Harold Gordon "Tanky" Challenor, MM (16 March 1922 – 28 August 2008) was a wartime member of the SAS, decorated for his part in Operation Speedwell.
In 1963, when holding the rank of Detective Sergeant, he was charged with corruption offences and was subsequently found to have been suffering from mental health problems and deemed not to be fit to stand trial.
During the Second World War, Challenor served as a member of the Royal Army Medical Corps in North Africa and Italy between 1942 and 1944 before joining 62 Commando, which later formed part of the Special Air Service, as a lance-corporal.
This small detachment succeeded in derailing two trains on the Spezia - Parma line on night 14th of September at a point north of Pontremoli.
In describing an occasion when he was in charge of some captive Gestapo officers, he recalled that "[o]ne of them made the mistake of smiling at me.
Challenor eventually reached the rank of company quartermaster sergeant before completing his military service in 1947.
On 11 July 1963 Challenor arrested Donald Rooum, a cartoonist for Peace News, who was demonstrating outside Claridge's hotel against Queen Frederika of Greece.
"[4] Rooum, a member of the National Council for Civil Liberties who had read about forensic science, handed his clothes to his solicitor for testing.
No brick dust or appropriate wear and tear were found and Rooum was acquitted, although other people Challenor arrested at the demonstration were still convicted on his evidence.
By the time Challenor appeared at the Old Bailey in 1964, charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, he was deemed to be unfit to plead and was sent to Netherne mental hospital with a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia.
[6] In the report, Challenor's mental illness was blamed for the false arrests rather than a systemic policy of framing suspects.
[7] Because of this, "doing a Challenor" became a police slang expression for avoiding punishment and prosecution through retiring sick from the force.