Police ‘ignored’ witness who saw killer digging
Locals now hunting for bodies of missing ‘Milk Carton Kids’
THE source who sparked a fresh hunt for the ‘Milk Carton Kids’ claims police ignored him for almost 25 years as he brought forward what volunteers and a leading criminologist called “credible” evidence.
Volunteers – including the brother of David Spencer, one of the teenagers who vanished – began digging up a site over the weekend.
Police urged people not to “take matters into their own hands” and asked them not to attend the unofficial Solihull dig.
But this week saw dozens of volunteers descend on Damson Wood Lane, next to the Solihull Moors FC ground, to help dig in an effort to find David Spencer, 13, and Patrick Warren, 11, who went missing on Boxing Day 1996.
Mike Amyes, 59, from Solihull, came forward with new information after a recent Channel 4 documentary by Birmingham City University criminologist Professor David Wilson.
That programme revealed fresh links between convicted child killer Brian Field and the missing boys. Field has always denied any involvement in their disappearance.
Prof Wilson said out of hundreds
of emails he received following the airing of In the Footsteps of Killers, Mr Amyes was the only “credible” lead he followed up on.
Mr Amyes claims he knew Brian Field for “about 12 years” and used to drink with the now convicted child killer 1990s.
Field was jailed for life in 2001 for the kidnap, rape and murder of Surrey schoolboy Roy Tutill in 1968.
In the documentary, it was alleged Field had been seen with the David and Patrick in the days before they vanished.
Mr Amyes said he saw labourer Field digging and filling in holes at the site behind the Solihull Moors FC football ground in 1997 when meeting with him to borrow some tools.
Field reacted angrily when approached, Amyes claimed, who then made the connection when Field was convicted.
Mr Amyes claims to have contacted police several times over the 25-year-period but was only interviewed once by West Surrey Police in 2001 where he was asked to provide a character reference.
He added he was “very confident” the volunteers would find something at the site of the dig.
Mr Amyes said: “I’ve been asking for this for a long time. The police have never got in touch with me to
come down and have a look or anything.
“I spoke to David after the documentary and things started to happen because it was publicised.
“And then the volunteers have come down all on their own back and it makes me feel relieved. If I can do anything for the family for closure I will do it.
“The reaction I got when I saw Field digging was not in his character. He was a bit nasty to me so it stuck in my mind.
“I came to borrow some gardening stuff from him. So I drove down and spoke to him and he was really rude and nasty to me. So I went back into the club and said ‘who’s upset Brian?’
“When it all came out I made the connection. From day one of his sentence I always referred back to that morning.”
Mr Amyes said nobody had listened until now.
“In 24 years the police have never come down here or asked me to come down here or re-interviewed me.
“They’ve never dug here, they’ve never been here. And the social circle that I had that knew Brian, they’ve never been interviewed or anything either.
“I’ve been waiting for this for 24 years. When you see a convicted murder digging holes and filling in holes and nobody does anything for 24 years, it’s about time.”
In a statement relating to the unofficial dig, a West Midlands Police spokesman said: “We understand there are many frustrations and a lack of trust around our initial investigation and the many reviews we’ve carried out since.
“We also know a group has been set up encouraging people to take matters into their own hands and dig at the back of a football ground in Damson Wood Lane.
“We’d urge people not to do this. Searching should be left to us and is based on areas of interest, we use trained specialist experts who are able to preserve any evidence that may be found.
“We’re in touch with the Spencer family, and others, who are providing new information.”
In 24 years the police have never come down here or asked me to come down here or re-interviewed me