Early Life
Roberts was born in Wanstead, Essex, in 1936. As a child he became involved in crime by helping his mother sell stolen goods on the black market. Roberts later described how the family owned a café in north London where his mother was "...selling on mostly food — tea and sugar — and sometimes ration books. Anything she could get her hands on."
In his late teens, he was sentenced to detention after using an iron bar to attack a shopkeeper during a robbery. Roberts served a 19-month sentence inside Gaynes Hall borstal, and was released in January 1956.
One week after leaving the borstal, Roberts was called up for National Service and joined the Rifle Brigade (Prince Consort's Own), with whom he saw action during the Mau Mau Uprising and Malayan Emergency. Of his service in the jungle he said that this was where he learned to kill and that he had "personally killed at least four". Roberts has claimed that he reached the rank of Sergeant while in the Army although others have given his rank as Lance Corporal. Journalist and former armed robber John McVicar has said that Roberts "gloated" about his killings while in prison, and had "acquired a taste for killing prisoners on the orders of his officers" in the Army.
After leaving the Army, Roberts returned to his criminal activities, and in partnership with Jack Witney carried out "dozens" of armed robberies, targeting bookmakers, post offices and banks. He said, "The most I earned was £1,000 from a single job. Witney was the eldest, the boss: he knew the best places to rob. Duddy joined us later." In 1959 Roberts and an accomplice posed as tax inspectors to gain entry into the home of an elderly man. Once inside the man was bound and robbed and beaten about the head with a glass decanter. When Roberts was captured and tried for the crime the judge, Mr. Justice Maude, said: "You are a brutal thug. You came very near the rope this time. It is to be hoped you do not appear before us again." Roberts received a sentence of seven years, and the victim - who never recovered from his injuries - died one year and three days after the attack. Had he died two days earlier, Roberts would have been tried for his murder.
Read more about this topic: Harry Roberts (criminal)
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