separated. Ethel worked at the "Garside Engineering Co" on Ironbridge Road in Bradford, and later worked at the "English Electrical Co" on Thornton Road, also in Bradford, until 1928. That year, Ethel and her siblings moved to Sheffield. In 1923, Christie moved to London; he spent the next decade in and out of prison, while Ethel remained in Yorkshire with her relatives. He was released from prison in January 1934, when the couple reunited and moved into 10 Rillington Place. Early criminal activity During the first decade of his marriage to Ethel, Christie was convicted of several criminal offences. He began working as a postman on 10 January 1921 in Halifax, and his first conviction was for stealing postal orders on 20 February and 26 March, for which he received three months' imprisonment on 12 April 1921. He served his sentence in HM Prison Manchester and was released on 27 June. Christie was then convicted on 15 January 1923 of obtaining money on false pretences and of violent conduct, for which, respectively, he was bound over and placed on probation for twelve months. He committed two further crimes of larceny during 1924, and received consecutive sentences of three and six months' imprisonment on 22 September 1924 in HM Prison Wandsworth. On 13 May 1929, after working for over two years as a lorry driver, Christie was convicted of assaulting Maud Cole, with whom he was living at 6 Almeric Road in Battersea, and was sentenced to six months' hard labour; he had hit Cole over the head with a cricket bat, which the magistrate described as a "murderous attack" for which he was again sent to HM Prison Wandsworth. Finally, Christie was convicted of auto theft and was re-imprisoned in HM Prison Wandsworth for three months on 1 November 1933. Christie and Ethel were reconciled in 1934 after he was released from prison, but he continued to visit prostitutes. He ended his recourse to petty crime. In 1937 the Christies moved into the top-floor flat of 10 Rillington Place in Notting Hill, then a rather run-down area of London; they later moved into the ground-floor flat in December 1938. The house was a three-storey brick end-terrace, built in the 1870s during a period of intensive speculative building in the area resulting in much jerry-built property which declined into poorly-maintained and unimproved multi-occupancy rentals. Number 10 was of a common design: