Rikki Neave suspect ‘sexually assaulted a boy’
Accused killer James Watson sexually assaulted a five-year-old boy 18 months before he allegedly murdered schoolboy Rikki Neave in a wood, a court heard.
James Watson, 40, is accused of strangling six-year-old Rikki in Peterborough in November 1994, stripping and posing his body in a ‘star shape’ before dumping his clothes in a wheelie bin.
Watson was 13 at the time of the murder.
When he was 12 years old, he touched the genitals of a five-year-old boy in the lad’s bedroom at home on 14 April 1993, jurors were told today.
The younger boy’s mother reported the incident to the police.
In agreed facts prosecutor John Price, QC, recounted what the mother had stated.
Mr Price said: ‘She reported that [her son] had told her that James Watson had “touched his penis and rubbed it up and down”.
‘On the 14 April 1993, she provided further detail of her son’s complaint to the social worker.
‘She stated that while she had been getting [her son] ready for bed he had pulled back his foreskin and moved it up and down.
‘She asked him what he was doing and he replied that “James did it to him”.
‘He also told her that James had asked him to touch his, James’, penis and James had liked it.
‘James had told him not to tell anyone.
‘[She] stated that [her son’s] penis was “red” and he told her it hurt when he went for a wee.’
Jurors heard that the mother took her son to be examined by a doctor.
‘There was a slight abrasion and a sore area on the penis when the foreskin was pulled back,’ Mr Price said.
‘In the opinion of [the doctor] this was consistent with the foreskin having been forced back.
‘He could not say whether it was caused by another person.’
Later that afternoon, it is said, the five-year-old was formally interviewed by police and demonstrated for them a penis being rubbed and up and down and said that he and James had done this to each other.
He also told them that it happened in his bedroom and that both he and Watson ‘had their trousers down’, the court heard.
On 19 April Watson was interviewed at Thorpewood police station in Peterborough.
Mr Price said: ‘James Watson denied touching [the five-year-old] but said he had told [him] to “shake his penis after going to the toilet”.
‘He said they had gone upstairs to fetch some pyjamas and [the five-year-old] went to the toilet and when he had finished had “dribbled on the carpet”.
‘At the end of the interview James Watson was told by [police] that the incident would not be going any further although it would be held on records.’
The mother of the five-year-old boy, whose genitals Watson allegedly touched, gave evidence over a live link today (fri).
Mr Price asked: ‘Do you recall an occasion in April 93 when as a result of something [your son] told you, you contacted the police?
‘Yes,’ she said.
‘Do you recall that as a result of what you told the police the police then spoke to [your son] himself?’
‘Yes,’ she repeated.
Mr Price continued: ‘All I seek to establish from you, is when you reported to the police…did you do so truthfully?’
‘Yes I did,’ the witness replied.
Watson, of no fixed address, denies murdering Rikki between 28 and 29 November 1994.
Mr Price asked the witness about the false account of a two-year-old being strangled in Peterborough that Watson allegedly gave his mother.
The court previously heard that Watson’s mother, Shirley Cliffe, said in her March 1995 statement: ‘I have been asked to explain a comment I made to my partner’s daughter Melanie Giddings on Sunday 27 November.
‘Two days prior to this I had a conversation by telephone with my son James Watson.
‘James told me that a baby had been found over the dyke near Welland.
‘He wanted me to say if what he heard was true.
‘I told him I haven’t heard this before and knew nothing about what he said.’
Giving evidence earlier this week, Ms Cliffe said those details were not true and that she did not state them to the police.
Her stepdaughter Melanie Giddings also gave evidence and said: ‘I remember Shirley telling me that a child had been found strangled off the Paston Parkway.’
She told jurors that Ms Cliffe had said it was a two-year-old boy from Peterborough who was found naked.
Ms Giddings added that she heard the story ‘before’ Rikki went missing.
Today, the mother of the allegedly sexually assaulted five-year-old said she had also heard that same story.
‘On what day did you hear about this two-year-old child?’ Mr Price asked.
‘I believe it was the Sunday the 27th of November,’ the witness replied.
The prosecutor went on: ‘From whom did you hear about this two-year-old child?’
‘Shirley Watson,’ she said.
‘Did you learn where the two-year-old was from?’
‘From Paston [in Peterborough].’
‘What had happened to this two-year-old?’
‘He had been strangled,’ she said.
Finally, Mr Price asked: ‘And according to what she told you where had that happened?’
‘Off the Welland Parkway in the woods,’ the witness responded.
Jenni Dempster, QC, defending, pointed out that the house-to-house enquiries document, made on 15 December 1994, did not record the witness saying the child had been ‘strangled’.
‘Why are you saying, I suggest now for the very first time, that a two-year-old had been strangled?’ Ms Dempster asked.
The witness replied: ‘I was told that he had been found and there was a possibility that he was strangled. I don’t know why I didn’t put it in my original statement.’
The barrister continued: ‘Why didn’t you say to police at the time?’
‘I would have no idea to be honest.’
When asked if she could have confused her dates, the witness said: ‘It was before Rikki died.’
Jean Larkin, the manager of Woodgate’s children home in March, Cambridgeshire, where Watson lived in between November 1994 and August 1995 told the court how she found a catalogue of children and babies’ underwear under Watson’s bed.
The children’s home manager found the catalogue when she undertook a search of Watson’s room, jurors heard.
Mr Price asked: ‘Do you remember anything in particular that you found in his room?’
Ms Larkin replied: ‘So I believe that was the occasion when under the bed I discovered what I would call catalogue magazines, so they were magazines that were relating to children and toddler’s babies in clothing advertisements.’
Mr Price asked next: ‘What type of clothing?’
‘Underwear mostly or babygrows,’ Ms Larkin responded.
The prosecutor went on: ‘When you say under the bed do you mean under the bed or under the mattress?’
‘I don’t recall exactly that,’ the witness said.
Mr Price continued: ‘Had you observed anything about James’ behaviour which enabled you to form a conclusion as to why those articles may have been there?’
Ms Larkin replied: ‘I think forming a conclusion may be not the way that I would refer to it.
‘I felt there may be some further questions to be answered, because of the type of material that was found and because on previous occasions James had been overheard, and I believe overtly in public, to be masturbating, self-pleasuring.’
Jurors also heard about another discovery made in Watson’s room on a different occasion.
‘There was an occasion, I genuinely do not remember whether it was myself or it was brought to my attention, but I believe a pheasant carcass was found in James’ bedroom,’ Ms Larkin said.
In cross-examination Ms Dempster sought to clarify whether the home’s manager had actually seen the pheasant carcass itself.
‘I’m fairly certain I saw the pheasant whether I discovered it or not I can’t be certain,’ Ms Larkin said.
The barrister said: ‘I’m going to suggest that the most you would have seen is pheasant feathers not the body.’
Ms Larkin responded: ‘I believe that I would have seen a carcass that may have been dismembered.
‘There may have been parts of wings I don’t believe the carcass is an entire carcass.
‘I genuinely believe that I saw feathers attached still as a wing not just pheasant feathers.’
This detail about the pheasant carcass appeared in Ms Larkin’s second statement, made in January 2016.
Moving to Ms Larkin’s account of Watson’s masturbatory habits, Ms Dempster read from the same 2016 statement: ‘I think it might be that although James thought he was masturbating secretly he could be heard or was overtly pleasuring himself as if this was a normal thing to be doing in public.’
The barrister asked whether this was something Ms Larkin heard herself.
‘When I was asked these questions I was asked in 2016 but I can only be as clear as I was previously,’ she said.
‘I cannot a hundred per cent guarantee that I was a person who initially discovered that to be the case.
‘I think the point I was possibly trying to make is that there may have been a lack of discretion whereas my belief a child of 13 would have some inhibitions around that in a family home.’
The trial continues.
