unsolved-murders.co.uk
Unsolved Murders
Tags

Peter Corke

Age: 20

Sex: male

Date: 23 Sep 1995

Place: Joiners Arm, Hackney Road, Hoxton, London

Peter Corke was shot in the back outside the Joiners Arm in Hackney Road, Hoxton in the early hours of 23 September 1995.

A 40-year-old window cleaner was tried for his murder but acquitted.

The gunman was described as cool and calculating.

The window cleaner was connected to the murder after his car was found abandoned in Islington. When the police examined his car, they found some firearms residue, but the window cleaner accounted for it by saying that it must have come from two shotguns that his brother legitimately owned.

He was later identified as the gunman by a bouncer at the pub, but the window cleaner said that he was the victim of mistaken identity and had nothing to do with the crime. However, there was no other identification evidence linking the window cleaner to the murder.

After hearing that the police were looking for him in connection to the murder he went to ground for three months. However, he said that it was not because he was guilty, but because he was scared of being falsely accused of the shooting.

Peter Corke was a policeman's son and had been a trainee Metropolitan Police mechanic at the time. He was engaged to be married and had lived in Chadwell Heath, Essex.

At the time of the murder he had been doing extra work as a bouncer to pay for his wedding. He was six foot four inches tall and described as a gentle giant.

He had been stood outside the Joiners Arm in Hackney Road at about 1.45am with his back to the road talking to another bouncer in a group of seven when he was shot. The gunman had fired several shots into the crowd, probably from a car, and he was hit in the chest.

It was thought at the time that the gunman had been one of four people that had earlier been ejected from the pub.

At the trial the prosecution said that the window cleaner had shot Peter Corke in retribution after two of his friends were violently ejected from the pub by some other pub staff. The window cleaner accepted that he had left the pub at the time that his friends were thrown out but said that at the time of the shooting he was asleep, sleeping off the effect of the days drinking he had had.


*map pointers are rough estimates based on known location details as per Place field above.

see www.courtnewsuk.co.uk

see Aberdeen Press and Journal - Monday 25 September 1995

see Aberdeen Press and Journal - Tuesday 26 September 1995