The Rolex watch that played a pivotal role in cracking one of Britain’s most infamous murders has had its fate disclosed after nearly 30 years.
Submerged for over a week, the 25 year old Rolex Oyster remained strapped to the wrist of the victim. As the investigation faced challenges, a shake of the watch at the mortuary brought the self-winding mechanism roaring back to life.
This breakthrough allowed detectives to construct a ‘timeline’ and eventually identify Mr Platt through the unique serial number etched on the Rolex. Cops utilised this information from the timepiece to finally track down Albert White, a Canadian businessman, and convict him.
Sentenced to life imprisonment at Exeter Crown Court in 1998, White is still serving his sentence in Canada. However, the whereabouts of the crucial Rolex remained unknown up until recently, shrouded in secrecy with no public records of its location.
A Freedom of Information request put forth to the Devon and Cornwall Police has now divulged that the Rolex was indeed claimed by relatives of Mr Platt in 2002. Addressing the FOI, the constabulary stated: “The major crime investigation team have provided the following information. The watch was returned to a family member in July 2002 and signed for by that individual.”
The current location of the item remains a mystery, even after more than 20 years. Walker had previously interacted with the police at a station, providing the alias David Davies and claiming to be American.
However, his double life was exposed when officers visited his Essex home for a written statement and a sergeant mistakenly knocked on the neighbouring house. The officer was informed: “Our neighbour is called Walker”, which raised suspicions among the detectives.
Walker, who was 52 at the time, was later convicted of murdering Platt, his friend and business associate, whose identity he had also assumed as part of an intricate scheme to maintain his double life. During sentencing, the judge stated that Walker had committed “a callous, premeditated killing designed to eliminate a man you had used for your own selfish ends.”
He added that the murder had been “planned and cunningly executed with chilling efficiency”.
In 1990, Walker fled to Yorkshire from his native Canada with his 15 year old daughter after defrauding over 70 clients of more than three million Canadian dollars. To evade arrest, he fabricated the persona of David Davis, an English businessman living with his wife, who was in reality his daughter.
He then partnered with Mr Platt in business and borrowed personal documents such as his passport and driving licence under the guise of ‘business purposes. ‘ When Platt expressed a desire to return to Canada, Walker lent him money in 1992 and subsequently stole Platt’s identity using these documents.
Ronald Platt, who was murdered by Canadian con-man Albert Walker, who had also stolen his identity
(Image: SWNS)
Three years on, Mr Platt ran out of funds and returned to England. Walker, who had assumed Platt’s identity, felt his fraudulent life was under threat.
In 1996, he lured Platt onto his 24ft yacht, the Lady Jane, for a fishing trip, where he delivered a fatal blow to Platt’s head, rendering him unconscious. He then disposed of Platt’s body at sea, weighed down by a 10lb anchor attached to his belt.
Weeks later, Platt’s remains were discovered, unidentifiable but for the Rolex watch still in excellent condition on his wrist. The timepiece, traced back to Platt through Rolex records, not only confirmed his identity but also indicated when the murder occurred.
At the time of his arrest, Walker was high on Interpol’s most wanted list and Canada’s top fugitive. The anchor, purchased with a Barclaycard, became another crucial piece of evidence, as Det Supt Phil Sincock, who led the murder investigation, recounted: “There was one bit of luck in terms of the Essex policeman going to the wrong door, but other than that it was down to painstaking police work and some new ground-breaking scientific inquiries.”
“We seized a whole van load of documentation from Walker’s house and among it all was a two-inch square sales receipt which showed that he had purchased, on a Barclaycard, an anchor.”
“We proved that his yacht was at sea at the material time. For the first time in any case, we took the yacht’s GPS navigation system back to its manufacturers and they were able to plot co-ordinates which gave us the time and date it had been switched off and proved it had been very near to where Mr Platt’s body had been found.”
“Tests on the Rolex watch established it would have taken 44 hours to wind down. The watch stopped on June 22, which meant that he had died on June 20.”
“From the GPS we could put Walker’s boat in the area on June 20.” Walker, now 78, was extradited to Canada in 2005 and has not yet been granted parole.