“THE former coal heaps of east Durham were riddled with a network of small holes made by locals in the search for coal,” writes Dave Middlemas, a retired detective who takes our recent articles about pitheaps and turns them into a sensational murder story that stunned the North East 30 years ago.
“Men pushing wonky bicycles laden with old fertilizer sacks full of their spoils were a common sight in the area – particularly during the strike of 1984-85,” he continues.
Sherburn Hill Pit Heap, another towering mound of waste that could prove rich pickings in tough times
“The miles of mineral railway embankments were also a rich source of coal and coke, as many were built from pit waste and had suffered many years of spillage.
“One such mineral line was a gravity-based incline which ran from Hesledon Bank Top, near the A19 at Cold Hesledon, down through Seaham directly to the dock staithes. This had carried coal wagons from the Murton/Hawthorn combined colliery but after the strike it had become redundant. The track was lifted but the coal-rich embankment remained.
“A particularly well-stocked part of it was at the top where coal had historically been stored to fuel a boiler.
“It was here in August 1989 that one local former miner was working a ‘seam’ and had dug a shallow shaft. When he returned to his hole the following morning with more bags to fill, he was outraged to find that not only had someone filled in his hole but that they had smoothed over the surface to disguise the fact that it had ever existed.
Police at the scene where the body was found at the coal-rich Hawthorn incline at Cold Hesledon, above Seaham, in August 1989
“Doubtless cursing, he began to re-excavate the shaft and soon came upon the upturned feet of a male corpse buried head down. He summoned my colleague who, by chance, was passing on a routine uniformed patrol.
“The deceased was unidentified but a speedy appeal was sent out via the local press together with a description of his distinctive bald head and pony-tail. He was soon identified as Michael Meade from Sunderland – an entrepreneurial band manager and music promoter well known on the local pub/club scene.
A picture from the Echo archive of Michael Meade
“Meade had not been seen for a few days. His partner Susan Harrison came forward to identify him and initially claimed that she thought he had disappeared to avoid debtors. She said she had not reported him missing as he had disappeared in the past.
“Her story was somewhat flawed however and she eventually confessed to having had him killed.
“She had been extensively and badly abused by Meade and had finally approached wannabe hitman Danny Boyes, a bouncer, to murder him. A convoluted plot involving other doormen was hatched and complications arose on the night, but Meade was ultimately strangled in a field entrance behind the Nissan factory.
“Boyes was to be paid £14,000 for the murder, from which he arranged to pay others to support him, including for the provision of alibis, disposing of vehicles and ultimately disposing of Meade’s body. This last point was where it all fell down!”
Susan Harrison leaves court in May 1990 have been sentenced to seven years for manslaughter
Meade, 40, was a car dealer who at the time of his death was facing charges of burglary and handling stolen goods. He had gambling debts of more than £40,000 that he owed to 27 credit cards and loan companies.
His controlling, violent behaviour may have been traced back to a brain tumour that he had removed in 1972, and his first wife testified on behalf of Harrison, whom she had never met, that she had fled to Spain as the only way to escape him, and even there she lived in fear.
While she was in hiding, Meade struck up a relationship with Harrison, who became his 33-year-old common law wife and mother to his two daughters. He subjected Harrison to horrific degradation and sexual humiliation, denying her medical treatment for the injuries she had received.
He locked the girls in their rooms for three days at a time without food, and he issued such threats to kill them all if she left that Harrison decided that his death was the only way out.
On the day of his death, he had beaten his nine-year-old daughter with a belt for leaving fingerprints on a camera lens.
Harrison took him for a night out in a Sunderland restaurant, and then lured him with the promise of al fresco sex to the banks of the Wear at midnight where her hired accomplices were waiting.
“As Mr Meade started amorous advances, Boyes appeared with a shotgun, ordered him into Harrison's car, and all three set off to Downhill Lane, Sunderland,” said The Northern Echo. “He was taken into a field, ordered to lie face down and Boyes put a wire around his neck and began tightening it. The court was told that Harrison, who was watching from the car, got out and "finished him off”."
Harrison was cleared of murder but found guilty of manslaughter due to provocation. Mr Justice Waite told her: "Yours was a pitiable plight. You were driven to extremes of despair by a man who not only ill-treated you and your children but who subjected you to humiliation, misery and brutality.
"I am satisfied that he left you in genuine fear for your life and theirs.
"But people in a plight like yours should turn for help to the many agencies that are available and society can't condone the taking of a life. This was a planned and prepared killing."
The Echo reported that she was sentenced to seven years in jail under the headline “Sex slave is jailed for killing pervert tyrant” – a gentle summary of the case compared to some of the lurid coverage in the national tabloid newspapers.
Daniel Boyes, right, leaves court in May 1990 having been sentenced to 10 years for attempted murder
Boyes was also cleared of murder but sentenced to 10 years for attempted murder. The judge told him: "You took ruthless advantage of a woman driven to the extremes of desperation."
Other alleged accomplices were charged with being involved in the murder, but no one else was convicted – not even whoever had disposed of the body amid the coal waste.
The trial heard that suspicion fell on two local men who lived near the Hawthorn incline and who had allegedly buried the body on that August Monday only to join the French Foreign Legion on the Wednesday.
“An appeal was made to the French military in Marseilles, initially via an informal phone call during which my inspector unconsciously put on a French accent only to find the officer on the other end was from Bradford!” says Dave. “Despite popular portrayal of the sanctuary afforded by Le Legion Étranger, both were promptly dismissed and came home to face the music.”
However, neither of them was prosecuted.
“According to Harrison, the deceased had lain dead in the boot of a car for some time while the conspirators pondered their next move,” says Dave. “Arrangements were eventually made by unnamed associates for £500 and she had then planned to report that he had gone missing because of his debts some days later.
“The whole plan failed because the body was found within only 18 hours of burial. It was found before the bogus story of Meade‘s apparently innocent disappearance could be spread by Harrison.
“And it was found so quickly because someone couldn't be bothered to dig their own hole!”
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