Victorian Detective With Keen Memory For Faces

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30971, 29 January 1966, Page 16

Victorian Detective With Keen Memory For Faces

A Victorian detective with a memory for faces which has made him almost a legend in his lifetime, and one of the detectives Victorian criminals fear most, has for the last few days been looking over Christchurch and its inhabitants.

Senior Detective R. E. Henderson, of Melbourne,

popularly known as the “Memory Man,” is doing exchange duty in New Zealand. Detective Sergeant N. Morrey, of the New South Wales Police, is travelling with him. Detective Henderson is best known to New Zealanders for his feat in recognising a disguised Auckland payroll robber, Trevor Edward Nash, as Nash walked the streets of Melbourne. Mr Henderson’s fame lies in the number of wanted people he has been able to identify. Each day he studies carefully and notes the salient points of police photographs of wanted people.

Mr Henderson said last evening that the system of exchanging police officers had many beneficial effects. The interchange of detectives between the Australian States, especially during racing carnivals and show periods, was considerable.

For many years the New South Wales Police and the New Zealand Police had interchanged detectives. This year he was doing interchange duty as the first Victorian detective to come to New Zealand.

“The benefit lies not only in the opportunities to pin-

point undesirables from Australia but also in learning points of technique from another police force,” he said. He doubted whether the interchange of detectives had a deterrent effect in stopping criminals from travelling.

An illustration of the benefits of the scheme was that Mr Morrey, at the trotting meeting in Auckland, had been able to identify a notorious Australian safe-blower and action had been taken to return him to Australia. “In those circumstances he would have been unknow to the local police when he re-com-menced operations,” said Mr Henderson.

The idea of exchanging detectives was good Mr Henderson said. On one exchange with the New South Wales police he had been able to identify several dozen persons witr criminal records who were unknown in New South Wales. Some of those had been wanted inter-state. In New Zealand he had also identified several persons known to the Australian police. At least two had been sent back to Australia and action was being taken in respect of others.