THE new CID recruit spoke candidly of his brush with death, the moment he tackled a deluded gunman on a pavement and the intense pain he felt at being shot.

Det Con. Peter Ryles, married with a young son, had tracked down a robber who had sparked a massive police hunt in Southampton after holding up a bookshop and fleeing with the meagre till contents of a few pounds.

Ryles, the 29-year-old son of the city's first police dog handler, found Leo Murphy, a career criminal, drinking in the Coronet Club. "I spotted him at the bar. I went outside to tell Dc Ballard and then went back inside to finish the beer I had bought." 

Shortly afterwards, Murphy left and began walking down the street where Ryles, who had been secreted himself in an adjacent doorway, intercepted him and identified himself as a police officer.

"He immediately pulled a revolver and put the barrel against my chest. I said: 'You did the job in St Mary Street this afternoon, so don't be silly, step into the doorway and we'll talk about it.' I thought he was going to pull the trigger. I grabbed the barrel and forced it down and Dc Ballard grabbed him from behind. While we were struggling, the gun went off. I felt a sharp pain in my leg and then heard two more clicks."

Ryles was taken to the Royal South Hants Hospital to undergo a delicate operation to remove the bullet that had torn into a muscle two inches above the knee joint. He was detained for two weeks and returned to duty after recuperation.

The drama began shortly after 3pm on June 24, 1968, when Murphy, living in a drink and drug induced make believe world, walked into the American Bookshop in St Mary Street. Initially, proprietor Suzanne Trim took no notice of him - until he approached the counter when she noticed a modified revolver, originally designed to discharge tear gas, protruding through the lining of his jacket.

"I'm not joking love," he warned, ordering her to open the till and empty it of notes which amounted to £20. As he dashed to the front door, he told her: "Give me a chance to get away." But she bravely followed him into the street and shouted: "Stop that man. He's a thief."

Her cry prompted a couple of bystanders to give chase but at a safe distance after seeing the gun. He was then pursued through St Mary's churchyard by a car park attendant but escaped into Chapel Road.

Her husband, Hubert, returned to the shop shortly after the raid. "The police were on the scene within two minutes," he told the Echo. "But by that time, the man had got away. My wife was very badly shaken after having a gun pulled on her. It seems the man was seen by a number of people and the police have a good description."

By then, Murphy had fled to the School of Art where he tried to persuade a woman to take him to the nearest taxi rank but she thought he was unwell and dropped him off near the docks. Before he alighted, he stuffed a 10s note into her glove compartment.

Armed with a description the robber was aged between 20 and 30, about 5ft 8in tall, and was wearing a brown jacket and yellow sweater, police launched an intense hunt that stretched into the night with pubs and nightspots being scoured - and it was at the Coronet Club that he was finally trapped.

Murphy, who was of no fixed abode, was committed for trial at Hampshire Assizes, principally charged with attempted murder but appearing before Mr Justice Howard in November, he admitted wounding with intent which the prosecution accepted. He further pleaded guilty to possessing a firearm with intent to commit a robbery, armed robbery, and possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life.

In mitigation, the defence depicted him as a highly dramatic character, a fictional Walter Mitty, whose life of crime had led him to approved schools, Borstal and finally prison - the product of an unstable youth and domination by his father's violent personality. Yet, away from offending, he was made a sergeant instructor in the Army Cadet Force and under a false name joined the army as a paratrooper in which he served abroad.

Barrister Michael King said "the rot then set in "after Murphy lost touch with his girlfriend. Depressed, he went to Germany, where he bought the revolver. After returning to England, he still could not find her and on the day of the shooting had been heavily mixing drink with drugs.

"He went out rather vaguely still looking for the girl. Then, without premeditation, he decided to rob the American Bookshop. He did say to Mrs Trim he wouldn't shoot anybody. There was a mist in his eyes and he didn't really know what he was doing."

At the Coronet Club, he took more drink and drugs and wanted to commit suicide, knowing he would be stopped outside which would have acted to as "a sufficient stimulus" to dramatically end his life. But before he could turn the gun on himself, he was overpowered by the police.

Jailing him for four years, the judge told Murphy: "There must be few men at 21 who have so hopelessly ruined their lives. This court and every other court can sit in a man's favour if he makes a frank admission of his guilt. You have done that.

"This court takes into account the fact you have never had a secure home or stable background and you got yourself into a state of mind where you were living in a world of make believe. It is not an exaggeration to say that you were living these parts as a German and a paratrooper. You may have thought it brave and adventurous but in fact you were cowardly criminal."