Aylesbury cold case detective with nearly 50 years experience receives MBE

A detective born and raised in Aylesbury received an MBE yesterday (23 February), for his work in the cold cases team.

Principle Investigator Pete Beirne was included in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list, he has worked for the police since 1974.

Yesterday, Princess Anne awarded the investigator with an MBE during a ceremony at Windsor Castle.

Pete runs the Thames Valley Police's cold case team, known formally as the Major Crime Review Team, which investigates unsolved murders and serious sexual offences.

Since 2007, Pete's team has cracked 18 stranger rape and five murder cases, two of the murders were double jeopardy cases.

Thames Valley Police report that another murder case is currently going through court proceedings.

Pete said: “I feel privileged to be able to do my job and achieve justice for victims and their families.

“My team concentrates on unsolved cases and use advancements in forensic science to bring cases to court.

“I feel incredibly honoured to receive an MBE. It’s a reflection of the work of the Major Crime Review Team and the forensic scientists who have helped us.

“It has been a very special day.”

When Pete joined the force he was a cadet, since then he has risen to the rank of Detective Chief Inspector and been tasked with leading the force’s Major Crime Unit.

Pete flirted with retirement in 2007, before quickly returning for the then newly formed Major Crime Review Team.

I’ve been involved in a number of protracted investigations,” Pete said.

“The murder of Claire Woolterton in Windsor in 1981 is the investigation that I will always remember because I worked on the original investigation as a young Detective Constable and then my team managed to convict Claire’s murderer, Colin Campbell, following a second investigation 32 years later.

“Another landmark investigation was the murder of Vicki Thompson in Oxfordshire. This was the first investigation to secure a conviction with new forensic evidence in a double jeopardy case.

“The investigation into Benjamin Geen, a nurse at Horton General Hospital in Banbury was one of the most complex. I was working as the Deputy Senior Investigating Officer at that time, in the early 2000s. After a number of years, we managed to bring the case to court and Gee was convicted of murdering two patients and injuring many others.”