Colin Pitchfork (born March 23, 1960) is a British double child-murderer and rapist. He was the first person convicted of
rape and murder using
DNA profiling
DNA profiling (also called DNA fingerprinting) is the process of determining an individual's DNA characteristics. DNA analysis intended to identify a species, rather than an individual, is called DNA barcoding.
DNA profiling is a forensic tec ...
after he
murdered
Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, especially the c ...
two girls in neighbouring
Leicestershire
Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...
villages, the first in
Narborough, in November 1983, and the second in
Enderby in July 1986. He was arrested on 19 September 1987 and was sentenced to
life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...
on 22 January 1988 after pleading guilty to both murders, with the judge giving him a 30-year minimum term (only for Pitchfork to challenge the minimum term and see it reduced to 28 years on appeal). He was granted parole in June 2021, and was released on licence on 1 September that year. On 19 November the same year, he was recalled to prison for
breach of licence
Breach, Breached, or The Breach may refer to:
Places
* Breach, Kent, United Kingdom
* Breach, West Sussex, United Kingdom
* ''The Breach'', Great South Bay in the State of New York
People
*Breach (DJ), an Electronic/House music act
*Miroslava Br ...
conditions.
Life
Pitchfork lived in
Newbold Verdon
Newbold Verdon is a village and civil parish in the county of Leicestershire, England. The parish includes Newbold Heath to the north and Brascote to the south. Originally an agricultural centre Newbold Verdon grew in size during the 1850s with ...
, attending school in
Market Bosworth
Market Bosworth is a market town and civil parish in western Leicestershire, England. At the 2001 Census, it had a population of 1,906, increasing to 2,097 at the 2011 census. It is most famously near to the site of the decisive final battle of ...
and
Desford
Desford is a village and civil parish in the Hinckley and Bosworth district, west of the centre of Leicester and around 7 miles north east of Hinckley. Situated on a hill approximately 400 feet above sea level, the parish includes the hamlets ...
, until his marriage in 1981 to a social worker,
after which he lived in
Littlethorpe. The Pitchforks had two sons.
Before his marriage, Pitchfork had been convicted of
indecent exposure
Indecent exposure is the deliberate public exposure by a person of a portion of their body in a manner contrary to local standards of appropriate behavior. Laws and social attitudes regarding indecent exposure vary significantly in different ...
and had been referred for therapy to the
Carlton Hayes Hospital,
Narborough.
Pitchfork had obtained work in Hampshires Bakery in Leicester, in 1976, as an apprentice. He continued to work there until his arrest for the murders. He became particularly skilled as a sculptor of
cake decorations and had hoped, eventually, to start his own cake decorating business. According to his supervisor, he was "a good worker and time-keeper, but he was moody... and he couldn't leave women employees alone. He was always chatting them up."
Crimes
On 21 November 1983, 15-year-old Lynda Mann took a shortcut on her way home from babysitting instead of taking her normal route home. She did not return and her parents and neighbours spent the night searching for her. The next morning, she was found raped and strangled on a deserted footpath known locally as the Black Pad. Using
forensic science
Forensic science, also known as criminalistics, is the application of science to criminal and civil laws, mainly—on the criminal side—during criminal investigation, as governed by the legal standards of admissible evidence and criminal ...
techniques available at the time, police linked a
semen
Semen, also known as seminal fluid, is an organic bodily fluid created to contain spermatozoa. It is secreted by the gonads (sexual glands) and other sexual organs of male or hermaphroditic animals and can fertilize the female ovum. Semen i ...
sample taken from her body to a person with
type A blood
The ABO blood group system is used to denote the presence of one, both, or neither of the A and B antigens on erythrocytes. For human blood transfusions, it is the most important of the 43 different blood type (or group) classification system ...
and an
enzyme
Enzymes () are proteins that act as biological catalysts by accelerating chemical reactions. The molecules upon which enzymes may act are called substrates, and the enzyme converts the substrates into different molecules known as products. A ...
profile that matched only 10% of males. With no other leads or
evidence
Evidence for a proposition is what supports this proposition. It is usually understood as an indication that the supported proposition is true. What role evidence plays and how it is conceived varies from field to field.
In epistemology, evidenc ...
, the case was left open.
On 31 July 1986, a second 15-year-old girl, Dawn Ashworth, left her home to visit a friend's house. Her parents expected her to return at 9:30 pm; when she failed to do so they called police to report her missing. Two days later, her body was found in a wooded area near a footpath called Ten Pound Lane. She had been beaten, savagely raped and strangled. The ''
modus operandi
A ''modus operandi'' (often shortened to M.O.) is someone's habits of working, particularly in the context of business or criminal investigations, but also more generally. It is a Latin phrase, approximately translated as "mode (or manner) of op ...
'' matched that of the first attack, and semen samples revealed the same
blood type
A blood type (also known as a blood group) is a classification of blood, based on the presence and absence of antibodies and inherited antigenic substances on the surface of red blood cells (RBCs). These antigens may be proteins, carbohydrate ...
.
An initial suspect was Richard Buckland, a local 17-year-old with
learning difficulties who, while innocent of both crimes, revealed knowledge of Ashworth's body, and admitted to the Ashworth crime under questioning, denying the first murder.
DNA profiling
In 1985,
Alec Jeffreys
Sir Alec John Jeffreys, (born 9 January 1950) is a British geneticist known for developing techniques for genetic fingerprinting and DNA profiling which are now used worldwide in forensic science to assist police detective work and to resolv ...
, a genetics researcher at the
University of Leicester
, mottoeng = So that they may have life
, established =
, type = public research university
, endowment = £20.0 million
, budget = £326 million
, chancellor = David Willetts
, vice_chancellor = Nishan Canagarajah
, head_labe ...
, developed
DNA profiling
DNA profiling (also called DNA fingerprinting) is the process of determining an individual's DNA characteristics. DNA analysis intended to identify a species, rather than an individual, is called DNA barcoding.
DNA profiling is a forensic tec ...
along with Peter Gill and Dave Werrett of the
Forensic Science Service
The Forensic Science Service (FSS) was a government-owned company in the United Kingdom which provided forensic science services to the police forces and government agencies of England and Wales, as well as other countries.
The UK Government a ...
(FSS).
Gill commented:
Using this technique, Jeffreys compared semen samples from both murder victims against a blood sample from Buckland and conclusively proved that both girls were killed by the same man but not by Buckland. Buckland became the first person to have his innocence established by DNA fingerprinting.
Jeffreys later said:
Leicestershire Constabulary
Leicestershire Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing Leicestershire and Rutland in England. Its headquarters are at Enderby, Leicestershire.
History
Leicestershire Police was formed in 1839. In 1951 it amalgamated ...
and the FSS then undertook an investigation in which more than 5,500 local men were asked to volunteer blood or saliva samples.
This took six months, and no matches were found.
Arrest and conviction
On 1 August 1987, one of Pitchfork's colleagues at the bakery, Ian Kelly, revealed to fellow workers in a Leicester pub (The Clarendon) that he had taken the blood test while masquerading as Pitchfork. Pitchfork had told Kelly that he wanted to avoid being harassed by police because of prior convictions for indecent exposure. A woman who overheard the conversation reported it to police.
On 19 September 1987, Pitchfork was arrested. During questioning, Pitchfork admitted to
exposing himself to more than 1,000 women, a compulsion that began in his early teens. He later progressed to
sexual assault
Sexual assault is an act in which one intentionally sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their will. It is a form of sexual violence, which ...
and then to strangling his victims. Pitchfork said this was in order to protect his identity. The Crown rejected this, viewing the motivation for the strangulations as ‘perverted sadism’.
During his interviews with the police he admitted his crimes, but lied about the level and nature of the violence he had inflicted on his victims. He pleaded guilty to the two rapes and murders in addition to another incident of sexual assault, and was sentenced to
life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...
.
A psychiatric report prepared for the Court described Pitchfork as possessing a
psychopathic personality disorder
Psychopathy, sometimes considered synonymous with sociopathy, is characterized by persistent Anti-social behaviour, antisocial behavior, impaired empathy and remorse, and Boldness, bold, Disinhibition, disinhibited, and Egotism, egotistical B ...
accompanied with a serious psycho sexual pathology.
The
Lord Chief Justice
Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or are ...
at the time of his sentencing said: "From the point of view of the safety of the public I doubt if he should ever be released."
The
Secretary of State set a
minimum term
Mandatory sentencing requires that offenders serve a predefined term for certain crimes, commonly serious and violent offenses. Judges are bound by law; these sentences are produced through the legislature, not the judicial system. They are inst ...
of 30 years; in 2009, Pitchfork's minimum term sentence was reduced on appeal to 28 years.
Parole reviews
On 22 April 2016, the
Parole Board for England and Wales
The Parole Board for England and Wales () was established in 1968 under the Criminal Justice Act 1967. It became an independent executive non-departmental public body (NDPB) on 1 July 1996 under the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994. The ...
heard Pitchfork's case for early release on
parole
Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or ...
.
Pitchfork's advocates presented evidence of his improved character, noting that Pitchfork had furthered his education to degree level and had become expert at the transcription of printed music into
braille
Braille (Pronounced: ) is a tactile writing system used by people who are visually impaired, including people who are Blindness, blind, Deafblindness, deafblind or who have low vision. It can be read either on Paper embossing, embossed paper ...
, for the benefit of the
blind.
The families of victims Lynda Mann and Dawn Ashworth opposed his release on parole.
On 29 April 2016, the Parole Board announced that Pitchfork's application for release on licence had been refused, but recommended that he be moved to an
open prison
An open prison (open jail) is any jail in which the prisoners are trusted to complete sentences with minimal supervision and perimeter security and are often not locked up in their prison cells. Prisoners may be permitted to take up employment w ...
.
In June 2016,
Michael Gove
Michael Andrew Gove (; born Graeme Andrew Logan, 26 August 1967) is a British politician serving as Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Minister for Intergovernmental Relations since 2021. He has been Member of Parli ...
, then
Justice Secretary, agreed with the board's recommendation, and at some point prior to 8 January 2017, Pitchfork was moved to an undisclosed open prison.
In November 2017, Pitchfork was seen walking around
Bristol
Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...
, so it was assumed that he had been moved to
HM Prison Leyhill
HM Prison Leyhill is a Category D men's prison, located in the parish of Tortworth in Gloucestershire, England. Leyhill Prison is operated by His Majesty's Prison Service.
History
Leyhill Prison was originally a United States military hospital ...
in
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean.
The county town is the city of Gl ...
.
On 3 May 2018, Pitchfork was refused release on licence. The Parole Board said Pitchfork would be eligible for a further review within two years. Lynda's mother said the Parole Board had "listened to us before the murderer". In 2017, it emerged Pitchfork would be released from open prison on unsupervised days out.
2021: release and recall
On 7 June 2021, Pitchfork was granted release on conditional licence. However, under the terms of the Parole Board Reconsideration Mechanism, introduced in 2019, the Secretary of State for Justice,
Robert Buckland
Sir Robert James Buckland (born 22 September 1968) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Wales from July to October 2022. He previously served as Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor from 2019 to 2021. A me ...
, had a short time to apply for a review if it was believed the decision was "procedurally unfair" or "irrational". Buckland did apply for a review, and Pitchfork remained in custody pending the outcome. On 13 July 2021 it was reported that the review had been refused and that Pitchfork would therefore be released.
He was released on 1 September 2021.
In November 2021, Pitchfork was recalled to prison for breaching his licence conditions by "approaching young women" while on walks from his bail hostel, although he had committed no offences since his release.
His second victim's mother, Barbara Ashworth, told
BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...
that she was pleased "he's been put away and women and girls are safe and protected from him now". There are complaints that the Parole Board was insufficiently cautious in allowing Pitchfork's release.
Dominic Raab
Dominic Rennie Raab (; born 25 February 1974) is a British politician who has served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Secretary of State for Justice, and Lord Chancellor since October 2022, having previously served from 2021 to ...
has promised a Parole Board review. David Baker, a former police detective who helped capture Pitchfork, believes Pitchfork could deceive the Parole Board and pretend it was safe to release him. Baker maintains Pitchfork is a
psychopath
Psychopathy, sometimes considered synonymous with sociopathy, is characterized by persistent Anti-social behaviour, antisocial behavior, impaired empathy and remorse, and Boldness, bold, Disinhibition, disinhibited, and Egotism, egotistical B ...
and it will never be safe to release him.
2022: consideration for release
In autumn 2022 the Parole Board is to consider releasing Pitchfork again. The options available will be to refuse his release, grant release or recommend he moves from a closed prison to an open prison. Local
MP Alberto Costa opposes releasing Pitchfork.
Artwork
In April 2009, a sculpture that Pitchfork had created in prison and which was exhibited at the
Royal Festival Hall
The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,700-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge, in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is a Grade I l ...
, ''Bringing the Music to Life'', depicted an orchestra and choir. The sculpture was exhibited as part of a venture by the
Koestler Trust
Koestler Arts (formerly The Koestler Trust) is a charity which helps ex-offenders, secure patients and detainees in the UK to express themselves creatively. It promotes the arts in prisons, secure hospitals, immigration centres and in the commun ...
, having been purchased by the Festival Hall for £600. Following outrage in the papers and from victim-advocate groups, it was removed from display.
Drama
The killings features in a 2002 episode of ''
Real Crime
''Real Crime'' is a British documentary television series produced by ITV Studios for the ITV (TV network), ITV network. Each episode examines a notorious crime and includes interviews with relatives of the victims. It was broadcast from 2001 to ...
'' "Cracking the Killer's Code". Pitchfork was played by
John Duttine
John Arthur Duttine (born 15 March 1949) is an English actor noted for his roles on stage, films and television. He is well known for his role as Sgt George Miller in '' Heartbeat'' and also Bill Masen in the TV series ''The Day of the Triffid ...
.
In 2014,
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
commissioned a two-part television drama, ''
Code of a Killer'', based on Pitchfork's crimes and the creation of DNA profiling. It starred
John Simm
John Ronald Simm (born 10 July 1970) is an English actor, director, and musician. He is best known for playing Sam Tyler in ''Life on Mars'', the Master in ''Doctor Who,'' and DS Roy Grace in ''Grace.'' His other television credits include '' S ...
as researcher
Alec Jeffreys
Sir Alec John Jeffreys, (born 9 January 1950) is a British geneticist known for developing techniques for genetic fingerprinting and DNA profiling which are now used worldwide in forensic science to assist police detective work and to resolv ...
and
David Threlfall
David John Threlfall (born 12 October 1953) is an English stage, film and television actor and director. He is best known for playing Frank Gallagher in Channel 4's series '' Shameless''. He has also directed several episodes of the show. In Ap ...
as David Baker, the lead police detective. Pitchfork was played by
Nathan Wright. The drama was the first broadcast in two 90-minute episodes, on 6 and 13 April 2015. It was subsequently reformatted as three episodes and released on DVD.
The ''
New Tricks
''New Tricks'' is a British television police procedural
The police show, or police crime drama, is a subgenre of procedural drama and detective fiction that emphasizes the investigative procedure of a police officer or department as the ...
'' episode "Dark Chocolate" refers to Pitchfork several times and it is ultimately the similarities between Pitchfork's case and the case the UCOS team are currently investigating that leads to the criminal's arrest.
Pitchfork's crimes are also the focus of an episode of the Sky series ''How I Caught the Killer''.
See also
*
Beenham murders
The Beenham murders were the murders of a teenage girl and two 9-year-old girls in the Berkshire village of Beenham in 1966 and 1967. Local man David Burgess was found guilty of two murders in 1967—for which he was handed down two life sentences ...
– led to one of the first voluntary mass blood tests in UK criminal history in 1966, and led to a similar outcome as in the Pitchfork case when the killer originally avoided the test before eventually being caught
*
Kirk Bloodsworth Kirk Noble Bloodsworth (born October 31, 1960) is a former Maryland waterman and the first American sentenced to death to be exonerated post-conviction by DNA testing.
He had been wrongfully convicted in 1985 of the 1984 rape and first-degree mur ...
– the first American sentenced to
death
Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...
to be exonerated post-conviction by
DNA testing
*
Patrick Mackay
David Groves, better known by his birth name Patrick David Mackay (born 25 September 1952), is a British serial killer who is believed to be one of the United Kingdom's most prolific serial murderers. He confessed to murdering thirteen pe ...
– a British serial killer who confessed to have murdered up to 13 people, who has been considered for release since 1995
*
Allan Grimson
Allan Michael Grimson (born 1958) is a convicted British murderer and suspected serial killer who is responsible for murdering at least two Royal Navy sailors and who is suspected of killing many others, possibly up to another 20 undiscovered vic ...
– British double murderer believed to have murdered up to 22 people, whose release is imminent
*
John Cannan
John David Guise Cannan (born 20 February 1954) is a British murderer, serial rapist, serial abductor and suspected serial killer. A former car salesman, Cannan was convicted in July 1988 of murder and multiple sexual offences, abductions and ...
– murderer and suspected killer of
Suzy Lamplugh
Suzy may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Suzy'' (film), a 1936 film starring Jean Harlow, Franchot Tone and Cary Grant
* "Suzy" (Fool's Garden song), a song by German pop band Fool's Garden
* "Suzy", a song by French electro swing band Ca ...
, eligible for parole in 2022
UK cold cases where the offender's DNA is now known:
*
Murder of Deborah Linsley
On the afternoon of 23 March 1988, Deborah Linsley was murdered on a train between Petts Wood and London Victoria stations in Greater London. Although there were about 70 people on the train, and Linsley apparently fought and injured her attac ...
*
Murders of Eve Stratford and Lynne Weedon
Eve Stratford and Lynne Weedon were murdered in separate, sexually motivated attacks during 1975 in London, England. Stratford (28 December 1953 – 18 March 1975) was a bunny girl and model. Weedon (11 November 1958 – 10 Septembe ...
*
Murders of Jacqueline Ansell-Lamb and Barbara Mayo
Jacqueline Susan Ansell-Lamb (21 September 1951 – 14 March 1970) and Barbara Janet Mayo (20 March 1946 – 12 October 1970) were two young women who were murdered in separate incidents in 1970. Both women were last seen hitch-hiking a ...
*
Murder of Lindsay Rimer
Lindsay Jo Rimer (17 February 1981 – ''ca.''7 November 1994) was a thirteen-year-old British girl from Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, who was murdered. She was last seen alive buying cornflakes at a SPAR shop on Crown Street in Hebden Bridg ...
*
Murder of Lyn Bryant
*
Murder of Janet Brown
Janet Brown (27 January 1944 – 10 April 1995) was an English nurse who was murdered by an intruder in her house in Radnage, Buckinghamshire in 1995. The case remains unsolved, and the investigation remains open. Links have also been suggested b ...
*
Murder of Linda Cook
The murder of Linda Cook was committed in Portsmouth on 9 December 1986. The subsequent trial led to a miscarriage of justice when Michael Shirley, an 18-year-old Royal Navy sailor, was wrongly convicted of the crime and sentenced to life impriso ...
*
Murder of Melanie Hall
Melanie Hall (20 August 1970 – disappeared 9 June 1996; declared legally dead 17 November 2004) was a British hospital clerical officer from Bradford on Avon, who disappeared on 9 June 1996, following a night out at Cadillacs nightclub in B ...
*
Batman rapist
The Batman rapist is an unidentified English serial sex offender who committed at least seventeen sexual assaults on women in the city of Bath, Somerset, between 1991 and 2000. He is the subject of Britain's longest–running serial rape investi ...
, subject to Britain's longest-running serial rape investigation
References
Cited works and further reading
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pitchfork, Colin
1961 births
Living people
1983 in England
1983 murders in the United Kingdom
1986 in England
1986 murders in the United Kingdom
20th-century English criminals
Blaby
British people convicted of sexual assault
Criminals from Leicestershire
English murderers of children
English people convicted of murder
English people convicted of rape
English prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment
People convicted of murder by England and Wales
People from Hinckley and Bosworth (district)
Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by England and Wales
Rape in the 1980s