Reverend Emyr Owen (or “the perverted priest” the tabloids inevitably dubbed him) was a Welsh Presbyterian minister convicted in 1985 of mutilating corpses; he had confessed to cutting off the penises of three men laid out in his chapel of rest in Tywyn for burial. The “aha” moment of his arrest, dramatised by this documentary, is right out of a vintage detective novel. DC Gwyn Roberts had been investigating poisonous letters sent anonymously to a local woman when he recognised the same handwriting – with a distinctive letter “t” – on the inscription of a Bible. “It was a eureka moment,” recalls Roberts in a flat monotone. (Some of the interviews here have an unintentionally hilarious quality that made me wonder at first if the film was a spoof.)
Roberts got an even bigger shock when he searched 62-year-old Owen’s house and found, alongside a stash of gay porn, some nasty books about cannibalism and human sacrifice and photographs of the severed genitalia. On the drive to the police station, Rev Owen admitted everything. “I’m glad it has been stopped before anything worse happens,” he said. Might he have gone on to commit more grisly crimes, possibly on living victims? The question is left hanging.
After his arrest, in interviews with police and psychiatrists, Rev Owen explained that “bad Emyr” had committed the crimes. But he never told his story the same way twice; it changed depending on who he was talking to. Director Rhys Edwards speaks to Rev Owen’s acquaintances, mental health experts and historians. We learn that his fundamentalist upbringing – all sin and hellfire – left him with terrible guilt and shame about his sexuality.
But I’m not sure any of it really gets under Rev Owen’s skin – and some of the interviews feel a bit superfluous, as when a graphologist says that she can tell whether or not somebody is gay by their handwriting. I have to admit to raising a sceptical eyebrow at that one.
• The Rev is on the Icon Film Channel from 9 October.
