'I joined the police to put bad guys in jail - it is all I ever wanted to do as I served Shropshire as a murder detective'

Detective Chief Inspector Mark Bellamy has retired from West Mercia Police, 30 years after starting as a Police Constable on the streets of Runcorn in 1995.

Based at Malinsgate Police Station in Telford the 55-year-old and his team have been responsible for locking up a host of the county's most chilling violent criminals - and most importantly, getting justice for their victims and their families.

After joining West Mercia back in 2003 - returning to Telford, the town he grew up in, DCI Bellamy has been involved in more than 50 murder cases.

He signed off with a conviction in one of the county's most brazen and terrifying crimes of recent years, with a guilty verdict for two men over the murder of DPD worker Aurman Singh on the streets of Shrewsbury in 2023.

The result came after tracking the pair down to Austria after they fled the country to escape justice.

That verdict was the second success for detectives as they looked to solve the confusing puzzle of why a group of men would attack a DPD worker out delivering parcels, leaving him butchered and dying in the street - and stealing nothing in the process.

Last year another five men were convicted as part of the investigation - four for murder, and one for manslaughter.

During his ten year at the Major Investigation Unit the team have been faced with a series of horrific crimes.

They include the cold-blooded killing of Cheryl Hooper, a 51-year old woman shot by her estranged husband in front of her teenage daughter, the killing of popular Halfway House cafe owner Satnam Singh Blugher - murdered by a man he had helped to get work, and the harrowing murder of seven-year-old Archie Spriggs, who died at the hands of his own mother.

Asked if he was surprised at the level of violence involved in some of the cases in quiet rural Shropshire his response is clear: "What people are capable of is not a shock anymore."

He said that was made clear to him when he started out, as he dealt with an utterly harrowing case.

He said: "Nothing surprises me. Very early on I dealt with an absolutely awful job where a guy had travelled up to Shropshire and killed his three children then took his own life. Why would anyone do that."

As he prepared to leave the force for a final time the Shropshire Star caught up with DCI Bellamy, who spoke of his pride in his colleagues, at the results they have secured for families - and lifted the lid on some of the difficulties and successes faced when investigating murders.

He joined the force at the age of 25, signing up with Cheshire Police and landing in Runcorn as his first posting - a town he said had provided a perfect grounding for a rookie recruit learning their trade.

He said: "I joined Cheshire for seven years and started at Runcorn, which I had never heard of, but it was an excellent policing division with its own challenges in terms of policing - with Merseyside overspill - so it was a very good place to cut your teeth and learn your trade."

The move to the detective ranks didn't come immediately. First he trained and qualified to be a firearms officer, but decided to switch and trained in Cheshire as a detective looking at burglaries and drug crimes.