Alex Bateman, arriving in court while on trial in January 2017. [Pic: Pixel8000]
Alex Bateman, who was jailed for two years in February for stealing the logbook of Canadian Dams Raid veteran John Fraser, has been ordered to pay £12,500 to Fraser’s widow Doris. Giving the ruling in a compensation hearing in Wood Green Crown Court Judge John Dodd QC said that, even so, “no financial value could possibly compensate the family” for the theft.
Bateman had claimed during the trial that he had received the book as a gift, and had forged a Christmas card from Doris Fraser to back this up. He claimed that the book had later been stolen from his home. Today in court he still maintained that he last saw the logbook in early 2003, and did not know its current whereabouts.
Judge Dodd went on to say that the theft case had “engaged the emotions in a way that’s unusual”. He added: “It is absolutely clear that no financial value can possibly compensate the family, who have lost this connection with a hero. That’s one of the sad things that no order I make can possibly restore or make good that loss and that sense of betrayal frankly.”
John and Doris Fraser on their wedding day, April 1943. [Pic: Fraser family]
The judge said that he would do all he can “to see that the family receive some appropriate measure, some modest measure of financial compensation” in addition to the value of the book.
Adjourning the case to a date to be fixed, the Judge added: “Mr Bateman has the opportunity to do the honourable thing. I’m sure he knows what I mean by that. I’m sure you all know what I mean by that.”
Shere Fraser, John Fraser’s daughter, commented after the case, speaking from her home in the USA: “There is no outcome from these hearings that can compensate the years of pain and anguish we have felt over the loss of my father’s precious record of his wartime courage, his RCAF log book. Losing my father in a tragic plane crash in my childhood devastated my family. Years later, we are still grieving his loss. Never did our family expect that a heartless criminal would rob us of his legacy of courage. Today’s hearing was another painful reminder that no money will ever replace what he has stolen. Now and forever, I will never give up hope for the recovery of my father’s log book. I am my father’s daughter.”
Further information here:
Report from BBC London
Report from Daily Record
Dambusters Blog 
I’d keep him in jail until he revealed it’s whereabouts !
We can only hope he does do the decent thing finally
People like him no matter how long they are inside will never reveal the whereabouts of their prized possession to any one ..
It’s very sad that the records of a very brave man have been used by this heartless man to gain a profit
This thief should rot in jail. He has shown absolute disrespect to the bravest of the brave. He is nothing but scum.