Wild Justice: Lynn Siddons Murder

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A 20-year dispute over who murdered teenager Lynn Siddons on a canal towpath in Derby has ended after the Court of Appeal upheld the conviction against Michael Brookes. A friend of 16-year-old Lynn, Fitzroy Brookes, confessed to the murder, but was acquitted at his trial after accusing his stepfather Michael of the murder. I could have said nothing but I chose not to and the support I got from people afterwards was overwhelming and still is.” Read More Related Articles

The memorial was arranged by British Waterways and is located about two miles from Lynn's home in Sinfin. Mr Chittenden said he then made the decision to release the papers to solicitors acting for Miss Siddons's family. He said: "Among the information I handed over was evidence the boy told me and a psychiatrist of how he was scared of his stepfather, who would cut out pictures of women from the magazines and stab them with a knife.” This episode contains descriptions of crimes and events that some listeners may find disturbing or upsetting, plus there is a reference contained within the episode to a racial slur and the use of a discriminatory term that some may find offensive. It is contained within solely as it forms an integral part of a statement in the overall story canon, is not meant to cause offence, and categorically does not reflect the views of either myself, or the show. He was one of three men to set up Smith Partnership in the 1980s and 18-months ago said goodbye to the courtroom after a long and distinguished career.

Flo's daughter Gail Holford, said: "It was a long hard fight but my mum was always there at the front.

Flo Siddons and her family fought to find the man who stabbed 16-year-old Lynn Siddons more than 40 times. Within the papers was, Mr Chittenden said, evidence from Roy Brookes that he had been put up by his stepfather to take part in killing Miss Siddons with him. Read More Related ArticlesSpeaking at the time, he said: "Lynn Siddons's family had this incredible resolve and Flo was the driving force behind it all.

Justice, Mrs Siddons said: "We've been going for 20 years now and I am very pleased with the result."It also highlights the need for the right to appeal against indecent or unreliable decisions made by judges, juries and courts. A defendant must be proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and there are many jury decisions like this in which this criterion has not been observed.

While a motive can be detected in the case of the step-son, it is impossible to find one in the case of Michael Brookes. One would have to imagine one. A detectable motive for the boy using his step-father to carry the blame for the murder is that he was very immature, that he was still dependent on the protection and provision of the parent, and that he was homicidal. He was strongly attached to both his victims, and there is an interesting logic in the matter of this motive, because the physical weakness that is evident in the murder would not only have disappointed the boy's sexual success with the murdered girl, it would also have disappointed his self-esteem as the progeny of the 6 ft. 2 in. giant Michael Brookes, who was not his natural father, and who had not therefore passed his quality of strength to the boy, who must naturally look up to the parent and identify with it. The victims therefore share the same relationship problem for the killer, and they are combined in his motive. There is also a palpable tendency nowadays for the police to yield to pressure from the press in the matters of both detection and prosecution, and they are apparently suffering from the media bends. Though plainly dangerous, he had been a free man for more than 17 years after he murdered Lynn, and for 15 years during which he was exposed as a child murderer again and again in a mass-circulation national paper. Lynn's mother, Gail Halford, 53, said: "We are really pleased because he would have been a free man if he had won the appeal. Now he must serve his sentence. He deserved what he got." However, after Roy Brookes was cleared, Mr Chittenden was approached by an MP and asked if he, in any way, could help the distraught family of Miss Siddons.

Lynn's grandmother Florence Siddons, 83, who campaigned to bring her killer to justice, was in court to hear the appeal judges say they had "no lurking doubt" about the safety of 53-year-old Brookes's conviction. However, his defence collapsed the trial, and he was never convicted. Ever since then, Thatcherist politicians have taken up his example, using "spin" and jaw-flapping measures to scupper public intelligence over matters of national importance while they squander the nation's heritage for their own personal success. After the trial the step-son retracted his claim that his step-father had been involved.