Murder of Suzanne Capper
Encyclopedia
The murder of Suzanne Capper was committed in Greater Manchester
, England in December 1992. Sixteen-year-old Suzanne Jane Capper died in Withington Community Hospital
on 18 December 1992, from multiple organ failure
arising from eighty per cent burns after she was deliberately set on fire on 14 December. Before her death, Capper related that she had previously been kidnapped and kept prisoner for seven days at a house in Moston
, Manchester
, where she was beaten and tortured. She was taken from the house by car, driven into the countryside and forced out of the car virtually naked into a wood at Werneth Low
where petrol was poured over her and she was set alight. The torture and murder arose from the "avenging [of] trivial grievances: a sexual insult, infection with pubic lice
and the loss of a pink duffle coat
."
Detectives conducting the inquiry said that "for sheer mindless brutality" the crime ranked alongside the torture inflicted on children by the Moors murderers
. The case went to trial in November 1993, but received "comparatively little publicity" as it coincided with the trial of Robert Thompson and Jon Venables for the murder of James Bulger
. On 17 December 1993, Jean Powell, aged 26, her ex-husband Glyn Powell, aged 29, and Bernadette McNeilly, aged 24, were sentenced to life imprisonment
for their parts in the murder. Jeffrey Leigh, aged 27, was jailed for twelve years for false imprisonment
. Jean Powell's brother Clifford Pook, aged 18, was sentenced to fifteen years in a Young Offenders' Institution
for false imprisonment and conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm
. Anthony Michael Dudson, who was 16 years old at the time of the murder, was also found guilty of murder and sentenced to be detained at Her Majesty's pleasure
under section 53(1) of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933
.
for Jean Powell since she was ten years old. In 1990 she had spent time in the care of the local authority after her mother, Elizabeth Capper, and her stepfather separated, after which Suzanne and her older sister Michelle stayed with their stepfather. Around this time Capper began to truant
from Moston Brook High School, and her attendance during the final two years of schooling was described as "erratic." Capper increasingly spent her time at Powell's house. Powell lived at 97 Langworthy Road, Moston, a small Victorian
terraced house
, where she also dealt drugs and was involved with the handling of stolen motor vehicles. Michelle Capper had briefly lived with Powell, but moved out in August 1992 because she did not like the "evil new friends" Powell was associating with, particularly Bernadette McNeilly, who had recently moved in three doors away at number 91. McNeilly, who had three children, subsequently moved in with Powell and her three children, where the two shared a bed in the downstairs dining room because the bedrooms were "full of children." Capper continued to stay regularly even though Powell and McNeilly frequently bullied her. Her sister said: "It was not that she was scared of them, it's just that she would do anything for them. She pampered their every whim."
Powell was separated from her husband Glyn, although the two remained friendly and he would visit regularly from his nearby home. McNeilly's boyfriend was 16-year-old Anthony Dudson, who was also having sexual intercourse with Powell. Powell was sexually involved with Jeffrey Leigh, a regular visitor to the house as a purchaser of amphetamine
s. Another frequent visitor to the house was Powell's younger brother, Clifford Pook.
music — in particular a 45-minute long remix of Hi, I'm Chucki (Wanna Play?) by 150 Volts, featuring samples
from the movie Child's Play 3: Look Who's Stalking
— 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 faeces 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."
. In the early hours of 14 December 1992, Capper was forced into the boot
of a stolen white Fiat Panda
car and driven 15 miles 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 bramble
s 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." McNeilly began to sing "Burn baby burn! Burn baby burn!" from the Trammps'
song Disco Inferno
. Believing Capper to be dead, the four returned to Jean Powell's house, stopping to buy canned drinks on the way. Both Leigh and Pook were at the house when they arrived and Dudson stated: "Cliff [Pook] asked Glyn [Powell], 'Have you done it?' Glyn said 'Yes' and he was laughing. He gave Cliff his lighter back."
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 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. Michael Coop said: "Both her hands appeared like ash. Her legs were just like raw meat and her feet appeared to be badly charred. I was struck by how polite the victim was. She was constantly thanking my wife for her assistance." Margaret Coop said: "I instinctively went to put my arms around her but she pulled away because she could not bear to be touched. Her head was shaved and there were recent, not new, cuts to her head. Her face was almost featureless. Her hands were red raw and black at the fingertips. Her legs were red from top to bottom. She couldn't bear anything near her legs." Capper drank six glasses of water, but was unable to hold the glass herself because of the injuries to her hands. Margaret Coop said: "She looked like the victim of an attack in the Vietnam war
. But I felt she would survive. I had this theory that, now she had got to somewhere she could be helped, she would live." 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 18 December 1992, without regaining consciousness.
. At 07:30 on 14 December, he instructed officers to attend 97 Langworthy Road and arrest everyone that they found there. Jean Powell and McNeilly laughed and joked with each other as they were arrested. Initially, all six denied involvement. Under questioning, Dudson, who had been urged by his father to tell the truth, began to talk. D.I. Wall said of Dudson's statement: "As the story began to unfold, we just couldn't believe it. I kept asking myself how one human being could do this to another." Police officers "wept as the extent of Suzanne's suffering was revealed," and together with civilian staff at the station the police collected cash to send flowers to her at the hospital. On 17 December 1992, the six accused appeared before magistrates in Manchester and were remanded into custody charged with kidnapping and attempted murder. Following Capper's death they were charged with her murder on 23 December 1992.
commenced on 16 November 1993, and lasted 22 days. All six denied murder and in their testimonies each defendant tried to minimise their part in the crime. On 24 November, Clifford Pook was cleared of murder on the directions of the judge Mr. Justice Potts. The jury began their deliberations on 16 December 1993, and took nine hours and fifty-two minutes to reach their verdicts. Mr Justice Potts said: "Each of you has been convicted on clear evidence of murder which was as appalling a murder as it is possible to imagine."
Jean Powell
Glyn Powell
Jeffrey Leigh
Anthony Michael Dudson
Clifford Pook
As the sentences were announced two women jurors wept and there were cries of "Yes! Yes!" from the public gallery, which was filled with relatives of the victim. In a statement to the press after the sentencing D.I. Wall said: "Psychological reports say that these are absolutely sane individuals. It's frightening that they are such ordinary people. There is nothing special about any of them."
in 2009.
Jean Powell and McNeilly have been granted leave to have the lengths of their minimum sentences reviewed at the Court of Appeal in June 2012.
, a routine security check in 1996 uncovered letters which revealed McNeilly had been having an affair with the prison governor, Mike Martin. The married officer resigned his position before disciplinary action could be taken. McNeilly, who was sharing a wing with Rosemary West
and Myra Hindley
, was immediately transferred to HM Prison New Hall
.
— this could not disguise the realities of the poor quality of "built-to-collapse" housing, the city council's policy on single-person homelessness, poverty, street violence and drugs culture, all of which played parts in the events leading up to Capper's murder. The city, he said, had violent 'no-go' areas, where "you can expect to be mugged," created through drug abuse and hopelessness, and populated by people who "don't work, have no money, and rarely leave the houses that they find themselves living in before dark." Ronson highlighted a city of contrasts, where "expensive canal-side
cafes are springing up faster than you can count them: the joke around town is that you can sip cappuccino
all day and gaze out at the corpses floating past." David Ward, writing in The Guardian, similarly drew attention to the housing policies, and quoted an older Moston resident as saying: "These people are moving in and out every three months. They're illiterate half of them — just shagging
and having kids." The Daily Mail – in what Barker and Petley called "ideological overdrive" – described Capper's killers as "the product of a society that tolerates petty crime, the break-up of families and feckless spending... Most of Suzanne's tormentors were on social security
... [and belong to] an underclass
which is a grave threat to Britain's future." Author Carol Anne Davis
agreed that when looking for answers about how this crime came about one need only "look at the upbringings of these women who were single parents to three children by their mid twenties, had teenage boyfriends who were barely legal and who supported themselves through drug dealing and theft."
. People think there's an epidemic of it." However, statistics and research produced by the National Association of Probation Officers did show "an increase in the number of women jailed for offences involving violence." The association's assistant general secretary Harry Fletcher said that, like the women involved in the Capper murder, the group is "characterised by neglect, personal abuse, drug or alcohol abuse and low self-esteem. Many have themselves been the victim of violence. The problem needs help rather than incarceration." In one of the "starkest signs of change" there was evidence that "in the 15—17 age group, girls are more likely to take pleasure in violence than boys, an indication we may face far more female violence in the future as these girls grow up." Despite the focus on the female perpetrators around the time of the crime and trial Davis pointed out that, in cases like this which involved female and male sadists, "the female's role is invariably forgotten over time. This was apparent when Dudson's appeals were reported in the national press. Manchester newspapers named all of the killers involved, but most less-localised reports simply referred to the 'violent gang' he belonged to, and it probably wouldn't have occurred to newer readers that this gang included two merciless female sadists who thought that an allegedly stolen duffle coat was an excuse to torture someone to death."
". The news media immediately made a connection between the Bulger murder trial
and the Capper murder trial when the horror movie Child's Play 3: Look Who's Stalking
was mentioned as part of the testimonies. D.I. Wall said "throughout interviews with the accused there was no suggestion that the reason Suzanne was killed had anything to do with Child's Play" but this was overlooked by more sensationalist headlines (Demonic doll Chucky links the horror crimes; The curse of Chucky). Neither Powell or McNeilly owned a VCR player, and the Child's Play–inspired music that had been used to torture Capper was a popular track at the time, taped direct from Manchester's Piccadilly Radio
. Broadcaster David Elstein
called the video connection "a false story... branded into the consciousness of the media," and questioned the news media's fascination with the film: "There is no reason to believe that Suzanne Capper would be alive today if the audiotape had instead contained the torture scene from King Lear
, or a catchphrase from Bruce Forsyth
... But the Child's Play hare has been running ever since the last day of the James Bulger murder trial." Elstein argued that the film was simply a scapegoat which the press "made a three-course meal out of." The Guardian reported that 21,000 four–nine-year-olds watched each of BSkyB's
two transmissions of Child's Play 3 – but Elstein explained the figure was "simply a projection based on an average of just two actual viewers from BARB's reporting panel, and that the margin of error
means even the two may have been just one. But why spoil a good running story by asking what the figures mean?"
In April 1994, Professor Elizabeth Newson published Video Violence and the Protection of Children (the "Newson Report") which attracted huge media interest due to its claims that it had "definitively established the long sought-for link between screen violence and the real-life variety," and which cited the Capper murder as an example. Despite its support by the press, however, the report failed to demonstrate any definitive link, "merely drawing inferences from... often highly speculative accounts in the press rather than independent first-hand research." Newson was called to give oral evidence to the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee on Video Violence, where she asserted: "The Suzanne Capper case is another example of very explicit imitation of video and the use of video and that was Child's Play 3." The chairman of the committee, Sir Ivan Lawrence had to point out to Newson that this was incorrect, and that both the police and the British Board of Film Classification
had ruled out any connection between the movie and the murder.
The scapegoating of Child's Play 3 by the news media directly led to the delay of the release certification for both Natural Born Killers
and Reservoir Dogs
.
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 2.6 million. It encompasses one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom and comprises ten metropolitan boroughs: Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan, and the...
, England in December 1992. Sixteen-year-old Suzanne Jane Capper died in Withington Community Hospital
Withington Community Hospital
Withington Community Hospital is a hospital in south Manchester, England...
on 18 December 1992, from multiple organ failure
Multiple organ dysfunction syndrome
Multiple organ dysfunction syndrome ', previously known as multiple organ failure or multisystem organ failure , is altered organ function in an acutely ill patient requiring medical intervention to achieve homeostasis...
arising from eighty per cent burns after she was deliberately set on fire on 14 December. Before her death, Capper related that she had previously been kidnapped and kept prisoner for seven days at a house in Moston
Moston, Greater Manchester
Moston is a district of Manchester, in North West England, approximately 3 miles north east of the city centre. Historically a part of Lancashire, Moston is a predominantly residential area, with a population of about 12,500 and covering approximately .-History:The name Moston may derive...
, Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, where she was beaten and tortured. She was taken from the house by car, driven into the countryside and forced out of the car virtually naked into a wood at Werneth Low
Werneth Low
Werneth Low is a hill in Greater Manchester, England, and a part of the Pennines. It is located on the borders of Stockport and Tameside and rises to height of...
where petrol was poured over her and she was set alight. The torture and murder arose from the "avenging [of] trivial grievances: a sexual insult, infection with pubic lice
Pediculosis pubis
Pediculosis pubis is a disease caused by the crab louse Phthirus pubis, a parasitic insect notorious for infesting human pubic hair. The species may also live on other areas with hair, including the eyelashes causing pediculosis ciliaris. Infestation usually lead to intense itching in the pubic area...
and the loss of a pink duffle coat
Duffle Coat
A duffle coat, or duffel coat, is a coat made from duffle, a coarse, thick, woollen material. The name derives from Duffel, a town in the province of Antwerp in Belgium where the material originates...
."
Detectives conducting the inquiry said that "for sheer mindless brutality" the crime ranked alongside the torture inflicted on children by the Moors murderers
Moors murders
The Moors murders were carried out by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley between July 1963 and October 1965, in and around what is now Greater Manchester, England. The victims were five children aged between 10 and 17—Pauline Reade, John Kilbride, Keith Bennett, Lesley Ann Downey and Edward Evans—at least...
. The case went to trial in November 1993, but received "comparatively little publicity" as it coincided with the trial of Robert Thompson and Jon Venables for the murder of James Bulger
Murder of James Bulger
James Patrick Bulger was a boy from Kirkby, England, who was murdered on 12 February 1993, when aged two. He was abducted, tortured and murdered by two ten-year-old boys, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables .Bulger disappeared from the New Strand Shopping Centre in Bootle, near Liverpool, while...
. On 17 December 1993, Jean Powell, aged 26, her ex-husband Glyn Powell, aged 29, and Bernadette McNeilly, aged 24, were sentenced to life imprisonment
Life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime under which the convicted person is to remain in jail for the rest of his or her life...
for their parts in the murder. Jeffrey Leigh, aged 27, was jailed for twelve years for false imprisonment
False imprisonment
False imprisonment is a restraint of a person in a bounded area without justification or consent. False imprisonment is a common-law felony and a tort. It applies to private as well as governmental detention...
. Jean Powell's brother Clifford Pook, aged 18, was sentenced to fifteen years in a Young Offenders' Institution
Her Majesty's Young Offender Institution
Her Majesty's Young Offenders Institution is a type of British prison intended for offenders aged between 18 and 20, although some prisons cater for younger offenders from ages 15 to 17, who are classed as juvenile offenders...
for false imprisonment and conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm
Grievous bodily harm
Grievous bodily harm is a term of art used in English criminal law which has become synonymous with the offences that are created by sections 18 and 20 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861....
. Anthony Michael Dudson, who was 16 years old at the time of the murder, was also found guilty of murder and sentenced to be detained at Her Majesty's pleasure
At Her Majesty's pleasure
At Her Majesty's pleasure is a legal term of art derived from all legitimate authority for government stemming from the Crown. Originating from the United Kingdom, it is now used throughout the Commonwealth realms...
under section 53(1) of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933
Children and Young Persons Act 1933
The Children and Young Persons Act 1933 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland...
.
Background
Capper, described as "a gentle and easily influenced girl," had been babysittingBabysitting
Babysitting is the practice of temporarily caring for a child on behalf of the child's parents. Babysitting is commonly performed as an odd job by teenagers for extra money.-General:...
for Jean Powell since she was ten years old. In 1990 she had spent time in the care of the local authority after her mother, Elizabeth Capper, and her stepfather separated, after which Suzanne and her older sister Michelle stayed with their stepfather. Around this time Capper began to truant
TruANT
Truant is Alien Ant Farm's second album. It was released on August 8, 2003 by DreamWorks Records. The producers of the album were Stone Temple Pilots' guitarist and bassist Robert DeLeo and Dean DeLeo....
from Moston Brook High School, and her attendance during the final two years of schooling was described as "erratic." Capper increasingly spent her time at Powell's house. Powell lived at 97 Langworthy Road, Moston, a small Victorian
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
terraced house
Terraced house
In architecture and city planning, a terrace house, terrace, row house, linked house or townhouse is a style of medium-density housing that originated in Great Britain in the late 17th century, where a row of identical or mirror-image houses share side walls...
, where she also dealt drugs and was involved with the handling of stolen motor vehicles. Michelle Capper had briefly lived with Powell, but moved out in August 1992 because she did not like the "evil new friends" Powell was associating with, particularly Bernadette McNeilly, who had recently moved in three doors away at number 91. McNeilly, who had three children, subsequently moved in with Powell and her three children, where the two shared a bed in the downstairs dining room because the bedrooms were "full of children." Capper continued to stay regularly even though Powell and McNeilly frequently bullied her. Her sister said: "It was not that she was scared of them, it's just that she would do anything for them. She pampered their every whim."
Powell was separated from her husband Glyn, although the two remained friendly and he would visit regularly from his nearby home. McNeilly's boyfriend was 16-year-old Anthony Dudson, who was also having sexual intercourse with Powell. Powell was sexually involved with Jeffrey Leigh, a regular visitor to the house as a purchaser of amphetamine
Amphetamine
Amphetamine or amfetamine is a psychostimulant drug of the phenethylamine class which produces increased wakefulness and focus in association with decreased fatigue and appetite.Brand names of medications that contain, or metabolize into, amphetamine include Adderall, Dexedrine, Dextrostat,...
s. Another frequent visitor to the house was Powell's younger brother, Clifford Pook.
Kidnap
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. Dudson believed otherwise, and said later: "I told Jean [Powell] I thought I got them from Bernie [McNeilly]." On 7 December 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 round 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 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.Torture
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 raveRave
Rave, rave dance, and rave party are parties that originated mostly from acid house parties, which featured fast-paced electronic music and light shows. At these parties people dance and socialize to dance music played by disc jockeys and occasionally live performers...
music — in particular a 45-minute long remix of Hi, I'm Chucki (Wanna Play?) by 150 Volts, featuring samples
Sampling (music)
In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
from the movie Child's Play 3: Look Who's Stalking
Child's Play 3
Child's Play 3, also known as Child's Play 3: Look Who's Stalking, is a 1991 horror film. It is the third installment in the Child's Play series with Brad Dourif returning as the voice of Chucky...
— 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 faeces 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."
Missed opportunities for rescue
David Hill, 18, was asked to "sit in" at the house, and while there heard Dudson shout "Shut up, you slag!" in the back room. When he asked what was going on, Leigh had shown him Capper. He said: "She had a sort of cloth over her face, from just above the eyebrows and covering her nose. She had a bit of dried blood on her lip. She had no hair." Hill also said he had heard them talking about "dentistry work. It was something about pulling her teeth out with a pair of pliers." Later, he was left alone in the house with Capper, who pleaded with him to untie her. He said: "She asked me if I could help but I told her I couldn't. I asked her who she was. She said her name was Suzanne. She asked me if I could untie her. I said I couldn't do anything." He later claimed that he was too afraid of Leigh to intervene or raise the alarm, saying: "I thought they would batter me. If I'd said [anything] they'd all have got me, wouldn't they? I didn't know what to do. I was too shocked to do anything." While Capper was being held in the house, Leigh and Dudson met up with her sister's fiance Paul Barlow to help him repair his car. Barlow said: "They could have told me there and then. The door would have been kicked down and I would have got Suzanne out. I did not think they were capable of such savagery. Now all I want is ten minutes with them in a back room."Murder
The six finally agreed that Capper had to be removed from the house after Michelle Capper told them her stepfather was going to report her to the police as a missing personMissing person
A missing person is a person who has disappeared for usually unknown reasons.Missing persons' photographs may be posted on bulletin boards, milk cartons, postcards, and websites, along with a phone number to be contacted if a sighting has been made....
. In the early hours of 14 December 1992, Capper was forced into the boot
Trunk (automobile)
The trunk or boot of an automobile or car is the vehicle's main storage, luggage, or cargo compartment. Trunk is used in North American English and Jamaican English; boot is used elsewhere in the English speaking world. Trunk is also primarily used in many non-English speaking regions, such as...
of a stolen white Fiat Panda
Fiat Panda
The Fiat Panda is a city car from the Italian automobile manufacturer Fiat. The first Fiat Panda was introduced in 1980, and was produced until 2003 with only a few changes. It is now sometimes referred to as the "old Panda". The second model, launched in 2003, is sometimes referred to "New Panda"...
car and driven 15 miles to a narrow lane at Werneth Low near Romiley
Romiley
Romiley is an area of the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, Greater Manchester, England. It borders Marple, Bredbury and Woodley. In Roman times there is thought to have been a settlement along Sandy Lane...
, 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 bramble
Bramble
Brambles are thorny plants of the genus Rubus, in the rose family . Bramble fruit is the fruit of any such plant, including the blackberry and raspberry. The word comes from Germanic *bram-bezi, whence also German Brombeere , Dutch Braam and French framboise...
s 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." McNeilly began to sing "Burn baby burn! Burn baby burn!" from the Trammps'
The Trammps
The Trammps were an American disco band, who were based in Philadelphia and were one of the first disco bands. The band's first major success was with their 1972 cover version of "Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart". The first disco track they released was "Love Epidemic" in 1973...
song Disco Inferno
Disco Inferno
Disco Inferno is a song by The Trammps.Disco Inferno can also refer to:* Disco Inferno , a 1976 disco album recorded by The Trammps featuring the song* Disco Inferno , a band formed in the late 1980s...
. Believing Capper to be dead, the four returned to Jean Powell's house, stopping to buy canned drinks on the way. Both Leigh and Pook were at the house when they arrived and Dudson stated: "Cliff [Pook] asked Glyn [Powell], 'Have you done it?' Glyn said 'Yes' and he was laughing. He gave Cliff his lighter back."
Naming attackers before death
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
. But I felt she would survive. I had this theory that, now she had got to somewhere she could be helped, she would live." 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
Coma
In medicine, a coma is a state of unconsciousness, lasting more than 6 hours in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light or sound, lacks a normal sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. A person in a state of coma is described as...
. 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 18 December 1992, without regaining consciousness.
Arrests
The inquiry was led by Detective Inspector Peter Wall of Greater Manchester PoliceGreater Manchester Police
Greater Manchester Police is the police force responsible for law enforcement within the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester in North West England...
. At 07:30 on 14 December, he instructed officers to attend 97 Langworthy Road and arrest everyone that they found there. Jean Powell and McNeilly laughed and joked with each other as they were arrested. Initially, all six denied involvement. Under questioning, Dudson, who had been urged by his father to tell the truth, began to talk. D.I. Wall said of Dudson's statement: "As the story began to unfold, we just couldn't believe it. I kept asking myself how one human being could do this to another." Police officers "wept as the extent of Suzanne's suffering was revealed," and together with civilian staff at the station the police collected cash to send flowers to her at the hospital. On 17 December 1992, the six accused appeared before magistrates in Manchester and were remanded into custody charged with kidnapping and attempted murder. Following Capper's death they were charged with her murder on 23 December 1992.
Inquest
The inquest was opened by Leonard Gorodkin at Manchester Coroner's Court on 8 January 1993. Dr William Lawler, a Home Office pathologist, testified that Capper had suffered 75—80 per cent burns consistent with having had petrol thrown over her and set alight, and that her chance of survival had been minimal. "It was clear from the outset that Suzanne was unlikely to survive. She suffered widespread burns that led to several complications internally." Death was due to complications caused by these burns. The coroner said: "It is clear that this young girl must have suffered a great deal of pain and had no chance of survival. But she did fortunately survive long enough to give information which led to the people mentioned being charged with her death." To Capper's mother and stepfather he said: "I offer you, not just on my behalf but on behalf of the whole nation, my very deepest sympathy and condolences at this tragic happening to your young daughter."Convictions
The trialTrial
A trial is, in the most general sense, a test, usually a test to see whether something does or does not meet a given standard.It may refer to:*Trial , the presentation of information in a formal setting, usually a court...
commenced on 16 November 1993, and lasted 22 days. All six denied murder and in their testimonies each defendant tried to minimise their part in the crime. On 24 November, Clifford Pook was cleared of murder on the directions of the judge Mr. Justice Potts. The jury began their deliberations on 16 December 1993, and took nine hours and fifty-two minutes to reach their verdicts. Mr Justice Potts said: "Each of you has been convicted on clear evidence of murder which was as appalling a murder as it is possible to imagine."
Verdicts and sentences
Bernadette McNeilly- guilty of murderMurder in English lawMurder is an offence under the common law of England and Wales. It is considered the most serious form of homicide, in which one person kills another either intending to cause death or intending to cause serious injury .-Actus reus:The definition of the actus reus Murder is an offence under the...
— life imprisonment with a minimum tariff of 25 years - guilty of conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harmGrievous bodily harmGrievous bodily harm is a term of art used in English criminal law which has become synonymous with the offences that are created by sections 18 and 20 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861....
— 20 years - pleaded guilty to false imprisonmentFalse imprisonmentFalse imprisonment is a restraint of a person in a bounded area without justification or consent. False imprisonment is a common-law felony and a tort. It applies to private as well as governmental detention...
— 20 years
Jean Powell
- guilty of murder — life imprisonment with a minimum tariff of 25 years
- guilty of conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm — 20 years
- pleaded guilty to false imprisonment — 20 years
Glyn Powell
- guilty of murder — life imprisonment with a minimum tariff of 25 years
- guilty of conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm — 20 years
- guilty of false imprisonment — 20 years
Jeffrey Leigh
- pleaded guilty to false imprisonment — 12 years
- acquitted of murder
- acquitted of conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm
Anthony Michael Dudson
- guilty of murder — detained indefinitelyAt Her Majesty's pleasureAt Her Majesty's pleasure is a legal term of art derived from all legitimate authority for government stemming from the Crown. Originating from the United Kingdom, it is now used throughout the Commonwealth realms...
with a minimum tariff of 18 years - guilty of conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm — 15 years
- pleaded guilty to false imprisonment — 15 years
Clifford Pook
- pleaded guilty to conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm — 15 years
- pleaded guilty to false imprisonment — 15 years
- acquitted of murder
As the sentences were announced two women jurors wept and there were cries of "Yes! Yes!" from the public gallery, which was filled with relatives of the victim. In a statement to the press after the sentencing D.I. Wall said: "Psychological reports say that these are absolutely sane individuals. It's frightening that they are such ordinary people. There is nothing special about any of them."
Appeals
Leigh appealed against his sentence, which was reduced from 12 years to 9 years on 4 November 1994. In 2002, Dudson's minimum tariff was cut from 18 years to 16 years. Dudson appealed again, arguing that the reduction was insufficient and that the Lord Chief Justice "had failed to reflect the continuing obligation to have regard to Dudson's welfare." Lord Justice Kennedy and Mr Justice Mackay dismissed this second appeal on 21 November 2003. He was moved to an open prisonOpen prison
An open prison is an informal description applied to any penal establishment in which the prisoners are trusted to serve their sentences with minimal supervision and perimeter security and so do not need to be locked up in prison cells...
in 2009.
Jean Powell and McNeilly have been granted leave to have the lengths of their minimum sentences reviewed at the Court of Appeal in June 2012.
McNeilly prison controversy
While she was incarcerated at HM Prison DurhamDurham (HM Prison)
HM Prison Durham is a local Category B men's prison, located in the Elvet area of Durham in County Durham, England. The prison is operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service.-History:...
, a routine security check in 1996 uncovered letters which revealed McNeilly had been having an affair with the prison governor, Mike Martin. The married officer resigned his position before disciplinary action could be taken. McNeilly, who was sharing a wing with Rosemary West
Rosemary West
Rosemary Pauline "Rose" West is a British serial killer, now an inmate at HMP Low Newton, Brasside, Durham, after being convicted of 10 murders in 1995...
and Myra Hindley
Moors murders
The Moors murders were carried out by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley between July 1963 and October 1965, in and around what is now Greater Manchester, England. The victims were five children aged between 10 and 17—Pauline Reade, John Kilbride, Keith Bennett, Lesley Ann Downey and Edward Evans—at least...
, was immediately transferred to HM Prison New Hall
New Hall (HM Prison)
HM Prison New Hall is a Closed Category prison for female adults, juveniles and young offenders. The prison is located in the village of Flockton in West Yorkshire, England. New Hall is operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service.-History:...
.
Releases from prison
Leigh was freed early from his sentence in 1998, as was Pook in May 2001. Both were released on licence.Social environment
There was wide commentary in the news media about the social situation in and around Moston. Writing in The Times, Jon Ronson focused on Manchester's apparent economic imbalance, pointing out that while "superficially, it is a city of growth" — hosting international environmental conferences in 1993 and bidding to host the 2000 Olympic GamesOlympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
— this could not disguise the realities of the poor quality of "built-to-collapse" housing, the city council's policy on single-person homelessness, poverty, street violence and drugs culture, all of which played parts in the events leading up to Capper's murder. The city, he said, had violent 'no-go' areas, where "you can expect to be mugged," created through drug abuse and hopelessness, and populated by people who "don't work, have no money, and rarely leave the houses that they find themselves living in before dark." Ronson highlighted a city of contrasts, where "expensive canal-side
Waterway
A waterway is any navigable body of water. Waterways can include rivers, lakes, seas, oceans, and canals. In order for a waterway to be navigable, it must meet several criteria:...
cafes are springing up faster than you can count them: the joke around town is that you can sip cappuccino
Cappuccino
A cappuccino is an Italian coffee drink prepared with espresso, hot milk, and steamed-milk foam. The name comes from the Capuchin friars, referring to the colour of their habits.- Definition :...
all day and gaze out at the corpses floating past." David Ward, writing in The Guardian, similarly drew attention to the housing policies, and quoted an older Moston resident as saying: "These people are moving in and out every three months. They're illiterate half of them — just shagging
Sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse, also known as copulation or coitus, commonly refers to the act in which a male's penis enters a female's vagina for the purposes of sexual pleasure or reproduction. The entities may be of opposite sexes, or they may be hermaphroditic, as is the case with snails...
and having kids." The Daily Mail – in what Barker and Petley called "ideological overdrive" – described Capper's killers as "the product of a society that tolerates petty crime, the break-up of families and feckless spending... Most of Suzanne's tormentors were on social security
Social security
Social security is primarily a social insurance program providing social protection or protection against socially recognized conditions, including poverty, old age, disability, unemployment and others. Social security may refer to:...
... [and belong to] an underclass
Underclass
The term underclass refers to a segment of the population that occupies the lowest possible position in a class hierarchy, below the core body of the working class. The general idea that a class system includes a population under the working class has a long tradition in the social sciences...
which is a grave threat to Britain's future." Author Carol Anne Davis
Carol Anne Davis
Carol Anne 'Kenneth' Davis -- born in Dundee, Scotland in 1961—is a crime novelist and true crime writer.-Biography:She has admitted in interviews that she and her brother suffered greatly at the hands of a violent father who told them on a daily basis that they would never amount to anything...
agreed that when looking for answers about how this crime came about one need only "look at the upbringings of these women who were single parents to three children by their mid twenties, had teenage boyfriends who were barely legal and who supported themselves through drug dealing and theft."
"Moral panic"
Davis also noted the unusual situation in that "a gang was involved and that two females were the sadistic leaders." Following the convictions of Powell and McNeilly, there was wider press speculation about "girl gangs" and the rise in violent crime committed by young women, and "the probation service and ex-offender organisations found themselves bombarded with requests from journalists seeking out case histories to illustrate this apparent explosion of LA-style girl-gang culture on the streets of Britain." Mary Barnish, a senior probation officer at the Inner London Probation Service Women's Centre, dismissed the notion, saying: "One woman does something somewhere and immediately there's a great moral panicMoral panic
A moral panic is the intensity of feeling expressed in a population about an issue that appears to threaten the social order. According to Stanley Cohen, author of Folk Devils and Moral Panics and credited creator of the term, a moral panic occurs when "[a] condition, episode, person or group of...
. People think there's an epidemic of it." However, statistics and research produced by the National Association of Probation Officers did show "an increase in the number of women jailed for offences involving violence." The association's assistant general secretary Harry Fletcher said that, like the women involved in the Capper murder, the group is "characterised by neglect, personal abuse, drug or alcohol abuse and low self-esteem. Many have themselves been the victim of violence. The problem needs help rather than incarceration." In one of the "starkest signs of change" there was evidence that "in the 15—17 age group, girls are more likely to take pleasure in violence than boys, an indication we may face far more female violence in the future as these girls grow up." Despite the focus on the female perpetrators around the time of the crime and trial Davis pointed out that, in cases like this which involved female and male sadists, "the female's role is invariably forgotten over time. This was apparent when Dudson's appeals were reported in the national press. Manchester newspapers named all of the killers involved, but most less-localised reports simply referred to the 'violent gang' he belonged to, and it probably wouldn't have occurred to newer readers that this gang included two merciless female sadists who thought that an allegedly stolen duffle coat was an excuse to torture someone to death."
"Video nasties"
The moral panic was not confined solely to the gender of the murderers, but also the role played by so-called "video nastiesVideo nasty
"Video nasty" was a colloquial term coined in the United Kingdom by 1982 which originally applied to a number of films distributed on video cassette that were criticized for their violent content by the press, commentators such as Mary Whitehouse and various religious organizations.While violence...
". The news media immediately made a connection between the Bulger murder trial
Murder of James Bulger
James Patrick Bulger was a boy from Kirkby, England, who was murdered on 12 February 1993, when aged two. He was abducted, tortured and murdered by two ten-year-old boys, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables .Bulger disappeared from the New Strand Shopping Centre in Bootle, near Liverpool, while...
and the Capper murder trial when the horror movie Child's Play 3: Look Who's Stalking
Child's Play 3
Child's Play 3, also known as Child's Play 3: Look Who's Stalking, is a 1991 horror film. It is the third installment in the Child's Play series with Brad Dourif returning as the voice of Chucky...
was mentioned as part of the testimonies. D.I. Wall said "throughout interviews with the accused there was no suggestion that the reason Suzanne was killed had anything to do with Child's Play" but this was overlooked by more sensationalist headlines (Demonic doll Chucky links the horror crimes; The curse of Chucky). Neither Powell or McNeilly owned a VCR player, and the Child's Play–inspired music that had been used to torture Capper was a popular track at the time, taped direct from Manchester's Piccadilly Radio
Piccadilly Magic 1152
NB Piccadilly Radio re-directs here. See also Key 103Piccadilly Magic 1152 , began broadcasting as Piccadilly Radio, which was Manchester's first commercial radio station.-Early years:...
. Broadcaster David Elstein
David Elstein
David Keith Elstein , is currently Chairman of, Screen Digest, Luther Pendragon, openDemocracy.net and the Broadcasting Policy Group....
called the video connection "a false story... branded into the consciousness of the media," and questioned the news media's fascination with the film: "There is no reason to believe that Suzanne Capper would be alive today if the audiotape had instead contained the torture scene from King Lear
King Lear
King Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The title character descends into madness after foolishly disposing of his estate between two of his three daughters based on their flattery, bringing tragic consequences for all. The play is based on the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological...
, or a catchphrase from Bruce Forsyth
Bruce Forsyth
Sir Bruce Joseph Forsyth-Johnson, CBE , commonly known as Bruce Forsyth, or Brucie, is an English TV personality...
... But the Child's Play hare has been running ever since the last day of the James Bulger murder trial." Elstein argued that the film was simply a scapegoat which the press "made a three-course meal out of." The Guardian reported that 21,000 four–nine-year-olds watched each of BSkyB's
British Sky Broadcasting
British Sky Broadcasting Group plc is a satellite broadcasting, broadband and telephony services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom, with operations in the United Kingdom and the Ireland....
two transmissions of Child's Play 3 – but Elstein explained the figure was "simply a projection based on an average of just two actual viewers from BARB's reporting panel, and that the margin of error
Margin of error
The margin of error is a statistic expressing the amount of random sampling error in a survey's results. The larger the margin of error, the less faith one should have that the poll's reported results are close to the "true" figures; that is, the figures for the whole population...
means even the two may have been just one. But why spoil a good running story by asking what the figures mean?"
In April 1994, Professor Elizabeth Newson published Video Violence and the Protection of Children (the "Newson Report") which attracted huge media interest due to its claims that it had "definitively established the long sought-for link between screen violence and the real-life variety," and which cited the Capper murder as an example. Despite its support by the press, however, the report failed to demonstrate any definitive link, "merely drawing inferences from... often highly speculative accounts in the press rather than independent first-hand research." Newson was called to give oral evidence to the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee on Video Violence, where she asserted: "The Suzanne Capper case is another example of very explicit imitation of video and the use of video and that was Child's Play 3." The chairman of the committee, Sir Ivan Lawrence had to point out to Newson that this was incorrect, and that both the police and the British Board of Film Classification
British Board of Film Classification
The British Board of Film Classification , originally British Board of Film Censors, is a non-governmental organisation, funded by the film industry and responsible for the national classification of films within the United Kingdom...
had ruled out any connection between the movie and the murder.
The scapegoating of Child's Play 3 by the news media directly led to the delay of the release certification for both Natural Born Killers
Natural Born Killers
Natural Born Killers is a 1994 crime/black comedy film directed by Oliver Stone about two victims of traumatic childhoods who became lovers and psychopathic serial killers, and are irresponsibly glorified by the mass media...
and Reservoir Dogs
Reservoir Dogs
Reservoir Dogs is an American crime film marking debut of director and writer Quentin Tarantino. It depicts the events before and after a botched diamond heist, but not the heist itself. Reservoir Dogs stars an ensemble cast: Harvey Keitel, Steve Buscemi, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Chris Penn, and...
.
See also
- Murder of Jennifer DaughertyMurder of Jennifer DaughertyJennifer Lee Daugherty was murdered in Greensburg, Pennsylvania in February 2010. Daugherty, who was mentally disabled, was tortured and murdered before being wrapped in Christmas decorations, put inside a garbage can and dumped in the parking lot of Greensburg Salem Middle School.During torture...
- Murder of Kelly Anne BatesMurder of Kelly Anne BatesKelly Anne Bates was an English teenager who was murdered in Manchester on 16 April 1996 when aged 17. Bates was tortured over a period of four weeks, including having her eyes gouged from their sockets up to three weeks before her death, by her partner James Patterson Smith before being drowned...
- Sadistic personality disorderSadistic personality disorderSadistic personality disorder is a diagnosis which appeared only in an appendix of the revised third edition of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders . The current version of the DSM does not include it, so it is no longer considered a valid...