Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
‘The police were clutching at straws ...there was not a scrap of evidence’
Despite two trials and a failed appeal, the sister of convicted killer Michael Stone continues to protest his innocence 24 years after he was arrested for the Chillenden murders. Now, as new evidence is looked at and her brother’s parole date nears, she spoke with senior reporter Nicola Jordan about her crusade and how her life was also changed forever by the horrific crime...
Barbara Stone was finishing a cup of coffee before setting off to her course at Midkent College when she got the call that turned her world upside down.
Her older brother Mick had been charged with one of the most heinous murders in modern British criminal history – the savage hammer attack of a mum and her daughter as they walked home from school.
On July 9, 1997 – a year to the day after the killings – Michael Stone was arrested at his Gillingham home for the attack in an isolated country lane in Chillenden, near Canterbury.
Dr Lin Russell, her daughter Megan, six, and the family’s pet dog Lucy were brutally attacked.
Dr Russell’s other daughter, nine-year-old Josie, was left for dead – suffering horrendous injuries and brain damage.
Mum-of-two Barbara – then a 35-year-old mature student – could not believe what she hearing.
She said: “I nearly fainted. I felt numb, dead.”
One of five children, Stone had a fractured childhood, his parents separated and he was placed in a home where he was abused.
His criminal career started at the age of 12 when he was
‘People look at me and say that’s the murderer’s sister, she must be as mad as a hatter, a bit deluded’
caught shoplifting, this progressed to violent crime into adulthood.
After coming out of the care system he started using heroin and served several prison sentences.
He would steal from garden sheds, mug people and take anything he could sell for his next fix.
But despite his troubled past, Mick and Barbara remained close.
She said: “We were alike, apart from the criminal element. We had the same thought processes and sense of humour.
“He was a bit bossy and a bit of over-protective.”
Barbara was aware of his darker side but said: “I was too much into my sport.”
Growing up in Maidstone town centre, she attended the former Vinters Park School, now Valley Park School, played netball and korfball.
From day one, Barbara was adamant her brother was a victim of injustice and has fought tirelessly to prove his innocence.
She said: “It soon became clear the police were clutching at straws. There was not a scrap of evidence.”
An overwhelming factor for her was that Mick adored children and it was unthinkable he would ever harm a child, let alone brutally attack one.
Despite Stone being handed three life sentences in 1998, convicted again at a second trial in 2001 and losing an appeal in 2005, Barbara has continued campaigning.
Not only did she support him as the case went through the courts, she often turned detective researching and following up leads.
Stone has not been out of the headlines much over the last 25 years as any possible grain of new evidence is scrutinised.
Registered mental health nurse Barbara said: “I wake up every morning and think of him in his cell. I feel a bit of me is missing.”
Chillenden is worlds apart from her brother’s seedy drugs scene in Medway, but what happened there has totally impacted on Barbara’s life.
The 59-year-old added: “In 24 years, my children have grown up and it has affected my parenting and I have had to deal with the emotional trauma of losing both my parents.”
Their four-times married mother Jane died just before Christmas and father Peter died several years ago.
She said: “It has also impacted on my career
choices. I can’t work in prisons or have anything to do with forensics.
“People look at me and say that’s the murderer’s sister, she must be as mad as a hatter, a bit deluded.”
The 300-mile distance between her home in Chatham and HMP Frankland in County Durham where Stone is being held has meant she is unable to visit him as much as she would like.
But they talk every day. She said: “Mick rings me once or twice a day. He’s all right, focused on his artwork and exercise, but at the moment he’s very anxious about Levi Bellfield’s revelations and him admitting his connections with Chillenden.”
The Bellfield statement is considered a major breakthrough in potentially linking the murders with him and is being considered by Stone’s legal team, which still awaits the outcome of a criminal review of his case.
Barbara added: “Mick wants Bellfield’s DNA tested, but that is proving difficult and Mick has always said he is prepared to do a lie detector.” After that harrowing call 24 years ago, Barbara has tried to carry on with being a daughter, mum and successful career woman.
“Even after being told, I went to college that day, followed by the press,” she said.
But she pledged from that moment to fight for her brother’s freedom.
“I don’t want to die with Mick still in there. Twenty-four years later and I’m still fighting for him.
“If he does come out I dream of making all those people who said such nasty things apologise on Facebook.”
Stone, who is now 61, is due to be considered for parole next year, but is unlikely to be released without confessing to the crimes.