James Roger Brodie

James Brodie disappeared after a robbery that he was thought to have been involved with in which Marian Bates was murdered.

He was not seen or heard of after the robbery on 30 September 2003, having made no contact with any of his friends or using his mobile phone since.

He was known to the police and described as an extremely violent criminal.

The police said that they didn't think James Brodie had it in him to keep so quiet or start a new life and that if he had been alive he would have made contact with someone somehow, either directly or indirectly.

His body has yet to be found. It was thought that he was dead within two weeks of the robbery of the jewellers and murder of Marian Bates and that he had been murdered by the gang that had sponsored the robbery in an effort to distance themselves from it after it had gone wrong. It was thought that the gang had supplied the gun used in the murder of Marian Bates although it has never been found.

A man was charged with his murder in April 2013, but the case against him was later dropped. However, the man was earlier convicted of conspiring to rob the jewellers in which Marian Bates was murdered and sentenced to 13 years in prison in March 2005.

At the time James Brodie disappeared he was wanted in relation to the murder of Marian Bates, a Nottinghamshire jeweller, who was murdered in a robbery at the Time Centre in Arnold in 2003. Two men, had robbed the shop on Front Street on 30 September 2003. The robbers had pointed a pistol at Marian Bates's daughter and Marian Bates was said to have then stood in front of her daughter and was then shot. After the shooting James Brodie was said to have leaned over the counter and mouthed the words 'Silly cow'.

Peter Williams was said to have taken part in the robbery, having been armed with a crowbar, and was convicted for Marian Bates's murder in March 2005, however, James Brodie, who was thought to have been with him was never found. James Brodie was thought to have pulled the trigger. Peter Williams denied the murder. Peter Williams, who had been convicted of other crimes, was said at the time to have been issued with an electronic tracking device by the police but he had removed it and had also not attended seven out of eleven meetings with his Youth Offending Team in the weeks before the murder of Marian Bates. It was further heard that the private company responsible for monitoring his tag had failed to notice that it had been removed and the breach was not reported.

The man charged with James Brodie's murder, and another man, were convicted of having been involved with planning the robbery of the Time Centre and each sentenced to 13 years imprisonment.

In February 2013, the police searched land at Maize Farm in East Heckington, Lincolnshire for his remains but found nothing. They had also previously searched a canal in Lincolnshire, but also found nothing.

It was said that another man who was a gang leader who was later convicted for another murder had organised the robbery and was linked to James Brodie's disappearance.

James Brodie was also wanted in connection with three armed robberies that had been committed within a 12-hour period on 9 September 2003 as well as the attack on a man at the Lord Nelson pub in Bulwell who was beaten by five men.