DS John Boulton    played by Russell Boulter

First appearance    Saved (02/11/95)

DS John Boulton was witty and sharp, with a cool composure. He was loyal to his friends and certainly a man you wanted on your side. Despite a history of violent assaults, no evidence was ever mounted against him. How much of this was a front remained to be seen. Boulton's first posting as a detective was at a station in Romford (where he knew DS Pearce), before he transferred to Stafford Row station. He first worked with detectives at Sun Hill as a DC in 1994 when he was posted at Barton Street. His partner had recently been killed in a drugs bust, and this had left him traumatised and bitter, turning him into a kind of vigilante policeman. He transferred to Sun Hill permanently the next year, promoted to the rank of DS.

Boulton was certainly a volatile character and you never knew how far he might go. At times his zeal for nicking criminals bordered on the psychotic and he was not averse to roughing up suspects either to make them more talkative or simply as an act of vengeance. He wasn't a bent copper, but at the same time he believed in using whatever means necessary to see that justice prevailed. For some this may have been too much, but Boulton saw it as a tough job for tough men.

Whilst he was unpopular with Uniform and most of CID, his combination of obsession and aggression proved strangely attractive to women, notably Claire Stanton with whom he began a relationship. Unfortunately in the end Boulton ended up on the wrong side of DS Don Beech and was killed by a fatal blow to the head during a tussle.