HAS ELSIE’S MURDER BEEN SOLVED AT LAST?
An arrest 51 years after the brutal killing of a schoolgirl offers hope to the brother and sister who never gave up their quest for justice
NEW HOPE: Chris, above, and Anne, far right, whose sister Elsie, right, was murdered Locals named him as Peter Pickering, who was born in Manchester and has links to Yorkshire, and who would have been in his late 20s when Elsie was stabbed to death.
Senior investigating officer Det Sgt Nick Wallen said: “We have now bailed a man who was arrested pending further inquiries. Our investigations into Elsie’s murder remain very much ongoing.” When she heard of the arrest, Anne said it was a “step in the right direction”.
She said: “It has been a bit of a rollercoaster ride. We were aware that there had been mistakes in the early days but the police have worked really hard on our behalf to get this far in the past year. You are never quite aware what you will feel like when these announcements are made. We have both felt queasy and a bit stressed when we found out about the arrest.
“We don’t know how things are going to develop. When you have got something you are looking for, and that is justice, then you have to keep pushing for it. We want justice for Elsie.”
Her brother added: “We didn’t want to die thinking we had not done anything. The ultimate aim is getting justice for Elsie in whatever shape or form it may be.”
There is someone else who deserves justice – the man who was wrongly accused in 1966, Ian Spencer. He’s now 82 and suffering from dementia but his son has long campaigned on his behalf. Even though the charge against him was dropped when the prosecution offered no evidence, his good name was tainted for ever.
HE HAD been arrested in extraordinary scenes which would not happen as the law stands today. At the end of the inquest into Elsie’s death the coroner ordered that Spencer, one of 40 witnesses who had given evidence, should be arrested on suspicion of Elsie’s murder.
Spencer was then a 33-year-old railway worker who had an alibi – that he had been at home on the afternoon of the murder. But other witnesses thought they had seen him near the murder scene at the time he said he was at home.
He was eventually brought before magistrates and the prosecution had to admit they had no evidence. Because of the seriousness of the charge, Mr Spencer had spent two months in custody before a judge was able formally to clear him and set him free.
It was one more twist in a murder case that had stunned the community. Elsie was attacked as she walked through a 30ft railway tunnel just off the towpath of the Calder and Hebble Canal. She had been watching friends sail on what is now Horbury Lagoon and decided to take a different route home to them.
As she walked along she was knifed from behind – twice in the back, twice in the head and once through the hand as she tried to shield herself. Covered in blood and screaming in agony Elsie managed to stumble through the tunnel to the bottom of what locals called the ABC steps – a steep flight of 26 steps up to the main road.
But weakened by loss of blood and severe shock she was unable to make it and fell back into the muddy track below and died. Her body was later found by a dogwalker, who raised the alarm.
Scotland Yard were called in to assist and the police went from door to door interviewing every man living in the area – 12,000 in all – but no clear evidence of the killer’s identity was found. Tracker dogs were used and divers searched the canal but the murder weapon was never found.
Fifty-one years later, when news of the arrest was broken to him, brother Colin said: “As a family, we’re very pleased. All we wanted was to be taken seriously. We were aware that mistakes were made in 1965 but we’ve been impressed with the commitment of West Yorkshire Police in the reinvestigation – the number of officers involved, the number of agencies involved. We wanted the investigation to be reopened and that’s what we’ve achieved.”
In an earlier interview he recalled the time before the murder and said Elsie had been like a mother to him. “She was just a sweet, sweet person. She was lovely.”
Sister Anne said: “When Elsie and I played schools, she liked to be the teacher, when we played hospitals she was the nurse and I was the patient – even though I was four years older than she was. She was often very funny because if she couldn’t make me better with our standard treatment – using a pencil as a magic wand – she would resort to just ‘kissing me better’.
“It was her caring nature and that came out in the way she looked after Colin while mum was at work after I left home to get married. We were both keen readers and we went through the church hymn book marking up our favourites. At one point we couldn’t agree so we ended up using a pencil to mark Elsie’s favourites and a Biro to mark mine. I still have that book.”
It is a treasured memory of the sister she loved and for whom for 51 years she has fought for justice.