Norman Mould was a bad choice to head the investigation against Steel. He was not really a murder detective - for most of his career he specialised in drugs and fraud. But in 1978 the West Yorkshire police force was stretched by the Ripper inquiry - and Mould certainly had experience.

Mould was born in 1937 and joined the police relatively late - at the age of 24. Within ten years he had risen to the rank of Inspector - serving as the Head of the Bradford City Police Drug squad. His big chance came when the Bradford City police was re-organised in 1972. He moved across into the fraud squad - and within a couple of years was given his own drugs and fraud team at Wakefield HQ - covering the Pudsey and Holbeck areas.

He was still in charge of this team when the Carol Wilkinson murder occurred in the Pudsey police district. Such was the pressure on police at the time that Mould was actually assigned to it in a minor capacity - but he only came to lead the team when the original Head, Detective Superintendent Denis Hoban, died unexpectedly.

Norman Mould's major mistake on the Steel case was in simply looking for evidence to incriminate Steel because he had been named as a suspect by Vera Smith. Mould and his sergeant Falconer did not check through the evidence of the investigation in 1977 to see if the entire scenario, as put together then, fitted and incriminated him. The evidence they used against Steel as reason to arrest and interrogate him was the key ring - yet there had been no mention of a key ring in the 1977 investigation. Mould should have known that because he had been on the case, if only peripherally. It raises doubts about whether he had "just cause" for such an arrest in a murder case - even though it may have been sufficient cause in a drugs case.

Nevertheless, the Steel case became a leap forward in a career which had begun to stagnate. Mould achieved his goal of promotion to Superintendent when Steel was jailed. He was promoted in late 1980. He got out of murder only just in time - because his success with Steel had led to him being assigned to find a serial rapist and murderer who was plaguing the same area where Carol Wilkinson was murdered. He failed completely in this - though his less-favoured and less ambitious successor, D.I. Geordie Thompson , solved it with ease.

Norman Mould retired in the mid-nineties. But he was not content to enjoy his retirement with his wife and family in Cleckheaton - he applied for the job of head of security for the National Lottery , and got it. It was not a lucky choice for him. During one of the early lottery draws there was a serious breach of security. Norman Mould was still in Yorkshire when it happened - but he drove down South to investigate it and had a heart attack.