‘Easy going,’ quiet student turned violent murderer after prowling for ‘lone females’
JON MACPHERSON
ROCKY Price calmly walked away from the Coppice two hours after murdering Lindsay Birbeck. His tracksuit top was unzipped, his chest was bare and his knees were wet.
With nothing but his own two hands the 16-year-old had just inflicted catastrophic injuries, leaving the teaching assistant’s neck cartilages completely crushed before causing more damage by “stamping, kicking or kneeling” on her neck.
Price was a stranger to Lindsay. They had never met before. It was a completely unprovoked attack carried out while Price was “prowling” the area looking for “lone females”.
Without panic or fluster and acting completely alone, Price hatched a plan to hide Lindsay’s body in a wheelie bin before burying her naked body in Accrington Cemetery five days later. This was the same cemetery his namesake grandfather and other family members were buried in.
During his eight-day murder trial many details were heard about the teenager which we could not report fully until now.
Price lived with his parents Martina, 37, Creddy, 47, and five siblings in the Whinney
Hill area of Accrington. This has been the Price family home for around three decades.
With a significantly below average IQ level of 65 and a diagnosis of autism and ADHD, the special educational needs pupil attended The Alternative School in Barnoldswick several afternoons a week and was described by teachers as “very quiet, pretty much non-verbal most of the time”.
Price, now 17, would barely engage in conversation, even when it was on a topic he was interested in like chickens. He loved taking care of chickens on his family’s farm and also enjoyed watching films, including Westerns, and playing on his Xbox.
A psychologist had assessed Price in 2015 as having “limited understanding of his own emotions and his own emotional well-being” and also “appeared to have little insight into the connection between events and emotions”. Another report in 2016 described the teenager as having “no stranger awareness and needing supervision outside”.
Timothy Bradley, who taught Price in his class for 18 months at The Alternative School, said they always looked at ways to engage him in education but he preferred “practical things” over academic subjects like maths and English.
Mr Bradley told the trial: “He used to enjoy doing artwork. We used to do gardening as well with the local community group or help sand down and varnish a bench. He is a very strong walker. We did the bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award with him which involves walking 13km and camping for a night and then going for a walk the following morning which he would complete no problem. He was definitely a strong lad for his age.”
Mr Bradley said in all his time at the school he found Price to be “easy going and quite placid” and they “never saw any aggression from him at all”.
Headteacher Kirsty Swierkowski had known Price for three and a half years and previously taught him on a one-to-one basis. She described how Price’s mother Martina - who he called “mam” - was “desperately worried about her son’s ability to cope with the world as he grew up” and was looking at the possibility of him studying landscape gardening at Myerscough College when he left The Alternative School.
Mrs Swierkowski said she had never seen Price get angry before and if he didn’t want to do something “he would just simply say no”.
“There was no drama, no kicking off. He just wouldn’t do it,” she told the trial. “There was no whinging or whining. He’s always been a positive pupil in school. I’ve never had any issues with him.”
Teachers said Price was always well dressed and well presented at school and never one who was “motivated” by money, unlike some of his school peers. If he ever needed something his family could provide for him.
Mrs Swierkowski said she was first alerted by another staff member to the media appeal on August 27 showing Price on CCTV pulling a wheelie bin along Burnley Road in Accrington.
She described Price as possibly “being open to exploitation” due to his “vulnerabilities” and later told police: “Rocky has never caused us any issues which is why this has come as a shock.
“When I was first made aware of this my initial reaction was that he could be asked to do something and he would do it without question. He is somebody who will either do something or not do something but he might not necessarily question what he is being asked to do.”
Detectives confirmed during the murder trial Price had never been in trouble with the authorities before and had no previous convictions, reprimands, cautions or warnings.