Arms dealer’s castle duties

9:55am Friday 16th May 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

HE is a former arms dealer who spent eight years in an Indian prison after being convicted of an illegal arms drop.

But now Peter Bleach has a very different life and occupation - as a site supervisor at Helmsley Castle for English Heritage.

Peter, a former pupil of St Peter's School in York, who lives near Pickering, spends his days showing visitors round the historic building and sorting out practicalities such as paper hand towels for the toilets.

He was freed from jail in India in February, 2004, strongly declaring his innocence, after being jailed for life eight years earlier for "waging war" against India.

He claims he tipped off North Yorkshire Police about the deal in advance and was told to proceed with it, fully expecting the Indian authorities to mount a sting operation to catch the perpetrators.

He said today he was quite open about his past when he went for his English Heritage interview, even though he would have passed Criminal Records Bureau checks because his conviction was abroad.

"My story is available to anyone with internet access," he said. He said that in his CV, he had pointed out that he had been locked up in India in connection with a business he was running at the time.

An English Heritage spokesman said today that Peter Bleach had always shown himself to be a diligent and dedicated employee.

"During his job interview, Peter Bleach fully declared his involvement in the West Bengal arms case, for which he served time in an Indian prison.

"This was a spent sentence, as the sentence had expired some time prior to the time Peter applied to join English Heritage.

"English Heritage took the standard precaution of making a full character inquiry during the interview process.

"The sentence was neither suspended nor bound over and, under British law, employers are not permitted to discriminate in recruitment on the basis of previous spent convictions.

"He has always been open about the incident, but has always taken care to keep his current work and any discussion of this incident separate."

He said it was highly unfortunate that the launch of an event at the castle, the Safer Ryedale Partnership Plan, a three-year strategy to fight crime, had been overshadowed.

"The plan is important for improving local life, bringing together no less than 25 agencies and groups as partners to bolster community safety," he said.