Suzanne Capper's Murderers

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Suzanne's Capper's Murderers are six individuals who kidnapped, tortured, and murdered 16-year old Suzanne Capper in Greater Manchester, England in December 1992.

Murderers edit

Bernadette McNeilly
Jean Powell
Glyn Powell
Jeffrey Leigh
Anthony Michael Dudson
Clifford Pook

Background edit

At trial, it emerged that Capper had been kidnapped for "insubstantial, even trivial" reasons: Jean Powell claimed that Capper had tried to persuade her to sleep with a man for money; McNeilly and Dudson had contracted pubic lice which they believed were from a bed that Capper had also used; and McNeilly believed that she had taken a pink duffle coat that belonged to her. In November 1992, when Dudson had contracted pubic lice and had his pubic hair shaved, McNeilly told him she thought that he had caught them from Capper.

On December 7^th, 1992, Capper was lured to Jean Powell's home, where Glyn Powell and Dudson were already waiting. She was grabbed as soon as she arrived and held down while Glyn Powell shaved her head and her eyebrows and then made her clean up the hair and place it in a bin. Then he placed a plastic bag over her head and walked around her while hitting her on the head. She was then kicked by Jean Powell and McNeilly as she lay curled up on the floor and both women took turns beating her with a three-foot-long (1 m) wooden instrument and a belt. She was then taken to the bathroom and forced to shave off her own pubic hair as "ritual humiliation in revenge for having caused, as they claimed, Dudson and McNeilly themselves to be shaved."

Afterwards Jean Powell locked her in a cupboard overnight. The following morning she was taken upstairs and locked in another cupboard. On 8 December she was transferred to McNeilly's house because of concern that Powell and McNeilly's six children were disturbed by Capper's crying. There she was tied spreadeagle to an upturned bed with electrical flex in a downstairs back room.

Over the next five days Capper was subjected to a series of violent acts, "increasing in severity and brutality as the time passed." She was regularly beaten and injected with amphetamines, burned with cigarettes, and had rave music—in particular "Hi, I'm Chucky (Wanna Play?)" by 150 Volts, featuring samples from the movie Child's Play—played at maximum volume through headphones. McNeilly would commence each torture session with the phrase "Chucky’s coming to play" and soon the words themselves were enough to make Capper scream.

At some point during the week Pook and Leigh called at the house and were shown Capper, blindfolded and gagged, tied to the bed. By this time, Capper had been lying in her own urine and feces for several days and was placed in a bath containing concentrated disinfectant and scrubbed with a stiff brush with sufficient force to remove skin. Pook then used pliers to extract two of her teeth, which police later found at his house "like some kind of macabre trophy." Dudson said: "I was stood at the doorway with Jeanie [Powell] and Bernie [McNeilly]. Cliff [Pook] took her gag off. He told her to open her mouth. He said: 'Right, I'm going to rip your teeth out'. He started hitting her teeth with the pliers. He got the pliers on and started pulling it out. But it just snapped and chipped. Then he hit them a few more times. He put the pliers on again and really, really pulled. He pulled Suzanne's head forward until there was a snap and he had the tooth in the pliers. He did the same again and he was laughing.

File:5TN2 H.jpg

Suzanne Capper.

In the early hours of December 14^th, 1992, Capper was forced into the boot of a stolen white Fiat Panda car and driven 15 miles (25 km) to a narrow lane at Werneth Low near Romiley, on the outskirts of Stockport. In the car were McNeilly, the Powells and Dudson. McNeilly "giggled" as they made the journey. Capper was pushed down an embankment into a patch of brambles and then McNeilly poured petrol over her. Powell stated: "Suzanne was still wobbly and fell over. Bernie [McNeilly] said 'Get up.' Bernie pushed her down the hill and poured petrol on her." When McNeilly had difficulty getting the petrol to ignite, Glyn Powell asked Dudson for some paper, who handed him a folded envelope which Powell then attempted to light and use as a taper. After three failed attempts, Dudson said: "In the end he just went up to her with a lighter and lit her. He lit her on the back. She went straight up in flames and was screaming. The flames lit up the whole forest."

Capper had not died immediately as her murderers believed, and after they left she managed to scramble back up the embankment and stagger along the lane for approximately a quarter of a mile (400 metres) to Compstall Road before being found at 06:10 by Barry Sutcliffe and two of his colleagues on their way to work. She told them: "Over there, in the field. They burnt me, they put petrol on me." They immediately took her to a nearby house and roused the residents, Michael and Margaret Coop, to call for an ambulance. Capper was rushed to the hospital and was able to give the names of her six assailants and Powell's address before falling into a coma. The extent of her burns was such that her mother and stepfather were unable to recognise her, and she was positively identified by a partial fingerprint from her thumb, the only part of her hands not severely burned. She died on December 18^th, 1992, without regaining consciousness.

Aftermath edit

All six were found guilty of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm, and false imprisonment. McNeilly and both Glyn and Jean Powell were sentenced to life imprisonment with a maximum of 25 years before they would be eligible for parole. Leigh received 12 years. Pook received 15 years, and Dodson received indefinite detainment with a minimum of 18 years served.