Ron Harrison reminds me of one of my best friends. I actually became his carer for the last 8 years of his life. He actually lived in the area near Deptford, Greenwich etc. He was gay and had dealings with young men in the years before i met him. He was a lovely bloke, one of the nicest people I've ever had the privilege to know. If the young men were taking advantage of him before i met him, or tried to, that never happened after i moved into his house as his permanent carer. He would tell me how much he appreciated the help I was giving him. I miss him. I know that he had been taken advantage of in the past but he knew that I wouldn't have ever thought about doing anything like that. That's why that even though I was his full time live in carer, I made sure i paid him rent for my room every month. Unfortunately he passed away 3 months ago at the age of 86. He was a great friend to me and I know i was to him.
Lol I love how when you’re a gay older man, it’s the young men that are taking advantage of you, but when you’re an older straight man, it’s you that’s taking advantage of the young women. 😂😂. If your older gay male friend does indeed remind you of Ron, then it means your gay older friend was a paedophile, because most definitely, Ron was having sexual relations with teenagers, maybe even boys, enticing them with drink, fags and money to get them on side. Ron was from the era where people like him got away with all that carrying on.
Lovely to read your story, thank you for sharing it with us. I knew older gay men in the 1980s (actually in their 60s, which seemed old to me at the time!) They were so lovely too. I was in my 20s then, and now I'm 60 myself! I will never forget them. You gave such wonderful support and friendship to your gentleman friend, he was so pleased to have you in his life, of that I'm quite certain. 🥰
@@Nella87745you're replying to people who are extremely sheltered, or deliberately ignoring the obvious context. It looks to me that the man was a predator who liked young boys. So from how I interpret this, I think the police and justice system knew this man was a pedo and got what he deserved.
Those were ridiculously low sentences for both boys. Watching another show following the Flying Squad, men who committed robbery and who did not kill anyone got more years than that. Where is the sense in it?
I wonder where these "fine, upstanding citizens" are now, after having long since served lousy jokes of prison sentences, ie, 7 and 8 years. May their lives be truly miserable!
So hang on a minute . All this police work / detective work …. Crimewatch appeals … FOR A MAN WHO WAS TORTURED AND DIED BY STRANGULATION by means of a ligature around his neck ?? And they only got 7 and 8 years ? Please tell me this is a mistake . Because if it is true you just might as well just don’t investigate the so called crime because this pair got away with it . There is no doubt about that. Be good ❤
Quite a bit has changed since this was made (literally last century). Generally speaking though, the US system is viewed as a terrible system in the UK. A very high percentage of the US population is in jail, and it has become more like an exploitative business.
i'm american and so never got to see this show until youtube came along but i've noticed a pattern that alot of these cases are respectable older men who had a secret gay life that eventually ended in murder. there are several other cases similar to this on other episodes. i would also say, though, that it's more than just the secret life quite often these men seem to enjoy the sleaze factor and negative excitement of dealing with lowlifes and shady characters and that, unfortunately, the danger aspect of it was alot of the thrill. many straight men, too, go to prostitutes not just for the sex but for the sleaze factor and the whole "i'm doing something naughty" buzz.
I suppose first of all, things have changed a lot. This was 30 years ago, and Ron Harrison was born in the early 1930s. Speaking as a gay man though myself, I think it was relatively common, particularly in a certain sub type of gay men of that era - almost invariably upper class men. Firstly, homosexuality was fully illegal in England until the 1960s, and even then it was only partially legalised. Gay men could still be arrested for really very trivial things up until the early 2000s. The public were also still hugely homophobic and religion was much more common than it is now when men if that era were being brought up. So, it led to a kind of very toxic shame and an environment where many gay men couldn't develop their sexuality in a healthy manner. If you view yourself as utter scum, you tend to end up playing that out sexually. Secondly, a lot of men from the upper classes had gone to all boys private schools where corporal punishment, sexual abuse and violence were common. A lot of them developed a kind of toxic sexual imprint from it, but it was also a weird means of punishing themselves. "I've been told all my life I'm utter filth so please treat like that". It's very similar in some respects to the famous psychoanalyst, Carl Jung's, theory of "the shadow". That there is a part of the personality that's very dark and shame ridden. It can act almost like there's another person inside of you (think of gollum in lord of the rings) and it can end up controlling and destroying the other parts of your life. Of course, a lot of gay men in that era had toxic shame in bucket loads so it led them to very extreme behaviour. Thirdly, addictive behaviour is very often a means to deal with unresolved trauma. Sexual addiction becomes like a drink or drug addiction. It becomes a means to stop the pain inside. Again, so many gay men of that era in particular had huge trauma from growing up in the deeply homophobic place England was back then. It led to very extreme "addictions" as a means to cope with it. It's no surprise that Ron Harrison also drank heavily. It's still happening now, sadly, but thankfully things are changing.
@@Joeblogs999 sadly, I had a friend who ended up in a similar situation. He'd been brought up as a strict Catholic and the toxic shame had really damaged him. He once told me that when he was younger he used to switch the lights off wherever possible so that god wouldn't see him and know he was gay. Seriously messed up. What happened with him is that his personality basically split into two because he couldn't handle the shame that his religion had given him about being gay. On the one hand, he was a model Catholic who was a pillar of society. He became a very successful teacher. On the other hand, his shame could not allow his sexual side to ever be recognised so he basically became a different person when nobody was watching. That side of him was very like ron Harrison. Totally driven by out of control sexuality, anger, shame, self hatred and rage. Needless to say, it got him into a huge amount of trouble. I believe the policeman here said investigating Ron Harrison was like investigating two separate people, and psychologically I think that's true. The famous psychoanalyst, Carl Jung, called that kind of thing our "shadow". The shame ridden dark parts of ourselves that we must learn to understand, or be dominated by it. Perhaps the best way of illustrating it would be to say it's a bit like Gollum's split personality in Lord of the Rings. Secondly, we now understand that addictive behaviour is very often a way to deal with unresolved trauma. Rob Harrison's behaviour was a form of sexual addiction and it's no surprise that he also drank heavily. It's a coping mechanism to dim the emotional pain inside. Many gay men of Ron Harrison's era had huge trauma from growing up in the deeply homophobic society Britain was at the time. It left them very emotionally scarred and they often ended up with extreme addictive type behaviours as a way to try and deal with the pain and shame.
@@zeddeka yes makes sense. some are worse than others but in the end human beings are inherently shame based regardless of upbringing or orientation and, in fact, the most arrogant and sociopathic among us are the most so. be that as it may danger is alot of what makes males sexually appealing both to females and gay / bi males it's a huge part of how our species has evolved and, unfortunately, more often than not the outcome is negative.
well no, it's not enough, is it? Otherwise a good lawyer could sow doubt in the minds of any juror that the prints got there months before in some innocent way.
I am not quite sure whether that's the right Mark Dooley, as his age is not quite correct. But if you search for (I cannot leave links here) "Prolific offender Mark Dooley" you come across articles about some Mark Dooley, who is, depending on the source, 51-55 years old and who has run up quite an array of criminal offences. As however no mention is made of a murder, maybe it's not him and he's just a petty crook.
That priest should of been charged with obstructing justice, his interfering about the TV could of had very different results. I think he just wanted to be centre stage of it all.
I wonder what that priest does in his spare time. He saw no problem with a parishoner who he knew to be homosexual taking alter boys home with him to do odd jobs.
There is no evidence that the murderers were 'rent boys', Ron seemed to be a sitting target because he was a single man with money and deteriorating health. They were Council Estate kids who seen an opportunity to get quick money - he was clearly scared of them, so he gave them what they wanted.
There was plenty of evidence to think the murder was to do with Ron’s sexual hidden life. It could have been rent boys, to say that it could t have been is to not look closely at the man’s private unkown life. Police have to investigate all possible avenues.
I find the conduct of the taxi driver in this story odd. The murder must have been covered in the local press/news yet he did not go to the police to say that he had picked up Ronald Harrison that night and had two lads in the back of his cab. Two lads that he spoke to face to face when Harrison went to the bank card machine yet failed to identify them when asked to do so in an identity parade. Very odd.
Maybe, but think of 20 fairs a day, 5 days a week for 10 years... they aren't all memorable especially if you work the night shift. Some people only read the sports pages. He could have had no clue Harrison was murdered until his memory was jogged.
He picked them up on the sunday, and the murder was not discovered till the wednesday, wouldn't have been reported in the papers till the thursday or friday, he would not connect it straight away,
@@theculturedthug6609 The system is rigged so that only certain people get through, it's more or less a closed shop. If you go to a theatre festival (such as Edinburgh) or fringe shows in London, Paris, etc. you will see actors that are far more talented than Hollywood celebrities.
English low is a joke.what is 7 & 8 years for torturing the man and ending his life I don't understand how can you let them come back to society ? To kill again to torture or properly rabe
Things are changing, but sadly Ron Harrison was typical of the misery a lot of gay men of his generation (and some subsequent ones) had to face. Brought up with a deep sense of shame, forced to hide his sexuality because it could have lost him his job and brought him abuse, no chance of marriage or a family. No wonder he started to drink. Gay men like that often ended up having to split their lives and develop two personalities. It's interesting that Ron was "Anglo Catholic" - so many gay men of a religious background end up being destroyed by it. (Anglo) Catholicism can be particularly bad because of its emphasis on guilt and shame. Some end up being in a kind of abusive relationship with the church. On the one hand, It provided a layer of "respectability" to provide much needed safety from gossip, it gave an alternative family for lonely people, and was also a means of trying to deal with the deep and destructive shame they had - on the other hand it can reinforce that feel sense of destructive shame and keep them trapped in a vicious cycle. The other side of their personality - the one that needs human love and sexuality - was pushed into a very dangerous shadow world. Crippled by shame, just meeting someone was potentially dangerous, and reporting anything to the police was dangerous in itself. Gay men could still be prosecuted for fairly ridiculous things up until the early noughties, the police were often deeply homophobic and were either outright hostile or didn't want to get involved in any way if gay people were victims of crime.
As a young doctor my dad worked under a senior consultant whom he held in the highest regard. One day he just vanished and there was a very uncomfortable feeling in the unit. Turns out he'd been caught cottaging and in those dark days he could never work as a doctor again. My dad was horrified by this cruelty and injustice. I was only 11 when the 1976 Sexual Offences Act was passed but I was not much older when my dad told me this story. It enraged him and coloured his whole life. I went on my first gay rights demo at 14.
@@sophiejameson4064 How very ‘right on’ of you. Did it occur to you or indeed your father that the Doctor in question was in fact caught in lewd act with a minor ? Hence he was quite rightly struck off.
It is clearly stated numerous times that Ron Harrison was a predator of young boys, a drink driving & a glue sniffer. He was clearly in cahoots with a notorious Priest. You’ll have to excuse me if my heart doesn’t bleed for Harrison & his homosexual plight
I question whether his retirement as school teacher and interest in young men are connected. However it’s important to remember that a person could be pressured to resign simply for being gay in those days
It’s clear that Ron encouraged underage boys to drink & smoke to entice them. He definitely had sexual relations with underage boys, without question he did. That in itself if statutory r/pe as the boys would have been underage & could not have consented, even if they said yes.
The murder was tragic and awful, but I'm amazed that people didn't have concerns that a man with alcohol problems and who frequently used rent boys was accepted as a headmaster of an all boys school.
A reflection of the times really. It has to be said it wouldn't have attracted the level of attention it would now. There were all kinds of eccentric teachers back then, and things happened that weren't necessarily of a sexual nature, but which wouldn't be allowed now. One of the main things is that it really wasn't uncommon at all for pupils to go to teachers' home for whatever reason, whereas now it would raise a lot of eyebrows. On the other hand it also wasn't hugely uncommon for kids to end up marrying one of their teachers. The general attitude back then would have been "they've done well for themselves" whereas now we'd be outraged. There was also no real system at all for teacher standards. People just didn't want to know. Fortunately, the policeman makes quite clear at 30:40 that there was not the slightest hint that Ron had ever tried anything inappropriate with any of his pupils.
@@colinofay7237 your opinion is not fact. The policeman said there was never any hint of him being inappropriate with his pupils. There's no evidence whatsoever that he was interested in kids.
If the victim had been a young girl or just a straight guy, the sentences would have been harsher. But England has been handing out slaps on the wrist for a very long time, so while it's shocking, it's not suprising.
WHAT AN FIN JOKE OF SENTENCES ...BE INTERESTING TO SEE WHAT THE SENILE OLD JUDGE GAVE IF AS ONE OF HIS FAMILY ...ABSOLUTELY DISGRACEFUL NON JUSTICE .....PLEASE CORRECT THIS DURING YOUR TENURE...🇬🇧
A great excuse for celibacy, secrecy in confession allows connections to be made, access to alter boys. The same sort of sensible reasoning applies in many situations. Be careful of paediatric nurses. An interest in children is not always innocent.
The two lads don’t especially seem to be choir boy types but they both have Irish surnames so perhaps they came from Catholic families and it was expected of them by their parents.
In my opinion...sadly. The victim had something or someone in their life which caused him to be at risk. It is only after things or people come out that the truth is known.
He was from a generation where gay people were treated appallingly. It was fully illegal until the late 60s and even until the early 00s, gay men could be arrested for the most flimsy reasons. Gay people were brought up with massive sense of shame and people were deeply homophobic. His religion will have made things twenty times worse. He will have been told from an early age that God hated him. It's no wonder he became an alcoholic. Many gay people were forced into a kind of dangerous shadow world, and ended up with quite serious trauma and mental health issues.
@@zeddeka and he was also from an era where gay older men routinely predated on and sexually abused young boys, underage boys. Ron, himself, was one of those predators, enticing underage boys, school age boys with drink, cigarettes and money. Him also being a head master is an unsavoury thought to even think about. He clearly had dealing with many a young boy through his decade and it was all shrouded in mystery. He came from an era where you kept quiet about all of this, including the boys who he would have predated on.
@@irishcountryman4866 Going by the Crimewatch reconstruction...i would say his penchant for younger males led him to where it was at. Blackmail, revenge, ...Who knows ...just my opinion!
The comments here are ignoring the obvious part of this where an old man is predating on underage boys, he was a head master as well at (great surprise) a boys school!
@@HeathsH76 absolutely. Sadly most people don’t have any knowledge of how many of the upper class members of society are involved in this behaviour. i’m not saying this man is, I haven’t done any research into the case at this moment. All I’m saying is people need to open their minds
"Alot of gay people are reluctant to speak to police!" No fucking wonder the way homosexuals we're treated back then!! Am heterosexual, but I fell for gay people, and hopefully we've moved on in the 21st century!!
It's very sad isn't it. Interesting that he was so religious - I have a friend who's much younger than this, who was also Catholic (attended a Catholic school). Sadly he too has been pretty much destroyed emotionally about being gay - the bit where they said Ron was "like two separate people" is exactly right. My friend is also like that - it's a way of dealing with the absolutely crippling shame he was brought up with about being gay (through the religious message of his school and the bullying). It really is a form of emotional child abuse.
My children attended a school in the USA who’s bullying policy was “zero tolerance” & they implemented it really well. They were taught from a young age that bullies were weak & damaged individuals who didn’t understand the simple, logical fact that bullying others doesn’t make you feel better about yourself. Peer pressure is incredibly powerful in shaping kids behaviour. When they attended a school in England they were shocked that bullying was permitted. I know that I’m only comparing a couple of schools but it shows that it’s possible to change the culture of ‘Kids will be kids!’. I think that we underestimate the emotional torture of bullying & the long term psychological damage inflicted.
@@suzimonkey345 Bullying is a rite of passage for both the bully and the person being bullied. It’s creates character & reveals the innate ability of humans to adapt & evolve
If it's only a theft of a TV, fine, but when it comes to murder, I believe God would prefer for the police to handle it. Unto Caesar Edit, the volume is down a bit and with my hearing the lack of cc made this difficult
The policeman confirms at 30:40 that there wasn't the slightest hint of him ever being inappropriate with his pupils. The boys who murdered him also were at pains to confirm that there hadn't been anything sexual.
The US has strict laws and has capital punishment and have no nonsense attitude but Canada and British laws are a joke. Slap on the wrist . It’s embarrassing really
We are very happy the way it is. The last thing we need is a corrupted and capitalized law and jurisdiction system wich is deeply segregated and inhuman producing gun violence and an injustice society like the US. Do you realize wich country has the biggest changes in violent crimes for the worse? And the most inequalities? Have fun over there I prefer this side of the Atlantic with culture and humanism thank you very much 🤢
It seems to me that anything at all made 30 years ago is now deemed 'collectable' and that there seem to be more people than ever that feel the need to collect.
It's worth saying that there's no evidence whatsoever that has ever come to light that Ron Harrison, or the priest, was ever part of a ring. Many years have passed and nothing has been said and nobody has come forward. Until something does come to light, It's just a very hysterical conspiracy theory about a very unhappy man who died horribly.
He's 'not practicing' but loitering round the choir boys & asking them to do odd jobs. Smh. My 6th Form Headmaster was a v respected man. Until inappropriate images of boys as young as 7, were found on his computer. He married his gf of 12 years while on Bail then relocated to Germany & got another teaching job, with no problem.🙄
I think they are sneaky, impulsive and often are attracted to underage fellows. They sneak around are are more careless because it’s not socialy acceptable and they take what they can get
The two lads literally call him a nonce in the taxi, it says a lot about Mr Harrison than is being made out here, teacher, involved with the church, gay and associating with teenage boys Mr Harrison was not so squeaky clean methinks
The way they depict gay men in these old shows cracks me up.. I am so glad that times have changed, and we have in the most part, accepted that way of life.. I mean 'rent boys'.... eye roll!!
Depiction is one thing, however, Ron was indeed a predator who would entice young teens and underage males with drink, cigarettes and money. If anything is obvious, it’s that. Ron came from the era where people didn’t speak on such going on.
I'm afraid it's how gay men were viewed in general back then. It really was a very unpleasant time - section 28 was an accurate reflection of how nasty a lot of the public was. It seems that a number of the nasty old sods have found their way onto the RU-vid comments section.
@@zeddekathere are interviews with his neighbours where they said they would see him with young boys and Ron would spend the night with them. Its also obvious why these 17 and 20 yr olds were in his house and it wasn't for a bit of gardening. Ron's story is tragic but he was a sleazy character to say the least.
Men have always drunk out of bottles, nothing to do with American films. I grew up in London in the 50's and men used to keep bottles in brown paper bags and swig out of them.
@@janetpendlebury6808 I hate when I see that, it makes me wretch in the pit of my stomach. It shows just how badly somebody wants a drink and to me that’s never a good sign of good character.
Yes well…if you are aware that these bottles were stored in a warehouse perhaps for years…and that rats cannot be kept out of warehouses…and that rats dribble urine as they run around as that is how they find their way home…then you would never put a bottle to your lips.
I hear too many sad and tragic stories of people, young and old, from the LGBTQ community and I feel very bad for them. It's not their choice to be gay or trans and yet they suffer from stigmatization, rejection and secrecy. If we believe in God, He also made them and definitely love them too. If we reject people just because they are different in skin colour, religion, sexual identity or orientation or disability, then you are not doing your children a favour because you help to create a society of hate and you pass this hatred to them. Besides,who knows, maybe they also belong to the category you hate too.
I feel like that so called treatment suited the Ron types as it allowed them to lure and predate on young/underage boys. It’s obvious ron was a pedophile, enticing boys with drink, cigarettes and money. Ron was murdered, that is indeed true, but equally, Ron was also a pedophile. Let’s not pretend he wasn’t. Ron should have got proper justice for his killing and equally, when he was alive, the law should have looked into him and giving him the full extent of lawful punishment. He got away with his dealings as it was the don’t ask, don’t tell era.
@@zeddeka to me, it’s not hard to work out that Ron was sexually involved with underage boys. He wasn’t a forceful r/pist, seems to me to be a coercive manipulative r/pist. Plies underage boys with drunk and fags and makes them think he’s cool. Gives them money when they need it, in hopes that would convince them into sex. You’d be blind to not see that as even remotely possible.