A RETIRED police officer has written a book about his career in Essex Police in the hope more people will have the courage to come forward with information on unsolved crimes and will “do the right thing”.

Ray Newman, of Oak Road, Rochford, has finally finished his book Finally Laid to Rest, which provides an insight into the day-to-day work of the Essex Police Major Crime Review Team.

He focuses on cold cases across the county and particularly looks at the 1978 murder of Rochford shopkeeper Norah Trott.

Discussing the book, he said: “For more than a decade this small team of ex- senior police officers reviewed unsolved crimes, some cases going back over several decades and we achieved some success so that there are now men in prison who once thought they had got away with their crimes.

“In addition to murder and rape, we also looked at other serious incidents, including missing persons found dead, child death, fatal industrial accidents, some road deaths and domestic homicides.

“Apart from the notorious Norah Trott murder the book also covers the case of Dinah McNichol who disappeared in 1991 and whose body we found buried in the back garden of a house in Margate together with the body of missing Scottish schoolgirl Vicky Hamilton.

“Their killer Peter Tobin was also caught and convicted.”

The former police officer said he has written the book as he believes there has been a lot of public interest in cold cases with the popularity of programmes like New Tricks and Waking the Dead.

He added: “Those programmes do not reflect what really happens so I thought I would give the inside view while at the same time covering some notorious Essex cases.

“I also hoped that there would be people reading it who might now find the courage to come forward and tell the police what they know about particular unsolved crimes.”

Mr Newman, 69, was an Essex Police Detective Chief Inspector who in 2003 went on to become a member of the newly-formed Major Crime Review Team.

While an Essex Police officer he served all around the county both in uniform and CID and for a time was head of Rayleigh CID, which covered Castle Point and Rayleigh. Discussing the Rochford murder, he added: “Norah Trott was a Rochford shopkeeper who lived in a flat above her shop, Felicity Jane.

“She was raped and murdered by a complete stranger in an alleyway off the town centre one evening in November 1978. Her attacker was not caught at the time. However, our team re-looked at the case 25 years later and eventually identified her killer who is now serving life imprisonment.

The book is already available online from Amazon priced at £6.99