SHOTGUN MURDERS: 'Life means life' for evil gunman

Cooper, 66, was also found guilty of raping a 16-year-old girl and sexually assaulting her friend.

The gunman who terrorised the quiet county of Pembrokeshire will now be investigated for three more mysterious deaths.

Cooper robbed, burgled, raped and murdered his way across the countryside with a balaclava in his pocket and a sawn-off shotgun strapped to his back and hidden under a coat.

He blasted to death holidaymakers Peter and Gwenda Dixon, 51 and 52, as they enjoyed a last walk along the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path in June, 1989, “for a pitiful amount of money”.

The Dixons had spent every summer holiday walking the path.

Four years earlier he had shot to death millionaire farmer Richard Thomas, 58, and his sister Helen, 56, after they caught him breaking into their home at Scoveston Park near Milford Haven.

And, in 1996, he held up a group of five teenagers at gun point as they played in a field, raping one, indecently assaulting another and trying to rob all five. Police believe he was looking for more burglary targets at the time.

Cooper, of Spring Gardens, Letterston, near Milford Haven, was arrested in 1998 and jailed for 16 years for 30 burglaries and the violent robbery of retired schoolteacher Sheila Clark in her home in the village of Sardis.

Police kept thousands of items found during Operation Huntsman, including a sawn-off double-barrelled shotgun thrown away in a hedge near Cooper’s then home in Jordanston.

In 2007 a cold case review was launched and experts using modern forensic techniques began to find links between Cooper, the murders and the sex attacks.

Cooper was released from his 16-year sentence in December 2009. But police were closing in again and just three months later he was arrested as he walked to a shop to buy a newspaper.

Yesterday Cooper, defiant to the end, continually interrupted Mr Justice John Griffith Williams as he handed down four life sentences and told Cooper that in his case “life will mean life.”

Cooper shouted “rubbish” and accused the prosecution of witholding evidence from the jury as Mr Justice Williams described him as an evil and dangerous man who would never admit his guilt or show any remorse.

Mr Justice Williams told Cooper: “Only you know the full facts and circumstances of the four murders. Much will never be known because you have constantly refused to stand up to your responsibilities.

“No doubt you will continue to deny what you have done and you will never show remorse.

“You are a very dangerous man, a highly organised predatory burglar whose hallmarks were a balaclava, gloves and a shotgun.

“Each was well planned and you evaded arrest for so long. If not for the advances in forensic science you might well never have been brought to justice.”

He said the Dixons had suffered “such evil wickedness” as they were executed in cold blood. “Life for you will mean just that," added the judge.

Mr Justice Williams said it was academic but Cooper would serve 15 years for the rape, eight years for the indecent assault and seven years for the attempted robberies.

He said both Peter and Gwenda Dixon had been busy in their local community around Witney where Peter Dixon had held the rank of Squadron Leader for his work with the local RAF cadets.

Gwenda Dixon had been secretary of her local badminton club.

Afterwards, the Dixons’ son Timothy said he was “pleased” with the verdicts but an integral part of the family was missing.

"Mum and Dad were loving, gentle and loved people.

“Even after two decades their absence is immense and still painful," he added.

Det Chief Superintendent Steve Wilkins, who led the investigation, said: “Over the last nine weeks 12 people from the community have listened to all of the evidence and decided he is guilty.

“I believe this is the right decision.

“Cooper is a very dangerous and evil man who, for pitiful gain, murdered four people and later subjected five children to a terrible attack. He will now spend the rest of his life in prison.”

THE WAIT FOR JUSTICE

EXACTLY 8,001 days have passed and more than 30,000 police documents have been filed, but finally the people of Witney know who killed two members of their community.

Barry Norman, the leader of West Oxfordshire District Council, recalled how the town was rocked by the murders.

He said: “Witney was aghast at what had happened. It was such a shock that this couple were on a normal holiday on the coastal path and suddenly they were no more.

“In a way there’s closure for the family who I think will be relieved somebody has been convicted, but it certainly doesn’t take anything away from the horrific nature of the crime. That will always be with them.”

On July 2, 1989, Peter and Gwenda Dixon were reported missing having failed to return home from a camping trip in Pembrokeshire, west Wales.

The pair, aged 51 and 52 respectively, were last seen leaving their tent at Howelston Caravan Park at about 9.30am on June 29.

On July 5 their bodies were found concealed close to the coastal path near Little Haven.

Detectives said Mr Dixon’s bank card had been used by a man on a bicycle after his death, but despite receiving more than 1,700 calls from the public within a fortnight, no arrests were made.

A renewed appeal was launched on the first anniversary of the murders but the trail went cold until 1997.

On December 2 of that year, the BBC broadcast an interview with the Dixons’ son Tim as part of its Crimewatch: Still Unsolved programme.

More than 400 calls came in and police began following up new lines of inquiry.

But by 2006 the crime remained unsolved and a new operation, codename Ottawa, was formed by a small team of officers unconnected to the original investigations to look into historic crimes in Pembrokeshire, including the murders of the Dixons.

In June 2008, John Cooper, who was serving 16 years in prison for armed robbery and 30 burglaries, was interviewed in connection with the murders over a four-day period.

Ten months later, on April 23, 2009, forensics analysts telephoned the Ottawa team to report significant findings. After consultation between police and the Crown Prosecution Service, Cooper was arrested and charged with murdering the Dixons; murdering Helen and Richard Thomas in 1985; and a serious sexual assault and five attempted robberies in Milford Haven in 1996.

At Swansea Crown Court yesterday, 8,001 days after the Dixons were last seen, Cooper was finally convicted of all charges.

For the investigation of the Dixons’ murders alone, police produced 30,707 documents, many of which ran to hundreds of pages.

Officers conducted 1,603 door-to-door interviews and produced 2,570 questionnaires.

It is estimated that between 1.5 and two million pieces of paper have been generated by the investigation that led to Cooper’s conviction.

REMORSELESS KILLER SHOWED ALL TRAITS OF A PSYCHOPATH

QUADRUPLE killer John Cooper demonstrated all the classic character traits of a psychopath.

The personality disorder is characterised by an abnormal lack of feeling towards others, masked by an ability to appear outwardly normal.

Psychopaths lack a sense of guilt or remorse for any harm they cause others, according to experts.

They blame what they have done on someone else and tend to deny outright any wrongdoing.

Cooper was caught and jailed in 1998 for being a prolific burglar who preyed on his unsuspecting neighbours for years.

Despite being unanimously convicted of burglary by a jury, even today he continues to insist on his innocence.

In addition to being a one-man crime wave in and around Milford Haven where he lived, Cooper was also a multiple murderer.

In line with the character traits of the psychopath, he possessed the ability to live untouched by the brutality of his secret life.

While a normal person might be oppressed by the terrible knowledge of murder, Cooper suffered no such qualms.

Despite carrying out such chilling crimes, he had the ability to return home and switch back to normal life.

His lack of empathy for others also allowed him to kill with little or no provocation, and for almost no financial gain.

In the case of the Dixons, his financial reward for murder was descried as “negligible” during the trial.

In the 1996 attacks and rape on a group of five teenagers, Cooper was thought to have let them live only because there were so many.

Det Chief Supt Steve Wilkins, of Dyfed Powys Police, headed the force cold case investigation from 2005 onwards.

“I do believe that he can be described as an individual with psychotic tendencies,” he said.

“It is clear that he was an individual who could resort to significant and desperate violence and the killing of people. In my view, that was primarily and simply a means to an end.”

He added: “The next day he would go back to his darts, his family life, such as it was, and no doubt he was a caring grandfather to his granddaughter.”

In court Cooper portrayed himself as a popular local figure regarded in the community as a bit of a “character” – known to almost everyone. The reality, according to the police, was quite different.

“John Cooper did give a view of himself as a popular man,” Mr Wilkins said.

“What we found from our inquiries was that very few people knew him or were close to him and people who did know him gave him a wide berth. He was regarded as a character that people did not want to get too close to.

“It was the same while he was in prison. He got down and did his time. But nobody got close to him.”