AN ALMOST blind former private eye who shot to fame after arresting a pair of thieves while on holiday can still do the Oxford Mail crossword every day thanks to revolutionary new equipment.

In 1968 Norman Roper, now 84, hit the national headlines after he apprehended two criminals who had stolen photographic equipment from a Witney camera shop.

While walking down the promenade in Weymouth, enjoying an evening stroll with his wife Jean, Mr Roper recognised two men from Witney, coming towards him.

He couldn’t believe his luck and arrested the hapless duo on the spot, before tracking down their car. That turned out to be rammed with the stolen cameras and photographic kit.

But Mr Roper – who was a signalman in the Royal Navy, a detective at Witney CID and then a private detective – began to lose his vision in his right eye in 2009 after doctors diagnosed him with age-related macular degeneration.

He then lost most of the sight in his left eye after a heart operation in 2013 and was registered blind.

Once a keen cyclist, Mr Roper said he was “in a dark place” for a long time after losing his sight, until he was put in contact with Blind Veterans UK.

The charity whisked him away to Brighton for a week try to out some of its potentially life-changing equipment.

Now he can read letters with the help of an electronic letter reader, answer emails with pioneering computer software, and use an exercise bike while listening to books on tape.

He can also do the Oxford Mail crossword every day using a digital magnifier and tell the time using a talking watch.

Mr Roper said: “I couldn’t cope with it to start with.

“If you lose any other sense, all your faculties are still there, but if you lose your sight you lose the ability to do anything.

“I was in a dark place, I really was. I was really desperate.

“Then someone suggested Blind Veterans to me and they have changed my life.

“We had a whole week in Brighton and they showed me every innovation that would help assist me with every problem.

“It was very very humbling, the people there were absolutely first class and couldn’t do enough for me.”

Born in Oxford, Mr Roper had 20/20 vision. The loss of his sight was cruel for a man whose eyes were so crucial in his job solving murders, rapes and frauds as a policeman and later a private detective.

On one occasion he took the fingerprints of everyone in Cumnor as part of a murder investigation. The killer was eventually caught.

Of the so called “bucket and spade arrest” in Weymouth, he said: “I saw these two chaps coming towards me and they said: ‘Hello Mr Roper, what are you doing here?’ and I said: ‘I’m about to nick you two’, they said I couldn’t hold them and tried to get away.

“There was a bit of a struggle but then more police arrived and we made the arrest.”

Oxford Mail:

  • Life-changing: Norman Roper uses specialist exercise bike

Of his time as a private eye he said: “I can remember once one chap asked me to go and check on his wife because he thought she was having an affair.

“So I watched her for ages, but there was nothing at all suspicious. It turned out she was just going to pick blackberries.”

As a signalman in the Royal Navy, Mr Roper sent messages between ships using coding machines and semaphore, which involves raising and lowering flags to warn of danger and to give directions.

The former St Barnabas School pupil joined the Royal Navy in 1947 and served on HMS Ganges and HMS Cadiz.

He served in the Far East during the Korean War and was seconded to the Queen’s naval group for the coronation in 1953.

In 1953, he left the navy and returned to Oxford, where he joined the police.

In 1963, he joined Witney CID where he served for 16 years. Then in 1983, he started his own detective agency. He has three children, six grandchildren and one great grandchild.