CHRIS TITLEY looks back at other manhunts which have occurred in North Yorkshire.

NORTH Yorkshire has been here before. The terrible events of last week inevitably brought to mind two other incidents which stunned the county: the murder of Special PC Glenn Goodman and the killings of Barry Prudom.

All three cases involved brutal murders and a massive police manhunt; and all three are indelibly burned into the collective consciousness of North Yorkshire people.

Barry Prudom's murderous spree took place in the summer of 1982. Prudom was a bitter and twisted man with a history of petty crime and an obsession with guns.

On June 17, 29-year-old PC David Haigh from Harrogate, a father of three, went to talk to a man parked in a car at a picnic site at Norwood Edge, near Beckwithshaw. It was 37-year-old Prudom, who had jumped bail from Leeds Crown Court following a violent assault.

This time Prudom, a self-employed electrician, did not stop at assault. He shot PC Haigh in the head with a .22 calibre pistol and left him, dead, outside his patrol car. Prudom then went on the run, arriving in the village of Girton, near Newark in Nottinghamshire, six days later.

There he shot George and Sylvia Luckett. Sylvia Luckett miraculously survived but her husband was fatally injured. Prudom stole their Rover car and headed back to Yorkshire. Murder was about to come to Malton.

On June 24, PC Ken Oliver was shot at when he came face-to-face with Prudom at Dalby Forest, near Pickering, as he checked a brown Rover car. He was hit in the arm and a bullet grazed his nose. He was lucky to survive.

By now a full-scale murder hunt was under way with more than 400 police on the trail of a gunman who had shot four people, killing two, in eight days.

Four days later, the day the police named Prudom as the man they were looking for, the death toll had risen to three. As the presses were rolling with Prudom's picture splashed all over the front page, Sgt David Winter saw Prudom leave the post office in Old Malton. Seconds later Prudom killed him.

Within hours Malton was turned into a massive armed police fortress. Officers from ten forces carrying all manner of guns were searching the town for Prudom, now known to have learned survival techniques while on a course with the Leeds B Squadron, 23 SAS Regiment (Volunteers). Survival expert Eddie McGee was brought in to help the police track down their man.

As the hunters closed in on their prey, Prudom was watching television in a house just yards from the police station.

He had taken the Johnson family hostage in their home in East Mount.

Pensioners Maurice and Bessie and their son Brian were tied up before Prudom left in the early hours of Sunday, July 4. A few hours later police cornered Prudom in his hideaway at Malton Tennis Club. A stun grenade was thrown over the wall and shots rang out. It turned out that Prudom had shot himself before police fired a hail of bullets.

Another policeman, SPC Glenn Goodman, paid the ultimate price for protecting the public ten years later.

SPC Goodman, 37, from Sherburn-in-Elmet, and PC Alexander "Sandy" Fraser, aged 32, from York, stopped a Ford Sierra on the York to Tadcaster Road in the early hours of Sunday June 7, 1992.

PC Kelly questioned the driver, who gave his name as Ryan. The police officer gave "Ryan" - actually Michael O'Brien - a form to produce driving documents to police within seven days.

With him was a man later identified as Paul "Mad Dog" Magee. They were members of the IRA.

O'Brien was asked to sit inside the police Astra to fill in the form then returned to the Sierra. The officers decided to check the two men's story and found it didn't add up. After questioning the men further, PC Kelly called for back-up. As he spoke to Selby control, Magee gunned down SPC Goodman.

SPC Goodman, who had a baby son, died later in hospital. PC Kelly managed to radio for help despite sustaining serious injuries. Gunman Magee shot the officer four times; a fifth bullet would have killed him if it had not been deflected by the radio handset he was holding to his ear.

The Sierra sped off and was later followed by another patrol car: they riddled it with bullets near Burton Salmon. The two officers inside were only saved from being killed when a member of the public arrived on the scene in his car, and the gunmen fled again.

One of North Yorkshire's biggest police manhunts was launched. Hundreds of officers, many of them armed, combed woods and farmland.

The two men on the run managed to evade justice for four days, during which they slept rough. Much of their time was spent hiding in a culvert, using bales of straw sitting on the dirty water as beds. It was close to the Heron Service Station beside the Al at Knottingley.

They were later spotted at the Granada Service Station at Ferrybridge where they bought drinks, sandwiches, Anadin painkillers and newspapers.

Later Magee went into Pontefract to buy items of clothing. But his accent and appearance aroused the shop staff's suspicions. Police were called to the arcade and an officer spotted and followed Magee, radioing for assistance. After a violent struggle, he was arrested.

Several hours later, unaware of what had happened to Magee, O'Brien went into Pontefract to buy clothing for himself. Again, shop staff became suspicious, the police were called and O'Brien was arrested without resistance. The pair were taken to separate police stations before being taken to London to be charged.

In 1993, O'Brien was found guilty of attempted murder and sentenced to 18 years in prison. Paul Magee was convicted of murder and given a life sentence.

Both Magee and O'Brien are now free men.

Updated: 09:37 Monday, July 26, 2004