A convicted arsonist who had “painful fantasies” and “sexual interest” in children has now been found guilty of the 1994 murder of student Ricky Neve, finally bringing him to justice nearly 30 years later.
After 36 hours and 31 minutes of discussion today, the jury convicted James Watson of the 1994 murder of six-year-old Ricky, who was found strangled and stripped naked in the woods in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire.
The verdict with the majority comes after 41-year-old Watson – who would have been 13 at the time of the murder – stood trial in Old Bailey in London.
The three-month trial found out how Watson wrapped the collar of Ricky’s blue anorak around the younger boy’s throat from behind, pulling hard for at least 30 seconds.
The assassination of Ricky Neve: A chronology of how the tragic case unfolded in nearly 30 years
– November 22, 1994: James Watson, 13, moves from foster care to a children’s home called Woodgates in March, Cambridgeshire, 20 miles from Peterborough.
– November 25, 1994: Watson is said to have called his mother to ask about a fictional little child found dead in the woods.
– November 28: Ricky eats Weetabix for breakfast around 9.30 am and leaves home, but never arrives at school. He sees Watson in the morning. At 6:00 p.m., Ruth Neve, his mother, reported missing. Police arrive at her home on Redmile Walk at 6:17 p.m.
– November 29: At 12.05 Ricky was found dead in the woods near the mansion. He is naked and his body poses in the shape of a star. The pathologist concluded that he had been strangled with a zipper on the hood of the anorak.
– November 30: At 9:30 a.m., Ricky’s missing clothes were found by a police officer in a wheeled bin in Willoughby Court.
– December 5: Watson gives a false story when questioned by police as a witness.
– 19 January 1995: Mrs Neve was arrested on suspicion of murder and interviewed.
– May 24: She is charged with the murder of her son and the crimes of cruelty to him and two of his sisters.
– October 1996: Mrs Neve is brought before the Royal Courts of Justice in Northampton and acquitted of murder. Prosecutors erroneously claim that she killed Ricky at home and then drove him in a buggy to the woods after announcing that he had disappeared. She pleaded guilty to child abuse and was sentenced to seven years in prison.
– 1999: Ricky Dean Neve’s stepfather dies in a car accident.
– 2015: A cold review of Ricky’s unsolved murder begins.
– 11 June 2015: A press release highlights “major forensic and technological developments over the last 20 years”.
– February 2016: A DNA match with Watson was identified by filming Ricky’s clothes and he was identified as a suspect. In police interviews, Watson changed his account and suggested that he might have taken Ricky to watch the diggers through a hole in a fence.
– 2018: The right to a victim of review is launched in an initial decision by the Royal Public Prosecutor’s Office (CPS) not to prosecute Watson.
– October 2019: A CPS reviewer decides that Watson should be tried.
– February 17, 2020: Watson is charged with Ricky’s murder. However, he challenged the legality of the extradition process used to bring him back from Portugal to stand trial.
– February 2022: Watson will be tried in Old Bailey for Ricky’s murder.
– April 21, 2022: Watson, now 41, was found guilty by a 10 to two majority on the Old Bailey jury.
Jury members were also told how Watson – a convicted arsonist with “painful fantasies” and “sexual interest” in young children – harassed a five-year-old child a year before the murder and strangled a girlfriend during sex.
Dressed in gray trousers, a light shirt and a shirt tie, Watson remained sitting in a conference room at HMP Belmarsh with his hands clasped, showing no emotion until he heard the verdict.
The decision comes 26 years after Ricky Ruth Neve’s mother was released by a jury at the Royal Court of Northampton after a 16-day high-profile trial for the murder of her son.
She later confessed to cruelty to children in a number of incidents during Ricky’s short life, including grabbing Ricky by the throat, pushing him against a wall and lifting him.
Mrs. Neve was jailed for seven years in October 1996. Ricky’s tragic death remained a mystery for another 20 years until new evidence emerged.
Jury members at Old Bailey heard Watson was arrested after sophisticated technology found a “final match” between his DNA profile and samples taken from Ricky’s clothes after a new investigation into the case was opened in 2015.
He fled the country by ferry to Dover in June 2016, before agreeing to be extradited from Portugal two months later.
Testifying before the jury, Watson denied having any sexual interest in children and denied any involvement in Ricky’s murder or disappearance.
However, he was found guilty by a majority of 10 to two today.
Judge Justice McGowan is now expected to adjourn the hearing before sentencing Watson at a later date.
Today, Ricky’s sister, Rochelle Neve, declared the sentence a “victory” for justice and for her murdered brother, whom she described as “loving, caring and impudent.”
“He was so loving, so caring for us. He would do anything, “Rochelle said, speaking after the verdict.
“If there was no food, he would go to the store, cut it, come back and feed us.
“He’ll make sure we’re clean.” He was going to take a bath. He was so clean, he loved to be clean.
She said it was a “victory” for Watson to be found guilty of murder, “because he thought it had been so many years and he thought we’d just go and roll under the table.” We weren’t, “she added.
Meanwhile, Claire Forsdike, a senior prosecutor at the Royal Prosecution Service, said the verdict was finally handed down “for Ricky only”, almost three decades after his death.
“The conviction of James Watson for the murder of Ricky Neve ended a horrific unsolved crime almost 30 years after it happened. That brings justice to Ricky.
“It was like a puzzle, and each piece of evidence was not enough in itself, but when it was put together, it created a clear and convincing picture of why James Watson had to be the killer.
“In the end, the combination of DNA evidence, autopsies, soil samples, eyewitness accounts and changing stories turned out to be astounding.
“Only James Watson knows why he did it. He remained silent for two decades and then put Ricky’s family through the agony of a lawsuit.
“I hope the verdict will give some comfort to all those who love and miss Ricky Neve.”
Testifying before the jury, Watson denied having any sexual interest in children and denied any involvement in Ricky’s murder or disappearance. However, he was found guilty by a majority of 10 to two today. Judge Justice McGowan is expected to adjourn the hearing before sentencing Watson at a later date.
Ricky (pictured) was found in the woods of Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, on November 29, 1994. His mother, Ruth Neve, was convicted by a jury at the Northampton Crown Court for the murder of her son.
Today, 40-year-old James Watson (pictured when he was a child), who was 13 when Ricky went missing, was convicted in Old Bailey of killing the child – seven years after new evidence was found in a “cold case review”
Jurors today convicted James Watson of killing a six-year-old child whose body was found naked in a forest in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, in 1994.
The Fantasist and the Intrusive Liar, who evaded justice for the murder of Ricky Neve for nearly 30 years: Who is James Watson?
According to police, James Watson is a “fantasist, dangerous man and obsessive liar.”
Watson comes from a broken home in Peterborough and has been treated by social services as a “vulnerable child” since March 1993.
That same year, he was interviewed complaining that he had sexually assaulted a five-year-old boy.
At the age of 12, Watson denied this and no further action was taken, although years later he admitted that they were “just two boys playing with each other’s penises”.
In April 1994, Watson told a family member that he had been physically assaulted by his father, James Watson Sr., with whom he lives on the Weland mansion.
After being taken care of, he stays with foster mother Molly Donald, to whom he becomes attached.
She found him with a rifle and felt he couldn’t handle it, so Watson was sent back, this time to Woodgate’s orphanage in March, about 20 miles from Peterborough.
Watson was often absent from school and dressed in civilian clothes, jurors heard.
From enrollment at Walton School in Peterborough to the day of the murder, Watson has been listed on the register 18 times out of a possible 38 school days.
At the age of 13, he became obsessed with strangling a little boy, even telling his mother that he had heard the news on the radio.
Three days later, the fantasy came true when he killed six-year-old Ricky Neve around noon on November 28, 1994, prosecutors said.
He stripped him naked for his own sexual gratification, “showing” the posed body that would be found near a child’s lair in the woods, prosecutor John Price told QC.
Watson was then “fascinated” by his own actions and made copious copies of newspaper stories, jurors were told.
He even told the teachers that he knew Ricky as a friend’s brother, one of many lies.
Watson “cursed” the fact that he had been seen with Ricky by an elderly lady, leaving him no choice but to admit a meeting when police called on December 5, 1994.
Watson’s story was full of lies, but remained undisputed for more than 20 years as police mistakenly pursued Ricky Ruth’s mother.
Meanwhile, caregivers noticed his strange behavior, masturbating over a children’s clothing catalog, keeping a dead pheasant in his room, and once allegedly strangling a staff member with a sock.
He moved to another care home and although he knew he was gay from an early age, he made a connection …
Add Comment