James Watson
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James Watson is a British man responsible for the 1994 sexually-motivated murder of six-year-old Rikki Neave. Watson was not apprehended until 2016, when he was arrested based on DNA evidence. He eventually came to trial in 2022 and was convicted of the murder.
Biography edit
Watson, at the time 13 years old, and his brother Andrew Bailey were placed into foster care in 1994 after their father was convicted of sexually abusing young girls. They were moved to a children's home in March, Cambridgeshire. Watson attended school in Peterborough, 20 miles away, but was frequently truant. He enjoyed killing animals and was accused of fondling a five-year-old student at Welland Primary School, the same school Rikki Neave attended. He had a sexual fetish for strangulation and was accused of choking his girlfriend during sex.
On 28 November 1994, six-year-old Rikki Neave left his home on the Welland Council Estate at 9:30 am. He never arrived at Welland Primary School and was reported missing. Watson also never showed up at school that day, the 30th time he had been truant. The following day, Rikki Neave's body was found in the nearby woods in a star pose. He was naked and had been strangled to death with the zip of his anorak hood, although he had not been sexually assaulted. The day after that his clothes were found in a bin.
During the investigation, witnesses told police that James Watson had been seen with Rikki Neave on the day of his disappearence. His fetish for strangulation was brought to the attention of the police, as was the fact that six days before the murder he had related a fantasy about a young boy being abducted and strangled to death during a phone call with his mother. Andrew Bailey told police that Watson had a morbid interest in child murder and had regularly visited Rikki Neave despite claiming never to have met him. Despite this, police did not arrest Watson, as they were fixated on the idea that Rikki's mother Ruth Neave was the killer and had killed Rikki in the house the night before, reported him missing and then dumped his body in the woods during the search. She was charged with the murder but was acquitted, being sentenced to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to child abuse.
Over the next 22 years, the case was reviewed twice. On neither occasion was unidentified DNA on Rikki's clothes tested. Much of the evidence was destroyed in a fire, including Rikki's clothes. However, a third case review was launched in 2016. The theory that Ruth Neave was the killer was finally disproved by soil samples on Rikki's shoes which proved Rikki had walked into the woods and evidence that he had had breakfast on the day of his murder, meaning he must have been killed on 28 November. DNA samples were finally tested, having been obtained from the envelope in which the clothes were kept during the investigation. The DNA was a one-in-a-billion match for James Watson, who was arrested. He was released on bail on 20 April, after which he fled to Portugal. He contacted his probation officer from Portugal but remained there until he was arrested in August and extradited back to Britain.
Despite the DNA evidence, the Crown Prosecution Service refused to charge Watson. He remained at large until 2020, when an appeal against the decision by Ruth Neave ruled there was a reasonable prospect of conviction. Watson was charged with murder. He claimed in his defence that he had walked with Rikki into the woods but had left him alive; the DNA, Watson claimed, had been from where he had lifted him up so he could see over a fence. This claim was demolished when the prosecution proved the fence had not been there in 1994. Watson was ultimately convicted on 21 April 2022 and sentenced to a minimum of 15 years in prison on 24 June.