Kathy Lancaster has been associated with some of Britain’s most notorious villains for years. But her work was always on the side of the angels while working at the Central Criminal Court – the Old Bailey. She has had a long and illustrious career since leaving school at 16, and was originally from Tower Hamlets before moving to Newham in the ’70s.

She started working at the Old Bailey when she was in her mid 20s and worked in different departments, the most interesting of which was the records office which provided detailed information on individual court cases and sentencing.

Records at the Old Bailey went as far back as the 1800s and were kept in the basement which was part of the old Newgate Prison. Kathy described it as spooky! These records are now kept in Kew.

Television producers would contact her department if they were doing a programme on one of the cases and needed information. This included the Oscar Wilde trial and the Jack The Ripper murders.

Kathy was fascinated by the indictments against Oscar Wilde and the notorious Dr Crippen, which she found very interesting.

Doctor Hawley Harvey Crippen who was arrested
for murder in 1910 while onboard a transatlantic
liner the SS Montrose, becoming the first fugative
caught by using wireless telegraphy, he was found
guilty and hanged. Image public domain.

Wilde was arrested and tried for gross indecency with men, a shocking victim of anti-homsexuality laws and jailed for two years. Crippen was convicted of a sensational crime of passion and the brutal murder of his wife and hanged..

Kathy was once asked to do a survey on hangings, recording who was hanged and the reason why they were hanged. Some of the cases were gruesome. Murderers had dismembered bodies and the body parts would be found later in different locations. Then there were the sad cases of children as young as 14 who were hanged because they stole a pig!

Kathy recalled returning to the office after lunch when a car bomb went off after a two-minute warning, in 1973. She said it was scary. The office decanted to a café in Smithfield Market before staff were sent home, returning to work the next day. Although the building was damaged, the buildings opposite suffered more.

Kathy admits to being a voyeur. She would sometimes go and sit in the gallery and watch the court proceedings of high-profile cases such as the Kray Twins and the Yorkshire Ripper.

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