Rocky Marciano Price, 17, guilty
Price after his arrest
A TEENAGER who murdered a teaching assistant in woods close to her home and moved her body in a wheelie bin has been named as Rocky Marciano Price.
The 17-year-old attacked Lindsay Birbeck, 47, at the beauty spot while on the prowl for lone females.
He was caught on CCTV as he wheeled the bin to a cemetery where he then buried the mum-of-two.
She was found naked wrapped in two plastic bags 12 days after she went missing last August.
A judge removed
Price’s right to anonymity after he was found guilty at Preston crown court on Wednesday.
He is named after the late US boxer Rocky Marciano, world heavyweight champion from 1952 to 1956.
Mrs Justice Yip said: “This was a dreadful crime which, understandably, generated strong public interest.
“The public will naturally want to know who this person was as they come to terms with something that rocked the local community.”
Mrs Birbeck had left home for a late afternoon walk to the woods known as the Coppice, in Accrington, Lancs. Price, who was 16 at the time, is believed to have pounced and killed her shortly after she arrived.
His parents took him to a police station several days after Mrs Birbeck was found, when police released a CCTV image of a young male pulling the blue bin. Price admitted taking the bin from the Coppice to Accrington cemetery. But he claimed he was not involved in her death and that a mystery man had promised him a large cash reward if he disposed of the body.
He has been diagnosed with autism and attention deficit disorder, and his teachers at a specialist school described him as “pretty much non-verbal”. He will be sentenced today.
Lindsay Birbeck