call him a friend.”

Mr O’Connor was fondly remembered by Graham Cox, the retired head of Sussex CID and former police commander for Hove who is now a member of Brighton and Hove City Council.

Councillor Cox said: “I am very proud to have worked with and for Tim. It’s an old cliché, I know, but he really was a character.

“Tim always played down his role in locking up Russell Bishop, saying that there was lots of evidence and it was therefore an easy case to investigate.

“The reality was that he was under huge pressure because Bishop had been acquitted of two previous murders.

“His decision to approve the early arrest of Bishop after a young girl was found unconscious at the Dyke was brave and ultimately it was that leadership which led to so much evidence being recovered.

“During difficult investigations, when morale was falling because we were getting nowhere, he would had an uncanny knack of keeping the team motivated.

“His storytelling was legendary and many a briefing would finish on a high with one of his anecdotes – some of them unrepeatable in polite company.

“After he retired he showed me a book he was writing of the story of his life.

“He came from the humblest of beginnings in Cahir, County Tipperary, and left school at 13 with no qualifications.

“I was particularly moved by the pride he showed in working for the British Police.

“He often said that only in this country could a man from his background have risen to become the police adviser on counter-terrorism at the Home Office.

“The award of the Queen’s Police Medal was richly deserved and I suspect he remains the only person with an Irish passport to have received a QPM.”