David Lace
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| “ | It appears that he continued to have little or no contact with his family until the autumn on 1988 when he paid a visit to Portsmouth. Family members who he visited at this time gave the impression that he had visited them to say goodbye for some particular reason. He made one disclosure at this time to the effect that he had done some bad things in his time, like the post office robbery and also was responsible for killing someone in Southampton when things got out of hand some years ago when he was young. | „ |
| ~ DCI Phil McTavish's statement about David Lace. |
David Andrew Lace (born David Andrew Williams, September 2 1962 - December 8 1988) was a British burglar and mugger who committed suicide on December 8 1988. Several years after his death, police exhumed his body for DNA testing and found him to be responsible for the 1979 rape and murder of Teresa De Simone, resulting in the release of previous suspect Sean Hodgson.
Biography edit
David Andrew Lace was born David Andrew Williams on September 2 1962 in the British city of Portsmouth. He was adopted by the Lace family and changed his surname to support this change, having spent most of his childhood in children's homes. Lace was described by others as a "loner" and showed aggressive tendencies.
In November 1977, aged 15, Lace was convicted of a "minor burglary" in Portsmouth and cautioned. In 1978, he was convicted of snatching a woman's handbag and sentenced to supervised care until his was 18. He received four other convictions from 1977 to 1984 for similar offences. In January 1980 he was convicted of stealing property from his lodgings and of handling stolen cash.
On December 4, 1979, the 17-year-old Lace stole a rucksack from the care home and went to Southampton, where he came across barmaid Teresa De Simone getting in her car. He knocked on the window and asked the time before forcing his way in and raping her. Lace then strangled De Simone with her belt, stole the dead woman's handbag and hid for ten minutes before making his escape on a train back to Portsmouth.
In 1980, Lace received his first prison sentence when he was convicted of a series of burglaries in Portsmouth. He was sentenced to eighteen months in prison, but only served nine before his release.
On September 17 1983, Lace confessed to murdering De Simone at a police station. The details of his confession are described above. However, Lace wrongly described several details such as the condition and colour of the car and what De Simone was wearing. Another suspect named Sean Hodgson has also been convicted of the crime already in what has been called "one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British history" and so Lace's confession was not taken seriously and Hodgson's legal team was not made aware of its existence.
In 1984, Lace entered a post office in Swanick and robbed it at knifepoint before running away. Police responded quickly and arrested Lace after a foot chase. He was charged with robbery and found guilty on June 8. A judge at Portsmouth Crown Court sentenced Lace to five years and nine months in prison. He was sent to Dartmoor Prison to serve his sentence, getting released in July 1987.
Following his release, Lace settled in Brixham and became depressed. He returned to Portsmouth to visit his family in 1988 and told then that he felt bad about his previous actions. During a conversation with his sister, Lace also confessed to murdering Teresa De Simone, although he did not name her and simply said he had killed her. His sister did not tell the police because she didn't think it was necessary. In December 1988 Lace gave away his possessions and quit his job. He was last seen alive on December 8, with his landlord discovering his dead body the next day. Police concluded that Lace had killed himself.
After a routine DNA sweep found that the DNA from De Simone's body was a partial match for one of Lace's relatives, police asked his sister for a DNA sample. When this was also a match, they exhumed David Lace's body in August 2009 and compared his DNA to the DNA from the scene. On September 17, police announced that Lace's DNA was a 100% match. The Crown Prosecution Service announced that the evidence would be enough to prosecute Lace if he were alive, and police said they were confident of his guilt.