Detective Sergeant Crichton was the senior policeman involved in the Alan Bradley case in late 1989. The plainclothes detective was assigned to the case just before Alan was due to stand trial for fraud and the attempted murder of Rita Fairclough. Crichton informed Rita and Jenny Bradley that a date had been set for the trial and gave Rita advice about taking the stand. Rita felt confident about giving evidence against Alan but paused for thought when Crichton warned her that the defence would paint her as the villain and that she couldn't rely on Jenny and Martin Platt's witness testimonies to secure a guilty verdict.