UK Schoolboy’s Killer Finally Found Guilty After 28 Years

Court artist drawing of James Watson appearing in the dock at the Old Bailey in London. (Elizabeth Cook/PA)

The murder of a six-year-old English boy in 1994 has finally been solved after a 41-year-old man was found guilty.

James Watson, who was 13 at the time, had denied strangling and stripping Rikki Neave, whose mother Ruth was originally suspected of the crime, which took place in Peterborough.

Ruth Neave was acquitted of murder in 1995 but was convicted of child cruelty and jailed for seven years.

But the real killer was only unmasked after a cold case review was launched and new DNA evidence emerged.

A jury at the Old Bailey deliberated for more than 36 hours and delivered a majority verdict of 10 against two.

Watson faces a mandatory life sentence when he is sentenced on May 9.

Justice Maura McGowan said: “He will fall to be sentenced for something he did at the age of 13. The sentence for murder is one of life imprisonment. I have to set the minimum term he must serve before he can be considered for release. It will be determined largely by the age he was at the time of the offence he committed.”

It is believed to be the first time in England an adult has been convicted of a murder committed when he was still a child.

On Nov. 28, 1994, Rikki left his home on the Welland estate in Peterborough after breakfast but never arrived at school.

He played truant during the day and was only reported missing, by his mother, at 6 p.m.

The following day his body was found naked in nearby woods. His body was spreadeagled in a star shape and he had been strangled with the zip of his coat hood.

The trial heard that Ruth Neave was originally suspected partly because a picture of Leonardo Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man was found in her home and was believed by detectives to be similar to the way Rikki’s body had been positioned.

In January Ruth Neave testified at the trial and admitted she had been taking and dealing drugs in the run-up to Rikki’s death.

Watson’s barrister, Jennifer Dempster, claimed she was taking drugs on the night he died.

But she replied: “I know I never took any that night. Let’s make this clear—I never took drugs on that night or any other night after that.”

Cambridgeshire’s former assistant chief constable Paul Fullwood, who led the investigation, said he hoped the family of Rikki would now get “closure.”

He told PA Media: “It’s one of the most high profile, unsolved child homicides across UK policing, it’s taken 27 years to get where we are. This has been one of the most challenging investigations in the history of Cambridgeshire Constabulary.”