Steven John Grieveson (born 14 December 1970) is a British

serial killer A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A * * * * with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...

known as the Sunderland Strangler, who murdered four teenage boys in a series of killings committed between 1990 and 1994 in

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

, England. Convicted of three counts of murder at

Leeds Crown Court Leeds Crown Court, more accurately the Crown Court at Leeds, is a venue of the Crown Court in West Yorkshire, England. The buildings are situated on Westgate in Leeds city centre, adjacent to Leeds magistrates courts. Notable cases As Leeds As ...

, Grieveson was handed three life sentences on 28 February 1996, with a recommendation that he serve a minimum of 35 years before the

Home Secretary The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national ...

considers his eligibility for release. In October 2013, Grieveson was convicted of the 1990 murder of 14-year-old Simon Martin at

Newcastle Crown Court Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England * Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastl ...

, and handed a fourth life sentence. He is incarcerated at HMP Full Sutton maximum security prison in the

East Riding of Yorkshire The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a ceremonial county and unitary authority area in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, South Yorkshire to t ...

, England. Grieveson became known as the ''Sunderland Strangler'' due to the city in which he committed his murders, and his preferred murder method of

ligature strangulation Strangling is compression of the neck that may lead to unconsciousness or death by causing an increasingly hypoxia (medical), hypoxic state in the brain. Fatal strangling typically occurs in cases of violence, accidents, and is one of two mai ...

Murders and trial

On 26 November 1993, Grieveson murdered 18-year-old Thomas Kelly in an abandoned allotment shed in

Fulwell, Sunderland Fulwell is an affluent area and former civil parish in the City of Sunderland. The parish was abolished in 1928 as a result of the Sunderland Corporation Act 1927, and the area incorporated into the former County Borough of Sunderland. It bor ...

. His body was set on fire. On 4 February 1994, he murdered 15-year-old David Hanson in Roker Terrace, before finally murdering 15-year-old David Grieff on 25 February 1994 in an abandoned Fulwell allotment just 50 yards from where he had killed Thomas Kelly three months earlier. All three victims were pupils or former pupils of

Monkwearmouth Academy Monkwearmouth Academy is a state secondary school in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, England, for pupils aged between 11 and 16. The most recent inspection report was in October 2013 and resulted in a judgement of good in all four aspects of the i ...

, and suspicion among both law enforcement and the staff and fellow pupils at this school was that all three victims had known their killer—who may have been a present or former student of Monkwearmouth Academy himself. Grieveson was a pupil primarily at Hylton Red House School. Grieveson was initially arrested on 11 March, charged with an attempted burglary at the Roker Terrace household where the charred body of David Hanson had previously been found. Following an extensive investigation, Grieveson was charged with the three murders in November 1995, and faced a six-week trial in 1996 where he was handed three

life sentence 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 ...

s for murder. He was ordered to serve a minimum of 35 years in prison. It was ascertained at this first trial, held at

, that Grieveson murdered the three boys in order to conceal evidence of his

homosexuality Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to peop ...

. When asked their personal feelings towards Steven Grieveson following his conviction, the father of Thomas Kelly stated: "

t is T, or t, is the twentieth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''tee'' (pronounced ), plural ''tees''. It is deri ...

a great relief this monster is off the streets so no other family will have to go through what we faced."

Fourth murder conviction

In November 2000, Grieveson, serving his three life sentences at

Full Sutton Prison HM Prison Full Sutton is a Category A and B men's prison in the village of Full Sutton, near Pocklington in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. Full Sutton is operated by His Majesty's Prison Service, and held some 596 inmates, as of Septe ...

, was arrested and questioned over the May 1990 murder of 14-year-old Simon Martin, who was murdered in Gilside House,

Roker Roker () is a tourist resort and affluent area of Sunderland, North East England, bounded on the south by the River Wear and Monkwearmouth, on the east by the North Sea, to the west by Fulwell and on the north by Seaburn. It is administered ...

. In June 2004, Grieveson wrote a letter to the Victim Liaison Services in which he admitted murdering the three victims killed in 1993 and 1994, but in which he omitted his culpability in the murder of Simon Martin. As such, he was not charged with Martin's murder at the time. On 22 November 2012, however, Grieveson was charged with the murder of Simon Martin, and on 11 February 2013, he admitted being responsible for Martin's death, but denied that this particular murder had been premeditated. He was convicted of Simon Martin's murder on 24 October 2013 following a trial at

Discounted link to other murder

On 20 February 2014, Grieveson was also arrested on suspicion of the 1992 murder of a seven-year-old girl named Nikki Allan, who had been found stabbed to death in a disused warehouse in October 1992. Two years after her death a neighbour, who had confessed to the killing, was acquitted after police were found to have used "oppressive methods" in their questioning. Although Allan was female and had been stabbed to death, the extensive

blunt force trauma Blunt trauma, also known as blunt force trauma or non-penetrating trauma, is physical traumas, and particularly in the elderly who fall. It is contrasted with penetrating trauma which occurs when an object pierces the skin and enters a tissue ...

injuries inflicted to her head had been similar to those Grieveson had inflicted on Simon Martin in 1990. Grieveson was questioned as to his potential involvement, although detectives later stated he was to face no further current action in relation to their ongoing enquiries into Allan's murder. In 2017, police announced they had isolated a complete

DNA profile 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 DNA ...

of Allan's murderer from previous samples, leading to the re-arrest in 2019 of a previous suspect (not Grieveson). In May 2023, 55-year-old David Boyd was found guilty of Allan's murder. Boyd was a convicted child molester; his partner in the early 1990s had been Allan's babysitter.

References

Cited works and further reading

* Baker, Jeanette (1996). ''Triple Horror in Sunderland''. ''Master Detective''. December 1996 issue. * Hall, Steve; Winlow, Simon (2012). ''New Directions in Criminological Theory''. Routledge. pp. 230–231.

External links

* 1996 ''Independent'' news article detailing Grieveson'
initial murder convictions
at Leeds Crown Court
Contemporary BBC news article
detailing Grieveson's 2013 conviction for the murder of Simon Martin *

ITV News ITV News is the branding of news programmes on the British television network ITV. ITV has a long tradition of television news. Independent Television News (ITN) was founded to provide news bulletins for the network in 1955, and has since conti ...