Letter To Sir David Maxwell Patrick Fyfe

I, Iris, sister of Derek William Bentley strongly feel that huge injustice has

been done because an innocent man life is in jeopardy and has been

convicted of a crime he didn't commit.

Derek's childhood was very difficult for all us to deal with, it was

worse for Derek because since the day he was born, hours later he was

taken into hospital again and diagnosed with bronchial pneumonia. We

had to take a lot of continuous care and a few blood transfusions in

order to save his life. Then when he was four, playing on a lorry of

pulp with a few other children, including me, he fell fifteen feet and

landed on his head, I've had to live with this ever since. He was

rushed again to Guy's hospital and we were told that the impact on his

head had caused an epileptic fit and it was unlikely that he'd ever

recover fully. Three years later, a German bomb destroyed the air raid

shelter in which we were hiding. Some time later, our sister Joan, our

grandmother and aunt were killed the same way. Derek was very close to

Joan, so when she died he became "withdrawn" both because of the fits

and the loss of our sister to whom he was very close to. During the

year of 1944 a "Doodle bug" struck our flat and concrete and tiles

poured in on him as he lay asleep. This incident had a big effect on

Derek and caused Derek's headaches to increase as well as the fits.

Derek's education was normal for a child of our working - class

background. At the age of three, Derek began nursery school at the

Friar Street Elementary School. Like that of many other children his

first day was disastrous. He started school fine, but the lorry

accident changed him completely.

As the school was closed down due to bomb damage, we decided to move

to a "less targeted area". Up until December 1944 Derek attended

Camrose Avenue School but then we moved back to the Blackfriars area