Journalists from a North East daily have been recalling the dramatic day 20 years ago this week when they were first-hand witnesses to a shooting.

Council planning officer Harry Collinson was shot dead by Albert Dryden on 20 June 1991 in a dispute over a bungalow which Dryden had built without planning permission and which the council wanted to bulldoze.

On the day in question media had gathered at the scene and watched in horror as Dryden gunned down the Derwentside District Council official with a First World War revolver.  He also shot and injured a police officer and a BBC reporter.

The whole incident was caught in pictures by Northern Echo photographer Mike Peckett and were run in sequence across page one at the time.

This week the Northern Echo ran another front page article and a double page spread on the shooting, featuring an interview with the murdered man’s brother, along with a first person piece by Mark Summers, who reported on the incident for the newspaper.

In his article Mark recalls how the council decided to announce the date and time of the demolition in advance because of the media interest in the story.

He writes: “The police were consulted and voiced their opposition to a public demolition. Some of Dryden’s supporters were later to say that the presence of journalists and a TV camera may have put pressure on him to take the ultimate step to defend his property.

“Bizarrely it took a while to realise that Harry Collinson had been killed – I went into auto pilot and started interviewing witnesses for the story I would have to write later.”

Peter Sands, who was editor of the Northern Echo at the time has called it the  most remarkable day during his time as an editor.

Writing on his blog he said: “It’s a considered and sensitive article that tells the shocking events of the day in detail. It all vividly brings back the way the day unfolded and the decisions we made.”

Peter also referred to the incident in his ‘Take Five’ interview currently running on HTFP.

“As an editor, the shooting of a planning officer in a dispute over a bungalow was the most memorable day. Our photographer stood next to the killer and took an astonishing series of pictures. I had to deal with traumatised staff, legal issues, the police (who wanted the photographs and interviews), the sensitivities of dealing with a death and the small matter of getting the paper out,” he wrote.

The current Echo editor Peter Barron was news editor on the title at the time.

He said:  “Twenty years might have passed since Albert Dryden killed council planning executive Harry Collinson in cold blood, but the images from 20 June 1991 have lost none of their power to shock.”