Knowsley Hall shootings
[8] After his discharge he spent a period with the Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Wirral before joining the staff at Knowsley Hall on 15 December 1951.
[6][7] Winstanley was trained in his role by the house's 40-year-old butler, William Stallard, and 29-year-old under-butler, Douglas Stuart, and was well-regarded by his colleagues.
[6] On 7 October 1952 Winstanley met a friend at Hoylake and became aware that he owned a Schmeisser MP-40 sub-machine gun, originally taken as a trophy during the Second World War.
[5][10][nb 2] Winstanley expressed an interest in the weapon and agreed to purchase it, together with 400 rounds of ammunition, for £3 (equivalent to £109 in 2023) and a pair of trousers.
On 9 October, he cleaned and oiled the weapon and showed it to Anne Mitchell, a housemaid, telling her to keep it secret as he could be arrested for not having a gun licence.
She was eating a dinner brought to her by the staff while seated at a table facing the corner of the room, watching a television set to her left.
[6] In a statement made to the police after his arrest,[nb 3] Winstanley said he had intended to ask Lady Derby to help him dispose of the gun but had shot her after he became frightened.
It was established at the trial that Stallard was responding to the staff call bell activated from the smoke room, and the prosecution stated that only Winstanley was in a position to do so.
The prosecution maintained that Winstanley had hidden in the first library as Stallard passed through and shot him after he entered the smoke room.
[6] After killing the two men, Winstanley moved to the first-floor hall where he met William Sullivan, Lord Derby's valet.
On reaching the ground floor, Winstanley opened fire, wounding Sullivan in the hand with one of eleven shots.
[6] The Lancashire County Police responded to the call, with eighteen patrol cars routed to Knowsley Hall by radio.
Some 100 officers from the Leigh, Seaforth, Wigan and Widnes divisions were mobilised and additional detectives were sent from the neighbouring Liverpool City Police.
[14] He then caught a bus to Liverpool city centre where, at 11:42 pm, he called 9-9-9 from a public telephone box to hand himself in.
[5][14] Liverpool City Police officers arrested him as he was in the act of leaving the phone box and pulling the gun from under his coat.
The bench of three magistrates judged that there was sufficient evidence to proceed, and the case of the murder of Stallard was committed to trial at the court of assizes.
The defence did not dispute the facts of the killings and focused instead on Winstanley's previous good character and his state of mind at the time of the shootings.
The only witness called by the defence was Francis Brisby, the medical officer at Walton Gaol, who stated that Winstanley had schizophrenia.
As around 40 house rooms were unused, and to save their heating expense and the risk of dry rot, Phillimore decided on a considerable reduction in the floor plan.
