My love-on-the-run with child killer.

CHILD-KILLER Mary Bell was a tender lover with no hint of violence about her, according to the first man to bed her.

Ex-con Clive Shirtcliffe shared three days of dramatic love-on-the-run with Bell after she escaped from jail in 1977.

He told the Sunday People: "There were no evil demons in her when we made love."

During her brief taste of freedom Bell, then just 20:

LOST her virginity to Clive in a Blackpool boarding house.

ROMPED with him on a canal barge.

And MADE LOVE at his home while his mother slept next door.

Now, 21 years later, Clive and his accomplice Keith Hibbert, remember the incident as if it were yesterday.

It was just after his own release from jail that petty thief Clive and Keith were driving to Blackpool and spotted two girls thumbing a lift in Staffordshire.

They had no idea the dark-haired beauty was Mary Bell and that with Leeds prostitute Anette Priest she had just absconded from nearby Moor Court prison.

Clive says he soon realised the girls were not just runaways and later they admitted they had broken out of prison.

"The dark-haired girl said she'd been inside for ten years but she was so young. Then it clicked - this was Mary Bell.

"I knew we'd get into trouble but I'd been in jail so there was no way I was turning her in."

After booking into a boarding house in Blackpool, the four went on the town.

"Mary was so excited," said Clive. "She'd never been to a club and said she'd never had a drink."

They weren't to be her only "firsts" that night.

Clive said: "There was a double and two single beds in the room and me and Mary just slipped into bed together.

"We made love but it wasn't the most passionate sex I'd ever had. She was inexperienced but I didn't know until later that she was a virgin."

Next morning, news of Bell's escape and her crimes were splashed across the front pages.

Keith, now 52, said: "She denied the police version of events or that she was evil.

"What hurt her most was being compared to Myra Hindley." It was then the two friends agreed to help Bell stay on the run to prove she was no longer a danger to the public.

They disguised her with a kiss-me-quick hat, put Anette Priest on a train and left Blackpool, heading south down the M6.

On the way, they called at a hairdresser's where Bell's hair was dyed and cut short.

"The disguise worked. Further down the road they got through a police road block without being stopped.

Bell spoke only briefly about her crimes to the two men and denied being responsible for both children's deaths.

Keith said: "She blamed Norma Bell for one of the killings and said she never intended to harm anyone." Mary told them she'd been fighting with a boy and put her hands round his neck. But she said she never meant to kill anyone.

The fugitives' second night on the run was spent on a canal boat near Derby.

Again, luck was on their side. When police raided a club they were drinking in they scuttled out through a back way.

After this second brush with the law they decided to give Bell a false name.

"We'd heard Simon and Garfunkel on the jukebox so we gave her the surname Robinson," said Keith.

Back at the boat, Clive and Bell spent the night talking and making love.

"I couldn't resist her," he said. "She was good looking, slim, with great legs and beautiful breasts.

"We had sex twice that night. Mary seemed relaxed and it was quite a tender thing.

"I can honestly say that as I lay with my arms around her there was no hint of violence in her."

Suspicion

As pressure mounted on the runaways, and with money running short, Clive turned to his mother for help.

He didn't tell her who his new girlfriend was and with her changed appearance there was no suspicion this was Britain's most wanted woman.

"Mother agreed Mary could stay in my room while I slept downstairs but the minute it was quiet, I sneaked upstairs to my room and made love to Mary," said Clive.

That was to be their last night together.

The next day, as Clive went back to his mother's home for some clothes, police surrounded their car with Keith and Mary sitting in it.

"We knew the game was up then," said Keith. "Mary put her hand on my shoulder and said: 'Thanks for everything'."

Neither man has spoken to Mary Bell or seen her since. Both were arrested and given suspended sentences for harbouring a criminal.

But time hasn't changed their opinion of Bell.

"I'd do it all again," said Clive. "Twenty one years on I'm glad she's proved the authorities wrong and me right. Mary Bell's no danger to anyone."

Article Details

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Author:	Henderson, Eugene
Publication:	The People (London, England)
Date:	May 3, 1998
Words:	827
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