Murder accused ‘did not recognise girl in photo’
Murder accused Stephen Hough answered “no comment” to a string of questions put to him by detectives after being arrested on suspicion of raping and killing Janet Commins 41 years ago.
Transcripts from the interviews recorded after he was taken into custody last year were read out at Mold Crown Court yesterday, where the 58-year-old, of Maes y Dre, Flint, is currently on trial.
He told officers he would answer “no comment” to things he couldn’t remember and referred them to a statement he made in 1976, when after being brought in for questioning, he admitted he had been masturbating in his car and siphoning petrol on the night the teenager went missing.
Shown pictures of Janet a few months before her death, and of Noel Jones, who served half of a 12-year sentence after pleading guilty to her manslaughter, Hough said he didn’t recognise either of them.
In interviews carried out by investigating officer DC Philip Williams Hough is asked what he can tell them about Janet’s death, to which he replied: “No comment”.
He confirmed he was living in Maes y Dre in 1976 with his parents, two younger brothers and sister, but admitted that during school holidays he would stay in a tent in his grandparents’ garden nearby for privacy.
He told them he had had many jobs since leaving school at 16, until he joined the army at 21, having failed a medical to become a pilot in the RAF.
He said he enjoyed playing ice hockey and rugby and liked working on the fair in Rhyl in his teenage years, when his father had bought him a car for his 17th birthday.
His social life was skating, he told police in interview.
He described himself as athletic and said “for a 16-year-old, I was quite big, with long hair, 5ft 10” tall and around 13 stone 8lb.
In the interview, Hough is asked if there’s anything he can recall about when Janet went missing, and said he can remember being interviewed by a police officer in 1976 when he “got done” after claiming he’d been siphoning petrol.
He told detectives he remembers two things his mum told him about Janet’s death at the time, one was not to play in the Gwynedd (School) anymore and the other was that Janet was a cousin. But when asked what he remembered about the police activity at the school grounds, where he used to play hide and seek, he answered “no comment”.
DC Williams said: “Janet’s death would’ve been the talk of the town in Flint. How did you feel about it?”
Hough replied: “I’m not prepared to say at this time.”
He denied he followed the case of Noel Jones because he “didn’t read newspapers or watch telly,” and said he recalled nothing about what was “big news at the time”.
Hough was told he was forensically linked to Janet Commins and the postmortem examination results were put to him.
Asked if he was responsible and how his semen came to be on Janet’s trousers, he also answered “no comment”.
Hough denies raping and murdering Janet, whose body was discovered in bushes near Gwynedd School playingfields on January 11, 1976. She had been choked to death.
Earlier the court heard that a 15-year-old boy told police he thought he saw a “shadowy figure” lurking behind trees when he saw Janet talking to two older boys in the hours before she went missing.
The trial continues.