It took a simple question, plus several lucky breaks, to bring perjurer Graham Shipley to justice. Reporter MEGI RYCHLIKOVA tells the long and winding tale of the police investigation

GRAHAM SHIPLEY was the author of his own downfall. It was his decision to contact the police and his anger that led to their uncovering his crimes.

His first wife, Susan Shipley, now 59, did not know the extent of the web of lies he wove against her until Detective Constable Garry Ridler made an international phone call to her.

The policeman could only investigate the case in between helping to solve cases with a higher profile, such as murder. But after two years of dogged determination, he finally solved the case - which began when the 57-year-old businessman from Ampleforth went to detectives to make allegations against his second wife, Jennifer.

The couple had embarked on divorce proceedings.

She responded by telling police about the £150,000 he received from his Irish boss, Frank Cosgrove, and how she had helped him move it from account to account to keep it from Susan. She feared her husband was trying to prevent her getting a share of his money.

Det Con Ridler, of Malton CID, called the husband in for an interview and asked a simple question. The businessman's response started him on the trail that led, more than two years later, to Graham Shipley's conviction for perjury in affidavits regarding the financial settlement for his first wife, Susan.

"I asked him: 'What does Susan think about this?' He banged the table and shouted at me," said the detective.

Alarm bells rang and his detective instincts took over. "I decided to go to Lincoln County Court to find the affidavits," he said.

At first court staff told him they had routinely destroyed all files dating up to 1987, the date of Graham and Susan Shipley's divorce. But when he asked them to check, they found the incriminating documents still existed. As he read them, Det Con Ridler realised that Graham Shipley had also concealed £233,000 from Susan. He had a crime to investigate.

He contacted Susan in the Republic of Ireland to tell her about the money. Her ex-husband's deceit had been so successful she did not know the full story until she sat through his trial.

She had put the divorce behind her, but she was so keen to see justice done that she was willing to travel from Ireland to York to be the first prosecution witness against him.

"Susan Shipley didn't give evidence out of motive for revenge or for monetary reasons. Her motive was purely to see justice done," said the detective.

She also travelled from the republic to Northern Ireland to make it easier for British police to take her statement. Det Con Ridler, as a British policeman, cannot work in Ireland without official requests through embassies and Governments.

It was because of her suffering at her husband's hands that the policeman spent two years working single-handedly on the case. Detectives are usually reluctant to get involved in civil cases. But Susan Shipley was an obvious victim of crime who had had to cope on £50-a-week personal maintenance for years through her ex-husband's deceit.

"She had to struggle to bring up the three children when he had £233,000 in the bank and he claimed he could not afford £50," said Det Con Ridler.

Her reward came when she heard the York jury twice declare him guilty of perjury in her divorce case and, by implication, of perjuring himself in York Crown Court because he gave evidence at his trial.

"The judicial system relies wholly on people being honest," Det Con Ridler said. "If people feel that the civil court is a soft touch, they feel they can lie in order to obtain what they want, then let this be a warning."

Updated: 11:29 Thursday, January 23, 2003