Qualla: Murder of Harry Collinson

Murder of Harry Collinson: Introduction

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rama, CC BY-SA 2.0 fr. Harry Collinson did not expect Albert Dryden to back down. The Derwentside District Council planning officer had arranged for camera crews to be present on 20 June 1991 precisely so that, if Dryden refused, the council could withdraw with the footage and take it to the High Court. Collinson had also insisted the visit happen in daylight, in plain view of the media, rather than under cover of darkness as some on the council preferred - he refused to give anyone grounds to call the action underhand. He was doing his job, with notable care, when Albert Dryden shot him dead at point-blank range with an unlicensed World War I Webley Mk VI revolver. The cameras kept rolling.

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Murder of Harry Collinson: A Planning Dispute

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rama, CC BY-SA 2.0 fr. Dryden had built a dwelling on his rural land at Eliza Lane, Butsfield, without planning permission - in fact he had dug a trench and built a bungalow with only the roof showing, an attempt to disguise it as something less than a house. The council had asked him to remove it. The...

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Murder of Harry Collinson: The Footage That Trained a Generation

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rama, CC BY-SA 2.0 fr. What followed was televised live in part and broadcast in fuller form afterwards. Dryden walked back to the demolition vehicles and methodically shot up an excavator, a low loader and a car. He shouted that the buildings were booby-trapped with explosives, that he had laid land m...

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Murder of Harry Collinson: What Came After

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rama, CC BY-SA 2.0 fr. Dryden was tried at Newcastle's Moot Hall in March 1992 and pleaded diminished responsibility. After thirteen days of evidence, the jury took two hours to convict him of murder, the attempted murder of council solicitor Michael Dunston (whom Dryden later said he had actually been...

Image: Rama | CC BY-SA 2.0 fr