24 Hours in Police Custody S00E14 The Murder of Rikki Neave Part.2 Original air date - (5th July 2022)
Concluding the investigation into the 1994 murder of six-year-old Rikki Neave. Fifteen years after Rikki's mother was cleared of his murder following a flawed police investigation, a team of dedicated officers from the Major Crime Unit of Cambridgeshire police were authorised to begin a fresh investigation. Analysis of the evidence put a new suspect, James Watson, who was 13 at the time of the killing, together with Rikki on the day of his disappearance. But despite a forensic breakthrough, Watson presented the officers with a conundrum that made it difficult to prove the case against him.
Concluding the investigation into the 1994 murder of six-year-old Rikki Neave. Fifteen years after Rikki's mother was cleared of his murder following a flawed police investigation, a team of dedicated officers from the Major Crime Unit of Cambridgeshire police were authorised to begin a fresh investigation. Analysis of the evidence put a new suspect, James Watson, who was 13 at the time of the killing, together with Rikki on the day of his disappearance. But despite a forensic breakthrough, Watson presented the officers with a conundrum that made it difficult to prove the case against him.
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CreativityTranscript
00:00People make bad decisions and dangerous sometimes and unfortunately it happens in the police.
00:08I didn't murder him, I didn't see him that day, I didn't see him that night. I wish I did because
00:18if I did I wouldn't be sitting here now. I just remember his cheeky little face just saying he
00:24loves me. For 20 years Ruth Neve has lived under the lingering suspicion that she had killed her
00:31six-year-old son Ricky. It's clear to me the investigation was taken one direction and one
00:38direction only. Ruth did it, we need to try and prove it. I hope the police will now redouble
00:44their efforts to find the true killer of Ricky. This was the largest unsolved homicide in Cambridgeshire.
00:52We want to try and reinvestigate it as if it happened yesterday. No six-year-old boy deserves
00:58to die in any way shape or form let alone murdered, stripped and left in the woods.
01:02Whoever it is will slip up one day, the sooner the better. There are sightings of Ricky being
01:09in this location. He's the only person that day who's actually doing something with Ricky.
01:22This is your opportunity to talk to me. They have lifted prints, are they gonna be yours?
01:37Every minute that's taken away is evidence you're losing.
01:53I love that photo, it looks really happy, just cheeky, I love it.
02:00It's still hard for me to process, even years down the line. I celebrate his birthday,
02:16I go to the place where he was found and put flowers down. I still want answers, you know.
02:25A lot of people would want to make this about Ruth and her abuse and all of that stuff when
02:32it's not about that, it's about a child that's died, that we want justice for our brother.
02:38That's it. Him as a little boy, yeah.
02:40Box with S295 in. Hold it, hold it that way.
02:55I ain't got no hands. John.
02:56Cambridgeshire police are re-examining the evidence against 13-year-old James Watson
03:03after he emerged as a person of interest.
03:06In 1994, James Watson was a 13-year-old boy from the Wellingdon estate who lived in a care home.
03:17Port 19 is from then DC George Barth. He fancied Watson massively.
03:23This was all the stuff we couldn't find in his social services file.
03:26He is a strange lad, incapable of many things.
03:34Caller advised that we were aware of James. No, but no one ever went to see
03:38her or take a statement from her or anything. Action was raised though.
03:41I just didn't dare. James had previous convictions for theft, burglary, GBH
03:48and has a perverted nature. So a teacher at Walton school described him as a very disturbed child
03:54who resorts to violence over the most trivial of incidents.
03:59And that the day of the 30th November, Watson had left school at 12.45, returned 15 minutes later
04:06with a copy of the local paper and made the comment that this is my mate's brother and I knew him.
04:15James was then photocopying the newspaper.
04:18He wasn't a suspect. He wasn't a suspect. He was a witness alibied out of the original investigation.
04:26I've got a statement here. Yeah. His own statement, which he provides
04:31a week or so after Ricky's body is found, is kind of brief. It's not hugely detailed.
04:37On Monday the 28th of November, I was taken to school as usual in a taxi.
04:42About 10.30am, I walked out of school between classes and walked to the Welland estate,
04:47intended to visit my father at his home. I was going to cut through into Ragdale Close,
04:53but the cut was blocked by a digger. A small boy approached me.
05:02I now know that he was called Ricky. Ricky said, that's a big tractor, isn't it?
05:09I said, it's not a tractor, it's a digger. I walked through an alley into the next street
05:14and back onto Red Mile Walk. I did not see Ricky again.
05:21It's somewhere around the half ten, eleven. Ten to eleven.
05:26Evelyn Pollock and Sylvia Clarey both put him in Rotherby Grove and they were seen walking
05:35off together towards the woods. So we're happy that James Watson puts himself in Rotherby Grove,
05:48but the only thing we know on his timeline next then is, he gets a taxi back to the children's
05:54home. The fact he'd left his school at 4pm in a taxi was the elimination criteria for him.
06:03Well that's all well and good if the murder happened after 4pm,
06:06but there was nothing to support that that was the case then. There's nothing to support that
06:10is the case now. The time of death is really significant in a case like this. In a case
06:16where a body has been laid out all night, the pathologist is never going to be able to nail
06:21their colours to the mask and say it's between 1.30am and 2.30am. You're never going to get
06:26anything like that. So you've got to try and build that time of death from other evidence.
06:35This is the sort of time of year it happened isn't it, so it's a good time to go.
06:38It is a good time to go. It's a natural place for kids to go. It would be wouldn't it?
06:42Make dens and what have you. A lot of the statements talk about how the kids used to play there.
06:49The whole area was cordoned off this afternoon after Ricky's naked body was found in Shrubland
06:54about half a mile from his home in the Welland area of Peterbrook.
07:01I still remember looking at the pictures of Ricky in the woods.
07:07At the time my son was roughly the same age as Ricky.
07:12He's a similar build, he was similar looking with blonde hair and it could have been almost my lad.
07:18An officer, PC McNeil, who searched the woodland on the evening of Ricky's disappearance
07:24was adamant that the body was nowhere to be found. If correct, Ricky's body would have been laid out
07:31after 7pm that evening. How thoroughly he searched it, who knows? It looks tiny on the maps and aerial
07:39photos and stuff but it's a big old bit of wood. It is a big old bit of wood.
07:44If you look at his statement in detail, it would have not been in that wood more than 15-20 minutes.
07:50So Ricky's body is within this cordon area here. I think I know where that is.
07:57Does that make sense? Yeah. So it definitely goes in.
08:02It's a bit of a long way to go, but it's a bit of a long way to go.
08:06It's a bit of a long way to go, but it's a bit of a long way to go.
08:09Does that make sense? Yeah. So it definitely goes in.
08:15Out. Did I get you? Fuck. Yeah.
08:20It's definitely come in here, gone up there, turned and it's here. Somewhere here.
08:31Yeah, I think this is it. That could well be the young tree.
08:35Yeah, he's next to his head. With a split in it. I wouldn't have stood there.
08:38If I was to read, his head was here, so this is where he was. Yeah.
08:43Yeah, you're right, that could well be.
08:50It could easily have been in the wood when PC McNeil come through here
08:53and PC McNeil could easily have missed him. Yeah.
08:59Even in a wood like it is today and it's far more sparse than it was then,
09:03you could easily miss someone at night. And foggy as well. Yeah.
09:07He come in here looking for a kid hiding. He did, he didn't come in here.
09:11He didn't come for a lie in the undergrowth.
09:16People getting away with stuff just doesn't sit well.
09:18Especially people getting away with murder. Yeah.
09:20Especially murdering kids. Sort of stuff that stops you sleeping, you know.
09:33S11, S14 and S77.
09:41Still troubled by Ricky's meeting with James Watson on the day of his disappearance,
09:46officers trawl the original case files for any clues.
09:50He says that he's wearing a green check shirt and she thinks it's jeans. I remember thinking
09:56that he wasn't dressed for school. So I think she's clear that he's not in a school uniform.
10:01James says he's wearing a school uniform. I was wearing my school uniform, white shirt,
10:04blue tie, grey trousers, navy jumper.
10:14The original investigation worked on the hypothesis
10:18that Ricky was still alive during the afternoon on the day he disappeared.
10:25They were convinced that Ricky was still alive, at least at the end of school time.
10:31At that point, they were focusing on the sightings of Ricky at the shops in the evening.
10:37When we came out of the shop, we saw Ricky Neve. He was standing by the wall to the left of the
10:41Parade of Shops as you come out of the shop itself. I know Ricky from around the estate.
10:47If those sightings are correct, then James Watson couldn't have killed Ricky
10:52because Ricky is still alive and we say James Watson had the opportunity to do that.
10:59We've got him going back to the care home. They would say he never signed out, he never booked
11:05out. But Watson is the only person that day who's actually doing something with Ricky.
11:11There are sightings of Ricky walking off with a known person. There are sightings of Ricky
11:16being in this location. There is nobody doing anything with him. What's happened from time
11:23confirmed with Ricky up to that point with the taxi,
11:29Watson's timeline became more and more demanding of scrutiny. A, we knew he'd been with Ricky by
11:35his own admission. B, we knew he'd been taxied back to the children's home, but there was this
11:40void. The little red warning markers that hang on, he's really worth a closer look.
11:47He talks in his original statement about going to see his mum.
11:51His mum actually provides a statement which says she was out, so he couldn't have seen her.
11:57That's line number one. And then he says, I was going to go around to see my ex-foster mother,
12:02but he knows James never turned up, never went there. So there's lots of bits of his story
12:09that don't add up.
12:12What's in the photos?
12:14This is a summary of all his convictions. The earliest one was, as you can see,
12:1821st of February, 1995. He was convicted of burglary and theft.
12:26Burglary and theft in 1998. He got nine months concurrent in the Young Offenders
12:31Institution. 2006, burglary still. 2007, breach of community punishment order.
12:44The things that he's done between 1994 and 2020 allow us to look at him and say,
12:55actually, we can see how 13-year-old James Watson could have done this.
13:00Sexual activity in a public lavatory. So it's a mixture of dishonesty offences,
13:06burglary, theft, motoring offences and sexual offences.
13:10Police searched the contents of rubbish bins on the Welland Estate,
13:14where Ricky Neve lived, and where his naked body was found on Tuesday afternoon.
13:19Officers recovered the six-year-old's clothing from one of the bins.
13:23They're now being forensically examined.
13:28The trousers had a tear in them, just about, just slightly below the knee, which could be related to
13:36which could be related to kneeling or being forced to kneel.
13:42I don't doubt for one second that somewhere on Ricky's clothing would have been DNA of a suspect,
13:47the person who stripped him. But we don't have that.
13:52We have looked everywhere for those clothes.
13:54We've searched lofts, we've searched every outbuilding that Cambridgeshire Police own.
14:00What we did have was fibre tapings that were taken of his clothing.
14:07Our forensic team were able to lift the tape from the sheet and swab it for DNA.
14:14And from this piece of sellotape used to look for fibres was the DNA of James Watson.
14:25Now we had something.
14:27Now we had something firm. So, we've really got a speech for him about it.
14:49He was at his mum's house. It was early morning.
14:56He was, in my opinion, pretending to be asleep.
15:08We were banging that door for a long, a long time.
15:16His mum was across the road, so we ended up going to get her and asking her to let us in.
15:27James?
15:30Morning, mate. You didn't hear the door? Are you a deep sleeper?
15:34Right, James, at this time, I'm arresting you on the suspicion of the murder of Ricky Neve
15:38in November 1994. You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence.
15:42Do not mention when questioned. It's something we should later rely on you for.
15:45Anything you do say may be given in evidence.
15:49I appreciate what I've just said a lot to you there. Do you understand what I just said?
15:51Yes.
15:52All right?
15:53There was no, what the hell are you talking about?
15:56Didn't really react.
16:01I'd have been saying, what the fuck are you doing in my house?
16:04What do you mean you're arresting me? There was none of that.
16:10He was compliant. He was polite. He just got dressed and quietly came out with us.
16:15There you go.
16:20Could you say it's shock, maybe, but he wasn't displaying shock. He was very calm.
16:45There you go. Watch your head.
16:59In any interview, ultimately your aim is to establish the truth of what actually happened.
17:07It was for us to introduce the DNA as our sort of trump card, as our explain this.
17:16Well, I'll just ask my colleague to give you a search, mate.
17:19OK.
17:21OK. Do you have any piercings or anything?
17:23No.
17:23Just turn round this way. That's it.
17:33OK, James, tell us about your involvement in Ricky Neve's murder.
17:41No comment.
17:41Are you responsible for the murder of Ricky Neve?
17:45No comment.
17:47Monday the 28th of November. Tell us about that day.
17:53This was the day that I met Ricky.
17:57OK. The first thing you refer to in your statement is you walked to the well in the estate.
18:06I think it was just at the time that they were doing a lot of work in there and...
18:10Yeah.
18:10I think they were in the process of cutting off these alleyways here.
18:14Right.
18:14But they were working at the back of these two houses.
18:17OK.
18:18And it's right here that I remember meeting Ricky about on this morning.
18:21OK. So tell us about that meeting with Ricky.
18:23Yeah, as I'm going past, I think he said to me, you know,
18:26I look at that big digger or tractor and I correct him.
18:29I said it's not a tractor, it's a digger.
18:30Right.
18:31Because of that's when they, you know, were excavating and digging.
18:35And then they were just looking through the fence for a knot hole.
18:39They used to get, like, the little knot holes that you could push through.
18:42Yeah.
18:43Picked him up, held him up by the fence and watched the guys doing the work.
18:49And then we left and walked off.
18:53Let's go back a little bit then, because I'm slightly confused as to what you just said.
18:58You don't make any mention of the fence in your statement.
19:02No.
19:06Shit.
19:07Why is he telling us this now?
19:10Is he taking away the whole element of surprise about the DNA?
19:14He'd clearly taken time to get his story together.
19:20There was no mention of physical contact with Ricky.
19:24He clearly felt that that will get him off the hook.
19:27Picking him up and looking over a fence with Ricky.
19:31If he had been asked the question by the officers,
19:34did you pick him up?
19:36And then they failed to write that in his statement.
19:38One would expect that he would go,
19:41I said I picked him up and you haven't put it in my statement.
19:44And that is lacking in that interview.
19:46You would expect that of any person to say, I told you this before.
19:53How can you remember that now, that you picked him up,
19:57that you couldn't remember back then?
20:00That's because you know you've touched the clothing.
20:03He suspected we had DNA.
20:06Without some form of strong evidence, how do we disprove that?
20:13I was 13, it was 20 years ago.
20:15It was an insignificant interaction conversation that I had with Ricky.
20:20CAMBRIDGE CITY, CAMBRIDGE
20:29Cambridgeshire Police have brought in 35-year-old James Watson
20:33for a second day of questioning.
20:35In some cases, knowing the character of your suspect
20:39makes very little or no difference whatsoever,
20:42especially if it's a heat of the moment murder
20:46where someone just loses it.
20:47In this particular investigation,
20:49I think it's really important that we try to understand James Watson.
20:56He had a troubled upbringing.
20:59He'd been put into foster care.
21:00He'd been moved to a children's home.
21:03His general behaviour in the home, he was quite difficult.
21:08He would openly masturbate
21:10and wouldn't be quiet or subtle about it as well.
21:16I want to talk about the mother of your son, OK?
21:20She met you at the children's home?
21:23Yeah. The one sexual intercourse that I've had with a female
21:27was back when I was 15.
21:29My whole life, I've identified myself as a gay man.
21:32OK. She stated that during your relationship,
21:35you had sex on four or five occasions.
21:38On at least three of those occasions,
21:39you placed your hands around her neck
21:41and put pressure on it as if you were strangling her.
21:46She describes one specific time you had sex in the woods
21:49and you was about to ejaculate
21:50and again you put your hands around her neck, strangling her.
21:54She asked you to stop,
21:55but you continued to strangle her until you ejaculated, OK?
22:00I disagree with that and I've always thought
22:02that I've only ever had sexual intercourse with her on one occasion,
22:05which was born with my son.
22:08OK. So the claim that you've had sex on four or five occasions,
22:12again, you're saying is wrong? Yeah.
22:14I'm going to make reference to an allegation of an assault.
22:18This is before Ricky was murdered.
22:22There was an incident that we came across
22:26that involved another little boy who was five,
22:30where James Watson had actually touched this other little boy's penis.
22:35When spoken to by police, he was video interviewed
22:39and clearly showed his penis being rubbed up against his face.
22:44He also went on to say that he'd done the same to James.
22:52So tell us about that incident.
22:56I don't want to. I've been spoken to about it.
22:59Did that happen, the way it's been described in that report?
23:03Mm-hm, yeah. It did happen?
23:05They were just two boys playing with each other's penises.
23:09It's as simple as that, I think. OK.
23:11What I'm describing now is...
23:14..is almost a sexual assault. Well, it was, wasn't it?
23:16Yeah, it is, isn't it? I mean, there's no flaring that up at all.
23:19That's what it is. Yeah.
23:23In my mind, I think he tried to sexually abuse Ricky
23:28in some way, shape or form.
23:32I think Ricky possibly resisted to that.
23:35I think James Watson went in there and had,
23:39at the back of his mind, thoughts of killing a child.
23:49I think if it hadn't been Ricky, it'd have been another kid.
23:52I think so. I think he was on that estate...
23:54It wasn't Ricky. ..prowling the estate for a young child.
23:56He knew.
23:57And also, when you've looked at the absentee records
24:01of kids on that estate... Exactly, yeah.
24:03..there are hundreds of kids who didn't go to school that day.
24:06And I'll bet that was, for him, Watson,
24:09the right place to go looking for young kids.
24:11Cos he knew there was lots of them that were going to be bunking off
24:14cos that's what the kids on that estate did.
24:16And he knew he'd be able to find someone
24:18who he could do whatever he wanted to do with. Yeah.
24:21Monday morning, he walks straight to that estate,
24:24interacts with a kid, and...
24:27Yeah. ..a kid is dead.
24:28And his DNA's on the clothes.
24:30Don't believe in coincidences. Come on, man.
24:36James, that is it, OK?
24:38So now is potentially your last chance to tell us anything
24:41about your involvement and knowledge of Ricky New's murder.
24:45It's something after 21 years you want to get off your chest.
24:49No, because I didn't murder him, so...
24:54OK, I'm going to stop the discs.
24:56DOORBELL RINGS
24:58The Crown Prosecution Service refused to charge Watson
25:01on the evidence available.
25:03He is bailed under curfew to a hostel, pending further investigation.
25:07Oh, come on, Jesus Christ.
25:10Bailing someone who you think is guilty is really difficult,
25:14especially when it's a murder.
25:16But sometimes it's the right thing to do,
25:18cos it does give you the opportunity to go away, reflect,
25:23look at the evidence you have got,
25:25look at the evidence you haven't got, more importantly.
25:33One job, John.
25:35It became a bit of a catchphrase in my team.
25:38It just consumed the three of us that were left,
25:41and there was probably three of us that really lived it.
25:44And we knew that solving this case was already with us.
25:48It's in there, somewhere.
25:53So Watson was in this bar stall in Northampton.
25:58Within a matter of weeks, we were made aware
26:02he's disappeared out, and literally, within a day or two,
26:06it hit the national media.
26:10This is 35-year-old James Watson,
26:13pictured in selfies on a beach believed to be in Portugal,
26:17and snapping himself with officers from the country's police force.
26:22You don't run away unless you're guilty, in my opinion.
26:27Personal photos of James Watson
26:29are splashed over the tabloids in the UK,
26:32as he announces himself to the media
26:34as the prime suspect for the murder.
26:37He thought he was cleverer than the police.
26:39There were pictures of James Watson goading the police,
26:43taking selfies, enjoying himself in the sun.
26:47And this is the suspect for the murder of a six-year-old little boy.
26:53And this was how he was behaving.
26:54I was incensed.
26:56We're just thinking, what do we do from this point on?
27:00He's on the run, how do we manage that?
27:05Officers contact James Watson's former prison cellmate.
27:25And one day, I had a wife, and James had come in and had a chawler,
27:29wearing a stab jacket that he claimed the police had gave him,
27:32and he was wielding a knife and put it to my throat
27:36and said, you're driving me out of the country, you know?
27:39From there, I just felt fear for him, so I drove him to Dover,
27:43and we went up to the ferry.
27:45He got me to point at the windows of Lyons,
27:48and he was in there.
27:48He forced me to drive him for three days to Porto, in Portugal.
27:55To extradite somebody from Portugal for a European arrest warrant,
27:59you need to have the evidence then and there to charge him
28:02with the offence that you're going to bring him back for.
28:04We never had the CPS decision to charge him for murder.
28:08The CPS are suggesting, should we have a scrum down,
28:11so we're going to come at 11am.
28:13We went through it all.
28:14I've sent Richard copies of his policy decisions.
28:16From that, he's going to formulate a little statement.
28:18OK.
28:21Whilst the Crown Prosecution Service
28:23refused to agree to a murder charge,
28:26police are able to extradite Watson from Portugal
28:29for a breach of his licence for previous offences.
28:33Illegal technicality means they are prevented
28:35from interviewing him again about the murder.
28:40The CPS remained sceptical.
28:44We continued gathering evidence for them.
28:47We wanted to understand from the CPS,
28:49what were the gaps, what were the issues,
28:51what could we do around some of the lies that Watson had told?
28:56One part of Watson's testimony remains especially problematic.
29:01So, it's these fences here.
29:03This fence here.
29:05How do we prove that he didn't pick him up over a fence?
29:09It's almost impossible.
29:12There was nothing. There's no CCTV, you know.
29:14There's no cameras on houses.
29:15There's no eyewitnesses.
29:17The witnesses that saw him with Ricky
29:18can't see round that corner.
29:20There's no-one else we know of.
29:22So, how do we prove he's lying?
29:27I was reviewing a lot of the HS tapes
29:30from all the news crews that came up to the estate
29:33just after the murder, just after we went missing.
29:36We had hours, hours of footage of just sitting there and watching them.
29:41I didn't know what I was looking for.
29:43Hundreds of dustbins on the estate have been searched
29:45and forensic teams will be examining many items of plastic
29:49and many items of clothing.
29:51And then there was this clip I saw.
29:54This guy just panned across like that really fast
29:57and I recognised the area to be Rotherby Grove.
30:01It showed the houses where Sylvia Clary and Evelyn Pollard
30:05looked out of their window and said
30:06they saw James Watson and Ricky Neve together.
30:09But the best part was it showed the alleyway.
30:15The alleyway is open at exactly the point
30:18he says it's fenced off.
30:23Right, so this is Rotherby Grove.
30:25We've got two witnesses from here, from back in 94.
30:29Both say that there was a digger out here
30:32and that they saw James Watson and Ricky Neve playing out the front, OK?
30:37Now, that becomes relevant because Watson says in the interview
30:40this was fenced off by a wooden fence with knot holes in it
30:45and he says that that's what we were looking through.
30:47There was diggers on that side as well, which is perfectly plausible.
30:52The BBC News crew stands at the end of that street
30:54and just pans down there.
30:55It shows that this alleyway was clear.
30:58The wooden fence didn't exist then.
30:59It's pure luck that we found a bit of footage that shows it's clear.
31:06Gold, absolute gold.
31:09That piece of footage was, in my opinion, the game changer.
31:12That was when we were able to say
31:15James Watson is definitely 100% lying to us.
31:18Fantastic piece of police work by John Foreman.
31:30The evidence is put to the CPS for a charging decision.
31:38I was contacted by the head of the CPS complex case unit
31:43who said to me, we've continued to look at this case
31:46and we don't think that there's sufficient evidence.
31:49We are going to recommend that it's discontinued.
31:52We knew there were some gaps and some weaknesses
31:55but we think that there is a case to answer.
31:58The CPS were quite concerned about another cracked trial.
32:05I would not accept it on behalf of the police.
32:08This is a marathon, not a sprint.
32:13The reinvestigation team have one last avenue to explore.
32:17They seek advice from a leading barrister.
32:20We had a couple of trips down to London and met John Price,
32:24chatted through some of the evidence as we saw it.
32:27He chatted through some of the evidence as he saw it.
32:31There is a scheme which has been in place for a long time now.
32:35It's called the Victim's Right to Review Scheme.
32:38Now, for the purposes of a case of homicide,
32:42a victim includes the bereaved family.
32:46And in this case, the person who, of course, therefore,
32:50was able to exercise the right to review was his mother.
32:54Granted permission to review the decision not to prosecute Watson,
32:58the police spent months sifting the evidence on behalf of the victim's family.
33:03The decision was made that there was sufficient evidence.
33:12It's always been known, because it was found at the post-mortem
33:15and it was examined at the time, that Ricky had Weetabix in his tummy,
33:22nothing else, just Weetabix.
33:27And the pathologist, because of where he found it,
33:34and the forensic scientist, quite independently,
33:37because of how much of it there was, what it looked like and how it smelt,
33:45both separately came to the conclusion that it had been very recently eaten.
33:51We reviewed the house-to-house and statements provided,
33:53and nobody on the estate had fed Ricky.
33:56We think Ricky leaves just after 9.30-ish?
33:59Yeah, I would say that.
34:01We start to get to a point where actually we're saying,
34:05Ricky has died at some point around about between 12 and 1.
34:14That's the time he's last seen.
34:15That's when the colours got nailed to the mast, actually.
34:17We must be talking about the morning here.
34:19And on that basis, we've got an A case.
34:24For 25 years, Ruth Neve has had to await for some sort of development in this case,
34:30and this morning, the news was broken to her and her husband, Gary,
34:34by Cambridgeshire police that they have charged a man with Ricky Neve's murder.
34:42To go through all of that and to eventually get the nod,
34:46we're going to charge, it was like, I can't believe this.
34:50Today's news is welcome, but it's only part of a much longer journey
34:54that still has some way to run.
34:56It wouldn't be appropriate to comment further,
34:59but what I am looking forward to is a good night's sleep
35:02that has been lacking over many, many years.
35:07The fight to have his extradition ruled illegal means more delay.
35:11Finally, 26 years after the original murder trial collapsed,
35:16a date is set to hear the evidence.
35:18128 witnesses.
35:21So 128 from us, 70 from the defence.
35:24I've not done a trial with as many witnesses as this.
35:28Being called, it's just astounding.
35:32OK, let's do it.
35:34Over 20 years of evidence must be transported to the trial in London.
35:41Bloody hell, Croc's a proper big old van.
35:44Court 1 of the Old Bailey is the iconic court.
35:48This is the place where the most serious cases
35:52are heard in front of a jury.
35:54Ian Huntley has been in there, John Christie, Seddon, the Poisoner.
36:00I think Lord Ho Ho was tried in Court 1 for treason.
36:05So it's a bit of a mystery, isn't it?
36:07Yeah, it's a bit of a mystery.
36:08It's a bit of a mystery.
36:09Court 1 for treason.
36:13So to actually be part of that process is surreal.
36:21If you put all of the pieces together, there is a formidable case
36:27that the person who killed Ricky Neve is James Watson.
36:32As long as our evidence is heard coldly and logically,
36:37I think we have a chance.
36:39All parties in Watson to Court 1.
36:53The prosecution case against James Watson begins.
37:01It's terribly difficult to assess how things are going when you're doing them.
37:05It's the old saying, isn't it?
37:07They're blinded by the dust of conflict.
37:10And how it seems to me is probably very different
37:13to how it seems to someone watching it.
37:18I believe that the case that we put before the jury
37:22makes sense of a great deal of the evidence,
37:25which otherwise can only be explained
37:29upon the basis that Mr Watson is the victim
37:32of the most extraordinary set of circumstances.
37:35As I sit here now, I believe that combination of circumstance
37:38cannot sensibly be explained by coincidence,
37:42because there are just too many of them.
37:47The problem we have, the jury have to believe
37:50that Ricky was dead by around about 12 o'clock,
37:57that he went into the woods with James Watson.
37:58The reason we maintain why that simple fact
38:03has been obscured over the years
38:06is because of the multiple purported sightings
38:10of the little boy around and about the estate
38:14by many witnesses after that time.
38:18He was last seen by a man outside these shops in Sculford Drive
38:22between 6 and 6.30 on Monday evening.
38:24He was with four or five other people
38:27He was with four or five boys up to the age of 11.
38:32And you've got to remember, some of these signs
38:33will include the red jumper.
38:34There's loads of them.
38:35We know that he wasn't wearing it.
38:37He wasn't wearing a red top.
38:39The clothing that was found in the bin
38:42didn't include a red jumper,
38:45and Ricky's red jumper was found at home.
38:49I think we've got to get to the jury
38:50about the phenomenon of ghost sightings, haven't we?
38:52Otherwise they won't...
38:53Just to kill it off.
38:54Yeah, because otherwise they'll believe
38:55that the sighting might be correct.
38:57A ghost sighting is a sighting
39:02genuinely held by the person reporting it,
39:05but one that we would say can't be true.
39:09More than 30 witnesses claim to have seen Ricky
39:11alive later in the afternoon.
39:14The prosecution case is that many accounts
39:16can be safely ruled out
39:18because Ricky was definitely not wearing his red jumper.
39:22Some are harder to dismiss.
39:25Within their statements,
39:26I think there's the description of him at 3.30.
39:29I saw Ricky on a pathway
39:32at the bottom end of Ilston Place,
39:34walking away from the direction of his home address.
39:37He appeared to me he was wearing his school uniform
39:39and walking along with his head down, looking unhappy.
39:42Does he say he spoke to him?
39:45No.
39:46I mean, if we're right...
39:47Yeah.
39:48And he's dead by that time.
39:51What is the explanation?
39:53What is the most likely explanation for their mistake?
40:01It's very difficult to suggest they've got the wrong child.
40:05They know him quite well.
40:06They have reason to remember him
40:08because of things that they've seen happening to him.
40:10Yeah, yeah.
40:14Yeah.
40:15That is the sighting which has always
40:18caused me the most anxiety.
40:22Yeah.
40:23Yeah.
40:26It will be said to the jury,
40:29bearing in mind that the prosecution have the burden
40:31of proving Mr Watson's guilt and of making them sure of it,
40:35that if any one of those witnesses
40:38who say they saw Ricky
40:40after the time when the prosecution say he was dead,
40:43if any one of them might be right,
40:46that's the end of the case.
40:48Yeah.
40:49Ricky isn't seen from midday, one o'clock, until 3.30.
40:54Yeah.
40:55Watson lied within that,
40:57so any places he said he'd been, we proved he wasn't.
41:00How on earth could Ricky have been concealed for that period of time?
41:04Yes.
41:04He wasn't, he was dead.
41:05And then all the other sightings.
41:06Exactly.
41:07Red jumpers, all the false things.
41:09And it was because he'd been killed.
41:10And it is quite stark when you look at it that way, really.
41:18So...
41:25After 11 weeks of witness testimony,
41:28evidence presentation and cross-examination,
41:31the jury are sent out to decide.
41:39You know, the motivation for me on this one in particular
41:42has always been for the six-year-old boy.
41:46No six-year-old boy deserves to die in any way, shape or form,
41:49let alone murdered, stripped and left in the woods.
41:54He would have been heading towards 40 now.
41:56For me, this has always been about trying to get justice
42:01and trying to get closure for his sisters.
42:09People say to me,
42:09oh, oh, it's your little brother.
42:12In my mind, yeah, yeah.
42:13Uh-huh, uh-huh, I'm saying that.
42:14Obviously, he's our older brother.
42:18Yeah.
42:20I was so small when it happened,
42:21so I have no actual memories of him.
42:24But my DNA was all over him,
42:27like when he walked out of that house that morning.
42:30So he must have given me some sort of love or affection
42:34or whatever before he went.
42:35And so I hold that quite close to my heart.
42:45Exactly.
42:52I've always maintained that if we ever did get this to court,
42:55first of all, it would be a miracle,
42:56but we would tell our story in the best way we could.
43:01A jury will sit there and think,
43:06yeah, I reckon he did it.
43:11But I reckon he did it and probably did it
43:14and that's not good enough.
43:16That isn't good enough to convict someone.
43:19There's a fine line between them thinking he did it
43:22and being sure beyond all reasonable doubt.
43:26All parties in Watson to court one.
43:30Let's go.
43:37After more than two weeks,
43:39the jury returned with a majority verdict.
43:45Brilliant, brilliant, it's unreal, mate.
43:50James Watson is found guilty of the murder of Ricky Neve.
43:54Oh, man.
43:57I can't believe he convicted him.
43:59I was convinced myself that that jury would come back not guilty.
44:02I totally convinced myself.
44:07I'm drained, if I'm honest, absolutely drained.
44:11Puts you to bed, doesn't it?
44:12It puts you to bed.
44:15Well, we finally know who killed him, don't we, Ruth?
44:17And not only that, we've convicted him of his murder.
44:20Yeah, we're not laughing now, is he?
44:22No, we won't be for a very long time, hopefully.
44:25No.
44:25I just can't believe it.
44:27Thank you for you and the team to spend all that time on it.
44:31I really, you just don't know how appreciative I really am.
44:41In 1994, a six-year-old little boy was robbed of his life.
44:47His parents lost a son and his sister's a brother.
44:52Nothing can take the pain of this heartbreaking case away.
44:56But we hope today's verdict gives the family the closure they deserve
45:02and the answers they've longed for.
45:05Our thoughts are very much with them at this time.
45:08What would you say about the original investigation?
45:10We have the benefit of being a dedicated homicide unit,
45:13techniques using DNA, new forensic and experts.
45:16There were lessons learned and there'll be lessons learned for the future.
45:20Well done.
45:20Well done.
45:21Fantastic.
45:21Fantastic.
45:22Well done.
45:22Absolutely brilliant. I couldn't believe it.
45:50Ricky's life wasn't always a tragedy.
45:59You know, Ricky did have a life.
46:03Believe it or not, he did smile and was cheeky and used to play.
46:10You can just imagine the kind of person that he would be today.
46:20Support information for the issues raised can be found online at channel4.com support.
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