A man has been found guilty of killing 6-year-old student Ricky Neve nearly 30 years ago.
James Watson, 41, was 13 when he strangled Ricky in the woods of Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, on November 28, 1994.
The boy’s body was found the next day a few minutes walk from his home in Redmail Walk, Weland.
Watson launched a “surprise attack” on the student and strangled him with his own jacket, Old Bailey was told.
Image: Ricky’s sister Rochelle Neve hailed the sentence as a “victory” for the family
He then stripped the boy of his body and posed in a star-shaped pose in the woods before throwing his clothes in a nearby bicycle basket.
Claire Forsdike, a senior prosecutor at the Royal Public Prosecutor’s Office, said the sentence “brought justice to Ricky” and “ended a horrific unsolved crime almost 30 years after it happened”.
“It was like a puzzle, and each piece of evidence was not enough in itself, but when it was gathered, it created a clear and convincing picture of why James Watson had to be the killer,” she added.
Image: Sheradin (left) and Rochelle Neve (right), the sisters of the murdered student Ricky Neve
Ms. Forsdike said the combination of “DNA evidence, autopsies, soil samples, eyewitness accounts and changing stories has been astounding.”
Ricky Rochelle Neve, a 30-year-old sister, hailed the sentence as a “victory” for a family fighting for justice.
She remembered her brother as a “cheeky” and “loving” boy who would take care of her siblings.
Image: Ruth Neve was acquitted of Ricky’s murder, but was jailed for seven years after admitting child abuse
Sheradin Neve’s youngest sister, 27, who was a baby when Ricky died, said they thought they had been “misled” by the police at the time, social services and everyone who had been in our lives. who had to take care. “
Watson strangled Ricky in the back with a ligature or collar with an anorak to fulfill a “painful fantasy” he had told his mother three days earlier.
He was obsessed with the murder newspapers, copying stories on the front page of a school.
Watson was seen with the victim the day he disappeared and was interviewed by police as a witness at the time.
Image: Ricky’s body was found in silence in Peterborough
The verdict comes as a long-awaited acquittal for Ricky Ruth Neve’s mother, who was on trial for her son’s November 1994 murder but was released.
Watson’s false story has not been challenged, as police have mistakenly focused on the theory that Mrs. Neve killed her son and used a buggy to dump his body.
Mrs. Neve, a mother of four, was released from Ricky’s murder in 1996, but was jailed for seven years after admitting she was cruel to children.
While on bail on suspicion of murder, Watson fled to Portugal but was extradited back to Britain.
Following the verdict, former Assistant Chief of Staff Paul Fulwood, who led the cold case, said Watson was “a fantasist, a dangerous man and an obsessive liar.”
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