Chapter 12
‘Are you saying you think that this doctor’s wife, Tabitha, may have had something to do with his attack?’ Henley asked as she put aside a disclosure request from the CPS and turned to Ramouter.
‘I mean I can’t say for certain that yes, she had something to do with her husband’s attack, but …’
‘Their behaviour is off,’ Henley concluded. ‘Have you tried to contact the wife yourself?’
‘No. I thought that if she is involved then having another officer from a completely different unit might spook her.’
‘Good point. What about anyone else? Family members. Friends.’
Ramouter shook his head.
Henley picked up markers from her desk and walked over to the whiteboard. She drew a vertical line in red down the middle of the blank whiteboard and wrote Graham Ashcroft’s name. ‘What do you know about him?’
‘He’s fifty-two years old and the director of a fertility clinic.
Married to Tabitha Ashcroft. They have one daughter.
Colette. twenty years old and studying at the University of Toronto.
He has a clean criminal record now but there was a drink driving conviction seventeen years ago for which he got a twelve-month driving ban.
He got his licence back and there’s a speeding ticket from three years ago. ’
‘On the surface you can’t see why anyone would have it in for him?’
‘Not unless he owes someone money. I can ask Ezra to have a dig around and see what his personal finances are like, but I went on Companies House and from the accounts that they filed they’re doing more than all right.’
‘Fertility is a lucrative business. What about social media?’ said Henley.
‘He’s on Instagram and he’s … a bit annoying really. He runs marathons, volunteers for his local food bank, looks to be a good and very proud dad and even officiated a friend’s wedding last summer in San Francisco. He’s perfect.’
‘No one’s perfect, Ramouter,’ Henley said, tapping the marker against her palm. ‘Ok, if there’s nothing on the surface to explain why someone would want to take this man out, what about the wife?’
‘She’s not so perfect. Dr Tabitha Ashcroft. Owns an equally lucrative beauty clinic. Again, good financials. She’s forty-eight years old and has no presence on social media. Her clinic has an Instagram and TikTok page, but she personally doesn’t.’
‘Why is she a blackout on social media?’
‘Previous convictions.’ Ramouter handed her a printout.
Croydon Gazette
Monday 6 September 2021
Sharon Weaver and Kate Linton
Careless driver avoids prison after Thornton Heath schoolteacher’s death
A woman has narrowly avoided a prison sentence after pleading guilty to causing death by careless driving.
Tabitha Ashcroft, aged forty-eight, hit sixty-year-old Sherri Durant on Thornton Heath High Street.
The crash took place at around 7.30 p.m. on 16 April, last year, and Sherri Durant died later at Croydon University Hospital from a head injury.
Ashcroft, of Dulwich, London, was given a fifteen-month prison sentence suspended for two years at Croydon Crown Court on Monday after pleading guilty to causing death by careless driving.
The court was told that Ashcroft was six miles over the 30mph speed limit and that she was on her phone when the collision took place.
The court heard that the prosecution had dropped the original charge of death by dangerous driving after receiving evidence that Durant had run out into the road and that Ashcroft’s view had been partially obscured by a bus.
In addition to her fifteen-month suspended prison term, Ashcroft was banned from driving for two years and seven months and ordered to perform 200 hours of unpaid work, a driver awareness course and made to pay ￡1,250 in costs.
Barrister Grant Dodd said his client would never forgive herself for her role in the tragic accident.
The family of Sherri Durant sat through the proceedings in the public gallery. A spokesman for the family said: ‘We are devasted and will never get over the loss of Sherri. The legal system has failed us. There has been no justice here today.’
‘She killed someone,’ Henley said, instantly feeling the sense of loss and despair that would forever be part of their life.
‘And all she got was a suspended sentence and a ban,’ added Ramouter.
‘Didn’t Tabitha Ashcroft tell DC Copeland that she was driving back from Bath to see her husband?’
‘Yep.’
‘Even though she’s on a two-year ban and has a suspended prison sentence?’ Henley wrote Tabitha Ashcroft on the whiteboard with an exclamation mark. ‘Why would you risk driving on a ban and going to prison for two years unless you’re running from something?’
‘Or because you did something.’
Henley’s desk phone started ringing but Stanford walked over and answered it.
‘So, husband is a saint, but the wife isn’t,’ Henley continued.
‘Husband is attacked, first by stabbing and then, ironically, being run off the road. Wife is on a driving ban but is blatantly ignoring the ban and unless something has changed in the last hour, she’s still a no-show at the hospital.
Do you have any more updates about the burglary? Forensics? Independent witnesses?’
Ramouter shook his head. ‘DC Copeland didn’t update me on forensics and Graham was less than forthcoming.’
Henley bit her lip and nodded to the second whiteboard. She tapped the board with her marker. ‘I gave you forty-eight hours; you’ve already gone over the clock. What’s your decision?’
‘It doesn’t fit. Which means that I have to let it go. I’ll call DC Copeland and tell—’
‘No, don’t call her just yet. There’s something not right about the wife,’ Henley said as she drew a circle around Tabitha Ashcroft’s name followed by an arrow and wrote the following questions:
WHERE IS SHE? WHY IS SHE RUNNING?
‘Oi, Henley. You fancy a trip down the road?’ said Stanford as he strolled over towards Henley and Ramouter.
‘For what?’ Henley asked.
‘That was the control room on the phone. A woman’s body was found hanging on the old Deptford Pier on Glaisher Street. Lewisham CID haven’t got the manpower to deal with it so they’re passing it on to us, as though we don’t have enough on our plates.’
‘I’ve had enough of Lewisham passing—’
‘You might want to hold off from calling their DI and cussing them out though,’ Stanford interrupted.
‘I was scanning HOLMES and there was an update with Sian Fox-Carnell’s missing person’s case.
Soteria managed to get their systems back up and running and twenty minutes ago they got a GPS alert as to Fox-Carnell’s location. ’
Ramouter looked across at Henley and then back to Stanford. ‘Glaisher Street?’
‘Give the boy wonder a prize.’
‘I’ll get my coat,’ said Henley.