On Friday 27th November, 78 members were entertained by Ray O’Brien a retired Probation Officer. Ray recounted that at the beginning of his training to become a Probation Officer the trainees were sent out in pairs to various venues in Liverpool. One of the places was Yate’s Wine Lodge, where the trainees were to people watch for three hours and later write a report. The whole point of the exercise was to highlight how no two people see a situation in exactly the same way.
Toxteth was Ray’s first posting, he was reassured by Senior Officers that people in the area were friendly and as long as you accepted their offers of cups of tea you couldn’t really go wrong. On one occasion after accepting umpteenth cuppa that day Ray watched as the man went into the kitchen. He took a mug out of the cupboard, put his hand in the mug and withdrew a set of false teeth then proceeded to make Ray’s tea and top it up with sterilised milk. All part of the Probation Officers experience! Ray said those first 6 years in Toxteth were his happiest.
Ray went on to work in Walton prison ‘The Big House’ as most of the criminal fraternity refer to it. The prison had a dedicated Nun, Sister Marina who regularly visited. Ray said the Sister was the most respected person in the prison, all inmates and staff revered her. Ray also met Paul O’Grady when Paul was a young trainee in the Magisterial Service – how life changed for Paul eventually taking him on the route to stardom.
Ray, an avid Liverpool supporter, was once attending in Court and the Chairman of the Bench happened to be Billy Liddell his footballing hero. On leaving the court Ray found Billy in the car park locked out of his car. The RAC arrived but were unable to help. Eventually a police officer arrived handcuffed to a youth that Billy had earlier ‘sent down’ for numerous car thefts. The boy gained access to Billy’s car within minutes and of course Billy ended up thanking the youth for his help. Ray was very disappointed because he was hoping to run Billy home to get his spare key!
The Star that ‘got away’ was of course Ken Dodd. He was found not guilty of tax fraud by a jury not of Liverpudlians, but made up of people from Manchester and Preston. The prison staff had a cell ready for Doddy following the Judge’s directive to find him guilty. There was a Diddy man and a banner saying ‘tax free zone’
Ray took early retirement nearly 30 years ago when cuts were made to the Justice System. He was not unhappy to be retiring. When Ray began work as a Probation Officer he estimated he spent 80% of his time face to face with clients and 20% on paper work. When he retired it was 20% face to face and 80% on clerical work.
An excellent presentation.
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Article provided by Carol Hitchmough, with thanks.
