‘I did not kill my son Rikki’
Cleared mum speaks at man’s murder trial
THE mother of Rikki Neave insisted yesterday that she did not murder him 27 years ago.
Ruth Neave said she was telling “nothing but the truth” when she denied killing Rikki, six, in 1994.
She was later cleared of murder, but said yesterday she was “bullied” into pleading guilty to child cruelty and neglect. She was jailed for seven years but was freed in 2000.
Ms Neave, now 53, was giving evidence for the prosecution at the Old Bailey murder trial of JamesWatson.
Watson, 40, is accused of strangling Rikki and leaving his naked body in a “star” pose in woods near his home.
Prosecutors say traces of his DNA on Rikki’s clothes prove the then 13-year-old was the killer.
Watson, of no fixed address, denies murder.
Rikki was seen with Watson near Rikki’s home in Peterborough, in Cambs, on the day he died, the court was told.
His body was found by a police officer the next day after Ms Neave called 999 when Rikki failed to return home from school.
During the initial investigation, detectives believed Ms Neave, who has three other children, had killed Rikki at their home and dumped his body in the woods.
She was charged with murder in 1995 but cleared by a jury at Northampton Crown Court.
John Price, QC, prosecuting, asked her yesterday: “What did you say when you were asked if you murdered your son?”
Speaking via a video link asWatson watched in court, Ms Neave said: “No, I did not.” Mr Price asked: “Was that the truth?” She replied: “The truth and nothing but the truth.”
Ms Neave, who changed her cruelty and neglect denial to guilty midway through the 1995 trial, added: “I pleaded guilty because I was bullied into it. And I didn’t know what I was pleading guilty to.”
The court heard that on the day he died, Ms Neave had a disagreement with Rikki over a box of chocolates. She said he gave some to a neighbour and “the way I understood it, he had given her a box of chocolates and not me”.
She added: “I asked him why he didn’t give me any and he said, ‘Well, there’s no reason why I would have got you any’.”
Jurors were shown pictures of the inside of the home, including a bedroom Rikki shared with an older sister before she went into care.
Ms Neave said by the time she was arrested on suspicion of Rikki’s murder, her other children were in care.
The court heard Rikki’s clothes, discovered in a wheelie bin near his body, were re-examined during a cold case review, where forensic experts found traces ofWatson’s DNA.
The trial continues.