Girl’s ‘true killer’ found after 40 years, court hears
DNA sample leads to former soldier standing trial for murder despite another man being jailed
A FORMER soldier who raped and murdered a schoolgirl in 1976 was trapped by his DNA 40 years later – even though another man had already confessed to the killing, a court was told .
Janet Commins, 15, was attacked and killed on her way to meet friends in Flint, North Wales, in January 1976. Noel Jones, then 18, admitted killing her and was jailed for 12 years for manslaughter.
But yesterday a jury at Mold Crown Court was told that the real killer was Stephen Hough, now 58, whose DNA matched a sample stored for more than four decades that had been found on Janet’s body.
Mark Heywood QC, prosecuting, told the jury there was only a one in a billion chance that the DNA found on Janet’s body could be from anyone else but Mr Hough.
Mr Heywood told the jury that Mr Jones, now 59, admitted killing Janet, but claims he was innocent and only confessed because of police pressure.
“This is not a retrial of Noel Jones or an appeal against his conviction,” Mr Heywood said. “But the prosecution case is that there is support for Jones’s claim that he was not Janet’s killer and, in all the circumstances, you can be sure that Stephen Hough was.”
Janet went missing in January 1976 after slipping out of her home in Flint to meet a friend at the swimming pool.
In a statement given to police in 1976, her mother said she had not wanted Janet to go, but later on that evening she found that her daughter had sneaked out, leaving a note saying she would be back by 8.30pm.
Her body was found by three girls four days later, hidden in bushes near a school’s playing fields.
Mr Heywood said Janet had been choked to death during an extremely brutal sexual assault. After her murder, all men aged between 17 and 22 in the area were asked to account for their movements and those who could not were questioned.
Mr Hough, who turned 17 the day after Janet’s body was found, was questioned but claimed he had been stealing petrol on the night of the killing. He was later charged with theft.
Mr Heywood said that Mr Jones was interviewed by police and made a signed confession to raping Janet and said she had died during the struggle.
Mr Jones was prosecuted for murder, but pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter and served six years of a 12-year sentence.
Despite the conviction, samples of DNA found on Janet’s body were stored and a national database was established in 1995.
In 2006, there was a cold case review and the preserved samples were checked in order to establish a DNA profile of the killer.
Mr Heywood said: “In 2016, police had occasion to take a sample of Mr Hough’s DNA.
“The circumstances of that are of no significance but a match was indicated to the sample from 1976.
“This major DNA profile matched the DNA profile of Stephen Hough.”
Mr Hough from Flint denies murder, rape and buggery.
The trial continues.