A FAMOUS Falmouth murder set to be documented in a television programme is one that a Mawnan Smith man will never forget - because he helped police trace the killer.

Eric Chinn, 78, from Carlidnack Road, Mawnan Smith was a 17-year-old police cadet when on Christmas Eve 1942, a woman approached him and a Sergeant Bennett in Arwenack Street, Falmouth, saying her husband had been murdered.

The man was tobacconist Albert Batemen who had been bludgeoned to death with a revolver butt in his shop, which stood near the present site of Trago Mills.

"I'll never forget it," said Eric recalling the scene he and the other officer found.

"I wish I hadn't looked. The man was lying by the counter with a few teeth around, it wasn't very nice."

A coroner later concluded that 61-year-old Mr Bateman had drowned in his own blood.

His notorious murder, and the subsequent capture of Gordon Horace Trenoweth, who was hanged for the crime four months later, is now to be the subject of a Carlton Westcountry programme called Murder Most Foul to be shown on ITV1 on Friday, January 23.

The murder became one of the fastest crimes ever solved and was well documented in the Packet, copies of which were used by the makers of the programme to research the story.

Eric, who lived in Mawnan Smith at the time and returned from Somerset to live there with his wife Margaret five years ago, helped to piece together the clues.

"He left a gun at the scene," said Eric. "They checked the serial number and there were about 12 or 15 suspects of having pinched this gun from a ship at the docks. Trenoweth was one of the suspects and one of the policemen had seen him hanging around the streets, so they decided to call on him on Christmas morning and arrest him."

"I don't think I even went home for Christmas dinner, I spent most of it in the police station."

Further evidence was revealed when a repaired bank note was found in Trenoweth's possession.

Albert Bateman was a meticulous man who would mend bank notes, remembers Eric, and this particular one could be traced back to him.

There were many more mysterious factors linking Trenoweth to the crime, he said.

When Eric read in the Packet that a programme had been made about the events of Christmas 1942 he dug up two photographs of an identity parade that was carried out after the incident.

"One of the detectives gave them to me," said Eric.

The parade was held at Falmouth police station, then at the foot of Quarry Hill.

Eric thinks most of the men used would have been drafted in from Falmouth Docks and if still alive today would all be in their nineties.

For Eric, who chose not to go into the police force but into the world of sales, the murder has been a talking point for 60 years and the forthcoming television programme goes to show there is still interest in it today.

"When I was in the army I used to bring this out as my subject to tell everybody. They were so agog with it," said Eric.