ANYBODY'S NIGHTMARE The Sheila Bowler Story

Softcover. Have you ever dreamed you were in prison for a crime you never committed? Every morning for 4yrs Sheila Bowler woke up to this recurrent nightmare - except that it was really true. She was Prisoner Number TV3389, sentenced to life imprisonment for murder. It was a nightmare that could happen to anyone. One May evening in 1992, Mrs Bowler, a respectable middle-class Rye piano teacher in her 60s, took her frail old aunt Florence Jackson out from a residential home in Winchelsea for a pleasant drive through the Sussex countryside. On the way home her tyre went flat and she hurried off for help, leaving Aunt Flo in the car in the dark. When she came back the old lady, who - everyone believed - was immobile, had disappeared. Her body was found next morning in the River Brede, about 500 yards away down a remote country lane. Using police reports and witness statements, the authors piece together how Mrs Bowler's stiff upper lip attitude and refusal to weep or panic immediately aroused suspicion. The historic Cinque Ports towns of Rye and Winchester were split. Some genuinely believed this brusque, sometimes tactless widow was a callous murderer who could see her small inheritance draining away in the Home's fees. Others, led by her daughter Jane, a beautiful and talented cellist, knew Mrs Bowler was a devoted, dutiful niece with a heart of gold. Extracts from Sheila's prison diaries and officers' reports describe her struggle to survive the indignity and horror of prison life, while outside hundreds of campaigners fought to free her. The Old Bailey retrial, a cliffhanger to the very end, has every element of a courtroom drama, all the more exciting because it really happened. The Sheila Bowler affair touched the heart of the nation. It became the people's case brought to public attention by Channel Four's 'Trial and Error' programme and extensive newspaper coverage. A book which is of interest to Sheila's friends and critics alike, to police and prison service professionals, to those who care for the elderly, to lawyers and law reformers - and especially to those who campaign for justice. Illus. + Epilogue. 368pp. trade size softcover. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. F. with no creasing to covers. Scarce.