Seventy-one-year-old widower Les Bate was a well-known character in Cornwall, a self-made millionaire who owned several hundred acres of land and four farms. According to some who knew him, he was somewhat abrasive and fairly flashy with his money, not making any secret of carrying large sums on his person and often wearing ostentatious gold jewelry.
This characterization, however, is disputed by Les’s children, who claimed their father was not a big spender at all and was simply a quirky individual who suffered from manic depression. “You could either deal with him or couldn’t,” said Les’s son Martin.
Having been permanently banned from his previous favorite pub, the St. Kew Inn, Les had chosen a new local, the Maltsters Arms in Chapel Amble, which was about three miles from his home. He was drinking there on the evening of Friday, April 12th, 2002, and other patrons would later report that he had been waving money around, including a brown wallet containing about £1000.
Les left the pub at closing time and got in his Land Rover for the drive home, but this was the last time he was ever seen alive.
The following day, his daughter Kathy, who lived in Australia, attempted to call him but got no answer. She had been trying to convince her father to move to Australia to be closer to her, but so far had had no luck. Concerned when she couldn’t get hold of Les all weekend, she contacted her brother Martin, who lived near their father, and asked him to see what was wrong.
Martin arrived at his father’s residence, known as Tregilders Farm, on Sunday morning, and found Les Bate’s lifeless body lying face down in a pool of blood on the floor of the house’s utility room.
When police arrived, they found no indication of forced entry and no sign of the murder weapon. A post-mortem determined that Les had been severely beaten and kicked, and his head bashed against the washing machine multiple times. The assault had caused the victim to go into cardiac arrest.
Unusual blue suede fibers, possibly from a pair of gloves, were found in Les’s back pocket, and the cash-stuffed wallet he’d been showing off at the pub on Friday night was missing. Though the fibers were analyzed, they brought investigators no closer to identifying the perpetrator, and neither did collecting DNA samples from everyone who was working or visiting the pub on the night Les Bate was killed.
Robbery seemed the most likely motive; detectives noted that Les’s home had been burglarized only seven months before the murder, with the perpetrators making off with £47,000 in property and cash after breaking open his safe.
The homicide investigation remains open and a reward for information is still on offer.
Crime Immemorial 