Police blunders allowed a teenager who killed a six-year-old boy in a sexually motivated murder to remain at large for almost 30 years – during which time it is feared he committed more sick offences.
James Watson was just 13 when he lured Rikki Neave into woods and strangled him, before leaving his naked body posed in a star shape.
But detectives who investigated the November 1994 Peterborough murder became fixated on the theory the killer was the victim’s mother Ruth -then a 28-year-old drug addict with an interest in the occult.
James Watson wasn’t the first person charged with Rikki Neave’s murder – and first walked free.Sketched during his trial at the Old Bailey, where deliberations lasted just 36 hours
She was charged with murder and subsequently acquitted but remained the chief suspect.
Rikki Neave’s killer James Watson, now 41, was jailed 28 years after he should have been
Watson, now 41, should have been the prime suspect from the start, despite his young age – the case came a year after the murder of toddler James Bulger by two ten-year-olds.
Witnesses saw him leading Rikki to the woods an hour before the schoolboy was killed.
The teenage tearaway had his DNA taken for the first time in February 1995 after his arrest for a burglary.But it was more than 20 years before advances in technology meant his DNA was matched to Rikki’s clothes.
The persistent truant had been reported months earlier for sexually assaulting a five-year-old classmate of Rikki’s. And days before the murder he spoke to his mother about an imagined radio report of a two-year-old child being abducted, strangled and left in a dyke.
The troubled teen hoarded catalogues featuring youngsters in underwear and jurors heard he had a ‘grotesque interest’ in child murder.
Watson, who now has more than 50 known offences to his name, also had a cruel streak, killing animals for fun – information that came from a 14-year-old girl who revealed he liked to throttle her while having sex in woods.She fell pregnant with his child.
Poor Rikki (pictured in school photo) was strangled and left naked in the woods by his killer
Cambridgeshire police (pictured in 1994) became fixated with Rikki’s mother Ruth as a suspect
And the killer’s half-brother, Andrew Bailey, recalled Watson regularly visited Rikki’s home – contradicting the defendant’s claim he’d never met the boy.
The evidence failed to lead detectives in the right direction, however.Two reviews in 2013 and 2014 failed to examine unidentified DNA on Rikki’s clothes.
It was only when former Assistant Chief Constable for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Police, Paul Fullwood, launched a third review and had the DNA entered on the national database that the billion-to-one match was made.
But, even then, the Crown Prosecution Service ruled in 2016 there was insufficient evidence, and another four years were to go by before Watson was charged – and only after Rikki’s mother appealed.
Mr Fullwood told the Daily Mail: ‘We don’t think he’s responsible for other murders but I have no doubt there will be other victims from other offences.We would be naive to think he has not committed any other offences. We have an open mind.
Rikki’s killing remained unsolved for 28 years despite Watson’s guilt quickly becoming clear
‘If other people come forward, Glimpses of Occultism course we will investigate.’
Rikki’s mother called her son’s murderer a ‘monster’ after yesterday’s conviction and criticised police and social services who ‘totally ruined mine and my daughters’ lives’.
She added: ‘I wonder what Rikki would be like today – married, children? Who knows?But this monster has taken all that away from me and my daughters.’
One of his sisters, Rebecca Harvey, added: ‘Nothing will bring Rikki back but Rikki has finally received some justice today.’
Mrs Neave was acquitted of his murder in October 1996 but was jailed for seven years after admitting cruelty towards her son and two of his sisters.
Suspicions about her remained, however.
Disappointed by that verdict, Detective Keith Chamberlain told reporters at the time: ‘It would be improper for me to comment on the verdict other than to say that if any other new evidence is presented, it will be thoroughly investigated.’
Mr Fullwood described the theory about Mrs Neave as ‘fanciful’.
The Peterborough six-year-old was strangled and dumped in the sexually motivated crime
And during Watson’s murder trial at the Old Bailey in London, prosecutor John Price QC told the jury: ‘This fundamental error deflected the focus of attention of the investigation. ‘
Watson’s attitude to authority was laid bare during the trial when he claimed his fascination with police was due to his father, a former Cambridgeshire police officer who lost his job after turning to crime.
In fact, his father was a sex offender jailed in 1996 for gross indecency with girls, having previously assaulted his own son, which led to Watson going into care.
Watson was also helped by the fact that much of the forensic evidence and original case papers had been lost after a police station fire.
The key exhibit in the case, Rikki’s clothing, was handed back to his mother who destroyed it years later.
All that remained was the sticky tape used to lift DNA from the clothes.Without it, insiders admit a conviction would have been almost impossible.
Father-of-one Watson was finally charged in February 2020.
Rikki’s clothing (jacket pictured) was a crucial clue to finally catching killer James Watson
