Sending the text message was a gamble, a long shot at best.
But it was perhaps the only chance they had of making contact, and at this point in the investigation they had very little to lose.
Later, as he drove to the Airport, Steve Langford’s phone beeped as the reply came through.
‘Steve, this is Nick. I need some help,’ it read. The gamble, it seemed, had paid off.
The story of what happened that day is one of many from Detective Inspector Steve Langford’s 31 years with the States police.
It was a remarkable career which began in 1987 when he became one of ten trainees from Jersey to be enrolled on a 13-week course at Chantmarle Police Training College in Dorset. On Tuesday, Det Insp Langford became the final member of the group to leave the States police.
But despite his early days in policing being more than three decades ago, he recalls the events and feelings, the pressure, the anxiety and the excitement as if it were yesterday.
He recalls returning to Jersey after the course and being ‘puppy walked’ through the streets by two tutor Constables during the first ten weeks before being sent out on his own. He recalls his first night shift, and dealing with drinkers from bars and clubs which have long since closed or changed names. And he recalls being introduced to PC Tom McGinn – a police court officer who regaled him with stories of the time he worked on the investigation into the notorious sex attacker, the Beast of Jersey, Edward Paisnel.
After completing two years as a probationer, the then PC Langford took a motorcycle course and joined the traffic department, where he spent the first 14 years of his career.
The role, like his entire career, was varied.
‘As well as the normal policing we did escorts during Royal visits and I was also the school liaison for First Tower School. There were also some very tragic incidents which spring to mind,’ he says.
‘One was a fatal road traffic accident at La Blinerie. I didn’t lead this investigation but it was memorable for me because it was my first exposure to a dead body. It was truly tragic.
‘There was also a suicide where this person had jumped off Sand Street car park. As a motorcycle officer I was the first on the scene. The wait for the ambulance felt like hours but in fairness it was probably only minutes,’ he says.
Det Insp Langford would later specialise in surveillance work – a role made all the more difficult in a small island where police officers become well-known figures among both the law-abiding and criminal communities.
He also qualified as a firearms officer, and would be deployed on numerous incidents as well as support roles during the visits of Royals, as well as that of the then Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife Cherie.
In 2002 he transferred from uniformed operations to the crime team – a move which would ultimately see him lead or play a major role in some of the Island’s biggest criminal investigations, including several homicides.
One such case was an investigation into a domestic murder in Cannon Street in May 2004. The suspect – Nicholas Goss – fled to France hours after the killing. Now out of the Channel Islands jurisdiction, the force knew their options for finding him and returning him to Jersey were limited.
‘I said, “Why don’t we text him”? So I just sent him a text. I wrote “Nick, my name’s Steve, I am working on the investigation and I am sure you know why we need to speak to you. Please get in touch”.
‘It was literally no more than that.’
Later, as the then Detective Sergeant was driving to the Airport to catch a flight to visit Goss’s mother in the UK, his phone beeped.
‘Steve, this is Nick. I need some help,’ read the message.
‘So I called him and we talked,’ says Det Insp Langford.
‘He was in a different jurisdiction. We couldn’t go over there and arrest him as we didn’t have the legal power to do that.
‘But I asked whether, if we came to see him, he would come back on a voluntary basis.
‘I said as soon as we get to France we’ll let you know. You tell us where you are and we’ll come to meet you.
‘He was about an hour and a half south of St Malo. Me and [former Det Insp] Barry Faudemer took the car over and stayed in a hotel.
‘He told us the name of the little village where he was and said if you walk past the church and down the road I’ll come and meet you. He just walked straight towards us. It was surreal,’ says Det Insp Langford.
‘I said, “We can’t force you to come back” but he said, “No, no I need to come back. I need to face up”.
‘So we got him back on the Condor and as soon as we were in Jersey waters he was arrested and taken back to headquarters where his lawyer was waiting.’
Goss later pleaded guilty to murder and was jailed for life.
Just weeks before the Cannon Street murder, Jersey was rocked by another killing. On 14 March 2004, Paul Greenan was arrested on suspicion of grave and criminal assault for a brutal attack on a nursery nurse in Paris Lane, off Victoria Avenue. Hours later, after the 35-year-old victim died in hospital, Greenan had to be re-arrested in his cell.
‘He wasn’t aware when he was in the cell that she had died and it was my job to go to him and rearrest him on a charge of murder.
‘I’ll never forget the experience – the atmosphere. When I re-arrested him he just collapsed. The enormity of what he had done just hit him. It was the first time I had ever arrested someone for murder, and I have watched back the CCTV from the detention suite and I don’t know who is more nervous – me or him,’ says Det Insp Langford, who is married with three children.
Throughout his career, the now 52-year-old has placed the victim at the heart of every investigation and has worked to ensure the feelings of those affected by the crime are not lost.
‘You are not only dealing with the villains but you are also looking for victim confidence in the justice system.
‘There is a massive responsibility there. I always say to the guys, if you have a job on your desk don’t treat it lightly. Whether it is a burglary where some old dear has had property of sentimental value stolen or a sexual assault or something else you must never forget about the victim.’
The careful treatment of those affected by crime is perhaps never more important than in a cold case investigation, where victims are required to re-live ordeals from their past which they have tried to bury.
In recent years, Det Insp Langford has worked on two such cases – one of which resulted in rapist Andrew Hannam being jailed for a crime he committed in town in February 1995.
‘The case was reopened in 2015 and was subject to new DNA techniques. We quickly identified that the offender had been incarcerated in the UK for a horrific rape since the Jersey attack.
‘One of the very big challenges was revisiting the victim. We knocked on her door and introduced ourselves and I think that at that point she know what was going on.
‘She invited us in to her home and she told us how her life had changed over the years. She was very keen to help us and we put support mechanisms in place and I believe his conviction helped her to get closure.’
Although he has now retired as a police officer, Det Insp Langford will remain with the force as a civilian investigator.
While some officers retire jaded after long careers in the police, Det Insp Langford looks back only with fondness.
‘I think I can genuinely say this – I have worked 31 years in the service and the level of excitement I have experienced in the last five years has been just as same as the excitement I felt in the first five years. There are few professions where you can say that.’
Although it was long, for Det Insp Langford, it has all gone by in a flash. And he can still clearly picture the rookie PC Langford in the police court all those years ago listening to PC McGinn and his stories of the Beast of Jersey.
‘I remember sitting there as a 21-year-old and asking him all about the investigation and he sat there and told me. And I was in awe of this man. He was a retiring cop and that was 30 years ago. And I look back at that 30 years and it has just flown by for me, as I am sure it did for him.’
