Life Means Life

by Nick Appleyard

  Once in police custody, the suspect refused to speak for two days until eventually he revealed that he was Donald Neilson, a 39-year-old joiner, who lived with his wife and teenage daughter in Bradford. He had been christened Donald Nappey, but changed his name by deed poll to Neilson after years of taunts. During a search of his house, officers found eight black hoods and more proof that he was the Black Panther.

  Neilson confessed to the post office murders and kidnapping of Lesley Whittle, but insisted he never meant to kill her. Instead, he maintained that he accidentally knocked her off the ledge as he rushed to gather his belongings. He told police that the wire was round her neck to prevent her escaping.

  On 14 June 1976, he appeared before Oxford Crown Court charged with 13 violent crimes, including the three postmaster killings and the murder of Lesley Whittle. By pleading not guilty to Lesley’s murder, he put her family through the trauma of a trial that lasted five weeks.

  Defending him, Gilbert Gray, QC, said to the jury: ‘This was not murder. This was an unlooked-for misadventure.’ But prosecutor Philip Cox, QC, insisted Neilson killed his captive because his plans had failed and she would be able to identify him: ‘Donald Neilson put his own safety above everything else. This cold, logical, military approach to the problem was paramount. It was safer and more logical to kill her than to release her and run the risk of subsequent investigation.’

  It took the jury two hours to find him guilty. Handing him a life term for each of the four killings, Mr Justice Mars-Jones told him: ‘The enormity of the crimes you have been convicted of puts you in a class apart from all other convicted murderers in recent years.’

  In June last year, it was revealed that Neilson has Motor Neurone Disease. He is on the hospital wing of Full Sutton Prison, near York, crippled by the condition, which has no cure. He is dying a slow, painful death and doctors say he could go at any time. But few will grieve for the man who left a young girl to die slowly, hanging from a wire at the bottom of a filthy storm drain.

  ‘GOTCHA!’

  ‘He covered her body with a duvet, turned on a fan and sprayed deodorant to mask the smell of decomposition.’

  Prosecutor Nick Hawkins

  Name: David Tiley

  Crime: Serial rape and double murder

  Date of Conviction: 14 July 2007

  Age at Conviction: 47

  When he was released from prison after six years inside for a brutal rape, the Probation Service said there was a ‘low-to-medium risk’ of David Tiley harming any more members of the public. That was 2001, and for a further six years he managed, as far as the police know, to resist his violent sexual urges. But by the afternoon of 16 March 2007, the official classification of Tiley had changed from low-to-medium risk to ‘exceptionally dangerous’ as police announced he was wanted in connection with the barbaric murders of two women.

  Earlier that day, police forced their way into the home Tiley shared with his disabled fiancée Sue Hale, where they were greeted with a scene that one policeman described as being ‘like something from a Hannibal Lecter film.’ Inside their one-bedroom flat in Townhill Park, Southampton, were the bodies of Sue, 49, and her care worker, Sarah Merritt, 39.

  Sue suffered from cerebellar ataxia – a rare, but progressive disorder that affects the nervous system and causes unsteadiness and a lack of co-ordination. The crippling condition meant she relied on walking sticks and a mobility scooter to get around. Despite her illness, the mother-of-five ‘would do anything for anybody’ and kept herself active with a part-time job in a nearby Scope charity shop. It was this kind, frail woman who, according to Tiley, teased him about his past on the evening of 7 March – and paid the price. To this day Tiley, a petty thief and habitual liar since his teens, says he cannot remember exactly what it was that she said, but it was enough for him to explode into a fit of rage that would leave his former partner dead and the walls and ceiling of their bedroom covered with her blood. Tiley, at just under 6ft tall, with broad shoulders and thick, tattooed arms, hit his weak, vulnerable wife-to-be hard across the head with a hammer he’d grabbed from a toolbox in the kitchen.

  He then dragged her into the bedroom, where he bound her ankles and wrists before stabbing her four times: twice in the chest and twice in the head. At some point during the vicious assault, he sexually assaulted her with a table lamp. When he was sure she was dead, he wrapped the body in her blood-soaked duvet. Then, with a meticulousness of mind, the former cleaner turned on a cooling fan in the room and sprayed deodorant over the bed, floor and around the door in a grisly bid to hide the smell of decay.

  After the murder, Tiley went about his usual business, visiting local bookmakers and playing fruit machines on Southampton’s seafront. For eight days he lived in Sue’s flat as she lay rotting in the bedroom. He slept on the living room sofa and cooked meals in the kitchen, all the time ignoring the overpowering stench.

  When Sue’s friends and family rang or texted her mobile phone, he texted back saying she was poorly and that he was looking after her until she was better. In view of her condition, they had no reason not to believe him.

  On 15 March, eight days after the murder, Sue’s ‘dedicated and committed’ carer Sarah Merritt arrived at the flat, as planned, to help bathe her and to check that she was OK. She missed the remainder of her appointments that day and failed to return home. The following morning, her husband Peter and her employers – the Carewatch Agency – informed police that she was missing and Peter set about finding his wife.

  Peter, 41, drove round Sarah’s list of clients with one of her colleagues and found his wife’s car parked outside Sue’s home. He panicked. Graham McStay, who lived two doors away, recalled: ‘A friend came round and said there had been a guy banging on the door of the flat down the hall. He said the man had been holding a concrete block and had been shouting and demanding to be let in.’ Minutes later, police forced the front door to the flat and found the horrors inside. Sarah lay dead in the hallway. Like Sue, she had been tied up and stabbed. On the front door, Tiley had scrawled the word ‘GOTCHA’ in her blood.

  Police launched a nationwide manhunt for Tiley, taking the rare step of naming him as the man they were after, calling him ‘an exceptionally dangerous risk to the public’. DCI Richard John, of Hampshire Police, called on him to hand himself into a police station with a solicitor. He said: ‘We are trying to locate Mr Tiley, who we believe is a threat and is wanted in connection with the double murder in Southampton. We advise members of the public not to approach him under any circumstances and report any sightings or information to the police as soon as possible.’

  Two days later, on 17 March, detectives received a tip-off that Tiley had made his way along the coast to the seaside town of Swanage, Dorset – 55 miles away from the murder scene. Immediately they set up checkpoints on all exits from the resort and by 2pm that day, they found him walking on the seafront.

  With overwhelming evidence against him, Tiley admitted the murders and on 14 June that year he appeared at Winchester Crown Court, where he pleaded guilty. Prosecution counsel Nick Hawkins told the court that after his arrest, Tiley told police that he killed Sue following a taunt about his violent past. He hit her with a hammer, bound her ankles and wrists, and then stabbed her four times.

  The court heard that when her carer arrived, she asked Tiley where Sue was. He said she was dead and told her to co-operate with him before tying her up and gagging her. Tiley then took her bank card and withdrew £150 from a nearby cash machine. The prosecutor said: ‘He returned to the flat, smoked two cigarettes, then removed the gag and had a conversation with her. She started crying, so he got angry, removed her clothing and raped her.’ Tiley told police that he then bound her ankles and stabbed her twice in the neck.

  The killer then fled and withdrew another £100 before catching a train to Weymouth, where he booked into a bed and breakfast.

  The court heard that Tiley had been convicted at Winchester in 1995 of two counts of rap
e and was jailed for six years. He had broken into the woman’s home and threatened her with a knife. Then, during the brutal rape, he repeatedly punched her in the face as her children slept in the room next door. Mr Hawkins also told how, between 2004 and 2006, Tiley breached court orders three times and was jailed on each occasion.

  The prosecution said Tiley had met Sue in the summer of 2006 – 14 months before her gruesome death – and moved into her flat soon afterwards. This put him in breach of court orders because he failed to register his address. For this, the third breach of his sex offender conditions, he was jailed for 10 months and released in January 2007.

  The barrister explained that on his release Tiley moved back in with Sue – who was told by police that he was a sex offender – and registered her address with the authorities while applying to be her full-time carer.

  When Mr Hawkins finished outlining the crimes, Tiley sat impassively dressed in black trousers and a burgundy jumper as the families of his victims described the impact the murders had had on their lives.

  In a statement, Sarah Merritt’s husband said his children were devastated by the loss of their mother, who he said would do anything for anybody: ‘When I arrived at the flat, I knew something was dreadfully wrong. There was no answer and the curtains were closed. I wanted to kick the door down, but the police arrived soon after and stopped me. From that moment onwards I felt utterly helpless, just standing there, watching events as they unfolded. Once I knew two bodies were in there, I knew Sarah was going to be one of them. I felt so alone; I was just waiting for them to tell me she was dead. I was truly robbed by this man that day. I pray to God that she didn’t suffer long.’

  He added: ‘What is this world coming to when a kind, loving and caring person such as Sarah loses her life doing the job that she did, and being killed in such a wicked way while caring for others? I cannot get the thoughts out of my mind of how scared and so very afraid she must have been that day and that I could do nothing to help her in her hour of need. I am going to have to live with that for the rest of my life. Sarah didn’t do anything to deserve such an end to her life.’

  On behalf of Sue Hale’s family of five grown-up children, her son David Chopra said the ‘horrific details’ of what had happened to his mother and her carer had ‘shocked them to the core.’

  Before sentencing, Tiley’s defence barrister Lisa Matthews read out a short note from the accused: ‘I want to express to you all my regret. No words that I can say will replace Susan and Sarah. I am so sorry for what I have done. I deeply regret what has happened. But no amount of justice would compensate for what I have done. I hope that when I am sentenced you will be able to find some closure and get on with your lives. I am totally to blame for what has happened.’

  Offering no mitigation for her client’s crimes, Ms Matthews said: ‘There is nothing I can say that is going to change the outcome of the sentence. He knows that, and everyone in court knows that. He knows life is going to mean life.’

  Jailing Tiley, Mr Justice Irwin told him: ‘David Tiley, I will speak to you about what you have done, but your case is such I’m quite unsure if you will ever grasp the real enormity of your own acts. You have been convicted of offences of dishonesty from your early teens. In March 1995, at this court, you were sentenced for rape and buggery. You were sent to prison for six years and placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register.

  ‘After release from prison you failed repeatedly to notify your name and address to police. You breached sex offender orders and served prison sentences for these offences. Eventually, you complied with the obligations to notify police of your addresses. They knew you were living with Susan Hale at a flat in Southampton. As we have heard, she was disabled with cerebellar ataxia, making her vulnerable and needing care. You applied to the Department of Work and Pensions to become her registered carer. Instead of caring for her, you killed her.

  ‘Mrs Sarah Merritt was a dedicated community carer, who did look after Susan Hale. You raped her and you killed her.

  ‘The brutality and evil defies adequate description. The pain and grief of the victims’ families left in the wake of the deaths is profound. We have heard it expressed poignantly and with dignity today. One’s heart goes out to them; nothing can repair the damage done to them.

  ‘On each count you will go to prison for life. These offences are quite exceptionally serious and the only appropriate sentence should be a whole life order. The only proper punishment for you is that you must never be released.’

  Tiley’s brother Ian – one of his five siblings – spoke on behalf of the family when he said after the sentence: ‘We were disgusted when he committed the previous offence and raped a woman, and in my opinion he should never have been let out. They said there had been a murder and they were looking for David. I was, we were, shocked.

  ‘I am just glad that this whole ordeal is now over and that the court case is complete. The fact that he pleaded guilty and he didn’t go through a whole trial meant he didn’t drag it out for both of the families. Someone had to be in court to see him sentenced for these crimes; I felt that one of us had to be here. I stood upstairs in the public gallery of the court, close to both families who had lost a loved one. I couldn’t see David, but I could hear him. I want him to know we are there and we are thinking of him, because he is my brother, but he has done wrong and we don’t agree with that. I am just so sorry for both families and hope that they will be able to try and move on with their lives, knowing that he won’t be coming back out.’

  Tiley’s case raised concerns about the public protection mechanisms for dealing with dangerous offenders. Defending the police monitoring, Assistant Chief Constable Simon Cole, said he, ‘was the subject of visits in accordance with national standards.’

  He added: ‘This type of offender is very difficult to manage within the community. This is a significant problem for society in terms of balancing the need to protect the community whilst at the same time managing offenders within the justice system. Short of 24-hour surveillance or locking an offender up for life, there can be no guarantees, and it is just not possible for agencies involved to do that. The professionals involved in monitoring this man did their best working within the system.’

  ‘THE HOUSE OF HORRORS’

  ‘Relax and enjoy!’

  Rose West (to one of her 10 victims)

  Name: Rosemary West

  Crime: Serial killing

  Date of Conviction: 22 November 1995

  Age at Conviction: 42

  Rosemary Letts, as she was born in Barnstaple, Devon, on 29 November 1953, was never going to be a normal person. Her mother was manic-depressive and young Rose only escaped her schizophrenic father’s beatings by succumbing to his sexual perversions. In fact, the crime of incest was so ingrained into her that she often slept with her own younger brother, Gordon.

  Fred West was born in the Gloucestershire village of Much Marcle. By the age of 12, he had been seduced by his mother, Daisy. He was encouraged into incest and even bestiality by his farm labourer father, Walter. In 1962 he married an old girlfriend, Catherine Costello – a former prostitute known as Rena. She was already pregnant by a bus driver, but when the child – Charmaine – was born, Fred took her as his own. Rena was soon pregnant again with a second daughter. This time it was Fred’s and she was named Anne Marie.

  The family fled from Glasgow to Fred’s home county of Gloucestershire after he accidentally ran over and killed a four-year-old boy with his ice-cream van. In Gloucestershire, in August 1967, he murdered Ann McFall, who had come ‘Down South’ with the family, believing herself in love with Fred after a brief fling while he was working in Scotland. Fred and Rena’s marriage ran into difficulties and Rena went back to Scotland. Ann McFall fell pregnant by Fred and begged him to divorce Rena and marry her. Instead, he murdered her.

  Fred was about to meet Rose Letts, who was officially working as a ‘seamstress’ but was in reality a child prostitute in Gloucestershire.
The fateful meeting took place at a bus stop near Cheltenham, where the curly-haired labourer chatted up the pretty 15-year-old. The two became besotted and by the autumn, Fred, Rose, his daughter Anne Marie and stepdaughter Charmaine had moved into 25 Midland Road, Gloucester.

  Rose hated her stepdaughters and would regularly beat them with little or no provocation. To the outside world, she looked like the perfect stepmother – taking the children picking flowers from the grass verges, while telling them stories. She was, in fact, a tyrant.

  Her chance for killing came in November 1970 when Fred was jailed for petty theft and tax evasion. When he came out on 24 June 1971, Charmaine had gone. Rose told friends and neighbours that the child had been taken back to Scotland with the former whore Rena, her natural mother. In fact, Rose had killed the child and the corpse of the little eight-year-old was roughly buried under the garden at Midland Road. Jobbing builder and devoted partner Fred made a better job of hiding the crime when he came out of jail. The remains would not be found until 5 May 1994, during the notorious ‘House of Horrors’ investigation.

  In August 1971, Fred’s wife Rena came looking for her children. He killed her, dismembered her and buried her in the countryside.

  On 29 January 1972, Fred made Rose his wife at Gloucester Register Office. The bride was already five months pregnant with their first child. Neither husband nor wife was deterred from their infatuation with kinky sex by Rose’s pregnancy. They moved to bigger premises – 25 Cromwell Street, Gloucester – so more people could take part in their depraved antics. Fred quickly set to turning upper rooms into bedsits and improving the cellar. Meanwhile, Rose paid for the improvements by taking in a stream of what they termed ‘gentlemen callers’ – to the delight of Fred. He was especially glad if they were black, and even more so if he was able to watch through one of the peepholes he had bored into the walls.