IN sweltering conditions, British search specialists sifted through tons of debris in an underground water tank on Gibraltar looking for the remains of sailor Simon Parkes.
The 18-year-old radio operator vanished more than 37 years ago while ashore on The Rock — and is believed to have fallen victim to a serial killer dubbed “The Navy’s Dennis Nilsen”.
Prime suspect Allan Grimson — described by a psychologist as the most dangerous killer he has ever come across — is serving life at top-security Frankland jail for the murders of two young men who rejected his sexual advances, one of them another teenage Naval rating.
Grimson’s 22-year minimum tariff expired more than a year ago and he is due for a parole hearing next month, when a panel will consider if he is fit to be released or transferred to open conditions.
The daunting prospect must have fuelled the Herculean efforts of the eight Hampshire cops and colleagues from the MoD’s Defence Security Crime Team last week as they searched for Simon’s remains following “new information”.
In stifling heat and grime, the sweat-drenched searchers examined 12 tons of rubble in the cavernous concrete and steel water tank 20ft below the Town Range car park in the tiny British colony’s old town.
More than two tons of blackened debris was hoisted in bags to the surface on a makeshift lifting system using ladders, planks and rope pulleys.
Officers wearing white forensic suits and helmets sieved through the items under blue gazebos, which provided protection from bursts of rain and public view.
The 40ft long tank, measuring both 15ft high and wide, had been sealed for years after being used for water storage before a pipe system was laid.
Day on the lash
Hampshire Detective Chief Inspector Adam Edwards said: “The conditions were hot, damp and filthy but team members spent hours at a time inside the tank to search through every item found.”
He added: “At least two tons of material has been brought up to the surface for sieving and fingertip examination.”
Disappointingly, the five-day search, assisted by the Royal Gibraltar Police, ended on Friday without anything of significance being found.
DCI Edwards, who is leading the Operation Thornhill re-investigation into Simon’s disappearance, said: “There is no intention to expand our search area or move to other locations at this time.
“However,” he pointedly added, “it is important to stress that our investigation does remain ongoing.”
Simon disappeared on the night of December 12, 1986, a date with a sinister connection.
Grimson, now 65, murdered 18-year-old sailor Nicholas Wright on the same day in 1997 and then barman Sion Jenkins, 20, exactly one year later.
Simon was serving on the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious when he went missing.
Former petty officer Grimson was a stoker on the ship.
Fun-loving Simon, nicknamed Sparksey by crewmates, was in good spirits as the carrier berthed at The Rock on the last stop of its Global 86 tour.
After eight months at sea, he was looking forward to spending Christmas at home in Bristol with his family and girlfriend.
After phoning his mum to arrange his disembarkation papers, he stored presents for his loved ones in his locker.
Then at lunchtime he joined the run ashore with his crewmates for a day on the lash.
Three other Royal Navy ships were in port at the same time and the atmosphere crackled as crowds of sailors headed for the old town.
Simon’s group started at the Angry Friar pub on Main Street, before heading to The Horseshoe and then the Venture Inn.
They went back to The Horseshoe, known locally as the Donkey’s Flip Flop, at teatime and stayed there for the evening.
A shadow may have been looming over Simon at the pub, as Grimson was allegedly seen there by witnesses.
The last confirmed sighting of Simon was at around 10.30pm, when he told his friends he was going to get some “big eats”.
Simon planned to return to the ship to sleep before an early shift the next morning — but never made it back.
There are conflicting accounts of where he went from the pub, with witness memories hazy.
One sailor claimed to have walked back to the port with Grimson and a young man resembling Simon before the pair decided to head back to town.
Simon is also reported to have gone to the social club at the MoD’s HMS Rooke while drunk before taking a taxi to the South Barracks used by the Army.
The working assumption for police is that at some point on Simon’s route back to the ship he was murdered by Grimson after being lured off the main drag.
Three hours after Simon was last seen, Grimson, then 27, turned up at the former Hole In The Wall pub in the town looking flushed with excitement.
With no apparent access to a vehicle, Grimson’s options for concealing Simon’s body would have been limited.
The enclosed area of the car park searched last week is a two-minute walk from Main Street.
In 1986 the site was a waste dumping ground and a known gay cruising spot.
A smaller-scale search was conducted by the Operation Thornhill investigation team there last August.
It followed a tip-off from Gibraltar Broadcasting Corporation journalist Ros Astengo, who has followed the case.
Previous searches were carried out at Gibraltar’s Botanical Gardens in 2004 and at the Trafalgar Cemetery in 2019 and the following year.
‘Hope kept us going’
Grimson had returned to Gibraltar with the Navy after 1986, when he could potentially have moved Simon’s remains.
Fresh-faced Simon, small and slim, was similar in physique to Grimson’s two known victims, Nicholas and Sion, who he murdered at his Portsmouth flat.
Grimson admitted killing both of them after they rejected his sexual advances.
He said of murdering Nicholas: “I just felt really good about it. I felt exhilarated.
“To me it was better than sex.” Describing Sion’s murder, Falklands veteran Grimson said he had felt a “tingling” sensation to kill again “since the first time”.
Despite circumstantial evidence and the coincidence over the same date of his killings, Grimson has always denied Simon’s murder.
In 2004 a file was sent to Gibraltar’s Director of Public Prosecutions but he ruled there was insufficient evidence to prosecute.
Simon’s mother Margaret, from Bristol, believes Grimson was responsible — and wants him kept locked up now.
She said: “He is dangerous and needs to stay behind bars. Someone like that will never change.”
Margaret and husband David, who lost their other son Derek aged 37 to an aneurism, are being kept up to date by police.
Margaret told The Sun: “The investigation is at a crucial stage with so much new information coming forward.
“Allan Grimson is going before the parole board next month and expecting his release.
“As long as he is a suspect and an important witness as to what happened that night on December 12, 1986, he must not be released.”
When Simon failed to return to the ship it was assumed he had gone Awol and the carrier set sail on December 14 leaving him behind.
Margaret said: “We tried to convince ourselves he had gone Awol and that one day he would suddenly appear.
“Hope kept us going for years — because the alternative was unbearable.”
She added: “It will be Simon’s birthday on January 27 so this is a particularly sad time for us, but we will never give up hope of finding his remains.
“It is so important to us to bring him home.”
Grimson, who has been diagnosed as having an untreatable personality disorder, pleaded guilty to the murders of Nicholas and Sion at Winchester Crown Court in 2001.
With time spent on remand he became eligible for his first parole hearing in November 2022.
But it was adjourned while Hampshire police continued their inquiry in the hope of finding the elusive piece of evidence which could nail Grimson for Simon’s murder.
After his guilty plea, a psychologist concluded it was not the first time that Grimson had killed.
Jailing him in 2001, Judge Peter Cresswell said: “You are a serial killer in nature, if not in number.”
- Anyone with information on Simon’s disappearance is urged to contact Hampshire police or call Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.
William Turner is a seasoned U.K. correspondent with a deep understanding of domestic affairs. With a passion for British politics and culture, he provides insightful analysis and comprehensive coverage of events within the United Kingdom.
