It was the first time that fingerprinting had been the biggest factor in finding the killer and it saw police take the clinical records of 40,000 people in Blackburn. [2], To solve the crime, police obtained the fingerprints of every male aged 16 and over who had been in the vicinity of Blackburn on the night of 14-15 May and compared them to those left at the crime scene by the perpetrator. A Crimean war hero and his superior were shot down and killed in cold blood, shattering the silence of Fulwood with rifle fire. It's set to be another busy year for Lancashire's courts with 13 murder cases already listed during 2021. . Clark was found guilty. Peter Griffiths who murdered and raped a three-year-old girl in 1948. He was tried before Mr. Justice Oliver at the assize court of Lancaster,[19] and chose to enter a formal plea of not guilty to the charge of murder on this date.[35]. A man who would have been frustrated by the glacial speeds of demobilisation, by being unable to do things men of his age could and possibly not at ease with moving back into his parents home. 5. . Aya Hachem, 19, was "in the wrong place at the wrong time" when she was killed in the. They were only able to identify the man three weeks after he was fished out of the water when his former beauty queen girlfriend Julie Hue walked into Leyland police station to inform them. They were only able to identify the man three weeks after he was fished out of the water when his former beauty queen girlfriend Julie Hue walked into Leyland police station to inform them. [33] Fibres from a pair of red and blue socks belonging to Griffiths were also discovered to be a perfect match for those retrieved from the footprints upon the waxed floor of Ward CH3. 05 August 2021. 05 August 2021. He and Paul scanned the Dail Mail for Jan 17th. As LancsLive's resident historian I have been researching the lesser known murders and true crime incidents that have stained Blackpool, Burnley and Blackburn's history red with blood. The murder of June Anne Devaney is a British child murder which occurred on 15 May 1948 when a girl aged 3 years 11 months was abducted from her cot while an inpatient at Queen's Park Hospital in Blackburn, Lancashire. On the day after the 22-year-old lost Date of imprint from date of execution, August 14, 1876 -- Capital Punishment UK site via WWW, viewed January 8, 2008. Four men jailed for life over machete murder in Blackburn. He then proceeded to carry out the act on himself. The police who found the duo said the house looked like a "slaughterhouse." Shortly after midnight on Saturday, May 15, a nurse called Gwendolyn Humphreys was doing the rounds when she heard the cry of a young child come from CH3. Det Insp Mark Dickinson said Mr Scott's death was being treated as an "isolated incident and there is not thought to be a wider threat to the public". At 4:20a.m., the chief constable of Blackburn Police contacted Scotland Yard, seeking the assistance of an experienced investigator, whoalongside a sergeantcaught the 6:20a.m. train from Euston to Blackburn. Miao Chung-yi with his wife Sui Wai Shueng in 1928. A killer who stabbed a father-of-two barely 24 hours after he had knifed another man has been jailed for life. As always you can unsubscribe at any time. After Henry's death, Montague declined to live at Samlesbury, but it was agreed that his brother, FitzRoy Lewis Montague Johnstone, would reside there instead. Contact our newsdesk on lancslive@reachplc.com. [17] Shortly after 3p.m. the following day, a comparison for the fingerprints upon the Winchester bottle was made with the fingerprints obtained from Peter Griffiths. : . It was the first time that fingerprinting had been the biggest factor in finding the killer and it saw police take the clinical records of 40,000 people in Blackburn. A murder inquiry has begun after a woman who was hit by a car in a "dreadful" and "deliberate" act died. Little did they know that Griffith had confessed to the shocking crime in detail. Police collected this suit, only for the police forensics laboratory to discover that it bore bloodstains in several locations on both the jacket and trousers. After 30 minutes of fruitless searching, staff contacted the local police, who arrived at 1:55am and immediately began a search of the hospital and its grounds. One Lieutenant Holt returned from the First World War injured and shell shocked. [1] [2] Aya Hachem was a University of Salford law student from Lebanon who moved to the UK in 2011. The ward where June was taken from, her cot is the second one on the left, on the floor you can see white marks where bare feet had made an impression on the waxed floor. Her murderer, 22-year-old Peter Griffiths, was arrested three months after the crime and was subsequently tried and convicted of June Anne's murder. The murder of June Anne Devaney is a British child murder which occurred on 15 May 1948 when a girl aged 3 years 11 months was abducted from her cot while an inpatient at Queen's Park Hospital in Blackburn, Lancashire. We would encourage you not to read this before you go to bed We kick off our list with a murder that sent ripples through Victorian Blackburn, making headlines across England and shocking the authorities. Evie Adams, 23, died in October 2019 in Blackburn, Lancashire. Her partner, construction worker Jordan Monaghan, 29, has been charged with her. The mystery of who the killer was led police down a winding path towards a mass fingerprint campaign across the town with months of processing prints leading officers to the door of one Peter Griffiths. She was placed in the CH3 ward but was due to be released on May 15. Having been a drifter before the war, he returned to England as a one-legged wanderer, without a profession or a place to properly settle. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. This article is more than 3 years old. She was only three years and 11 months old when she was taken and murdered in Blackburn Lancashire. 'Maniac killer steals victim from hospital' was the front page headline of the Manchester Evening News on Saturday, May 15, 1948. Lancashire News Lancashire The Blackpool Ripper, Blackburn's Sweeney Todd, and Dr Ruxton - Lancashire's most notorious murderers A bathtub used by one infamous murderer is now a horse trough at Lancashire Constabulary News By Dominic Moffitt 17:25, 1 NOV 2020 Updated 17:49, 1 NOV 2020 The north west may seem like an idyllic place to live. Officers were called. As Griffiths had already admitted to his crime,[36] all that remained was a question of his sanity, and as such, the defence had entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. Paul Anthony Allen (left) and Gwynne Owen Evans (right) the Preston man were the last to be hanged in Britain. Horror doctors, poisonous spinsters, wife killers and more. Chatwood, 26, of Walsh Street, Blackburn, was found guilty of the manslaughter of Ms McBlain and not guilty of the attempted murder of the 28-year-old man. The death of a secret millionaire by the name of Ruth Clarkson in 1936 came as a shock to the whole of Nelson. Det Supt Andy Cribbin of Lancashire Police said . News By Dominic Moffitt 17:00, 27 OCT 2019 Peter Griffiths who murdered and raped a three-year-old girl in 1948. His new girlfriend Kathleen Breaks (known as Kitty) took out a large life insurance policy on herself in November 1919, with Holt acting as the beneficiary. He showed no remorse for he did, blaming his intoxicated state but did end his formal statement with a sentence indicating he wished to behangedfor his crime. . The Blackpool killer had stabbed his wife to death after she had called for a separation order in 1903. The most common crimes in Blackburn are violence and sexual offences, with 5,620 offences during 2021, giving a crime rate of 46. It was here that he met a woman and fell deeply in love. Latest Blackburn news, including the latest headlines on crime, weather, property, employment, local news and much more on the Lancashire town. On Tuesday May 25, the Manchester Evening News published an article saying that 16 schoolchildren from Blackburn had to be escorted to school as their parents had refused to let them walk alone along a path that would take them through the grounds of Queen's Park Hospital. Below are these incidents broken down by category. Alison McBlain, 36, was struck by a car mounted the pavement on Whalley Banks,. It was clear from that point on that someone had taken her out. The individuals traced included ambulance drivers, nurses' boyfriends, electricians, and tradesmen. It looked as though she had been partly conscious when her attacker left her bleeding in a pasturage. It had been almost a month since June had been found dead and still the police were no closer to finding the killer. He and Paul scanned the Dail Mail for Jan 17th. A man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after a woman suffered "multiple stab wounds" in an attack. Lancashire Police said Mr Scott, from Preston, died in hospital. Video, At the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece, Record numbers of guide dog volunteers after BBC story. On May 15th, 1948 June Anne Devaney was abducted from her cot while she was a patient at Queen's park hospital in Blackburn. Lee Kenyon, 35, stabbed Jim Murray, 51, in the chest after a row in Largs Road in Blackburn, Lancashire on 2 October. On May 18, the Manchester Evening News reported that police had . Mysteriously three of his wives died relatively young and through botched post-mortems, signing death certificates, lies and inquests he was able to escape the authorities. As always you can unsubscribe at any time. The mangled corpse of a nine-year-old girl was found near Witton Park on Tuesday . [7] She was placed in Ward CH3 of the premises, being under the supervision of nurse Gwendolyn Humphreys at night. We also may change the frequency you receive our emails from us in order to keep you up to date and give you the best relevant information possible. He would hand himself in to Burnley police station admitting to the crime and telling officers: "I don't know what made me do it.". His lawyer pleaded insanity on the part of Wren but, like so many cases at the time, this was ignored. The sentence of the Court is that you be taken from this place to a lawful prison and thence to a place of execution, and that you there suffer death by hanging from the neck until you are dead. Within two days of discovering June's body, police were scouring the Lancashire moors around Blackburn and were watching the roads. There is nothing profoundly unusual or strange that can be found about the life of Peter Griffiths before 1948. Dr Ruxton not only killed the pair after growing increasingly jealous of his wife and her supposed affair, but set out about dismembering them. As such, the area where June Anne's body was discovered was promptly cordoned off, the hospital became a crime scene, and the entire ward was secured and searched. Queens Park Hospital in Blackburn, June was taken from the ward and murdered on the other side of the building. On Monday night, police arrested three brothers - Feroz, 39, Suhayl, 36, and Nadeem Suleman, 33, all from Blackburn - on suspicion of murder. Nigel Scott, 58, was discovered unconscious on the pavement in Clarendon Road East, Blackburn shortly after 10:00 GMT on Sunday. Miao was hanged for the murder in 1928 but the crime still fascinated the public. Of these persons, 642 had specific access to the children's ward. 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