The hunt for a man called Ste

THE Scott Pritchard murder probe remains open as detectives try to trace killer Karen Tunmore’s mysterious friend ‘Ste’ who was with her when she battered the teenager to death.

The 36-year-old, from Killingworth, told police that she had travelled to Sunderland with a friend called Steve or Ste, a member of Wearside gang the Hendon Mad Dogs, on the night Scott was killed.

And after Tunmore bludgeoned Scott to death with a baseball bat, the pals disposed of the murder weapon and her car together, she claimed.

However, despite making full confessions to the murder Tunmore has refused to reveal Steve’s full name to police.

After she was jailed for life at Newcastle Crown Court, Det Chief Insp John Bent, of Northumbria Police, has told how detectives will not give up until they trace the man who, like Tunmore, has carried a dark secret for almost 15 years.

And he is now appealing to anyone who knows who Ste is, to get in touch.

In police interviews Tunmore revealed the true story of how and why Scott was killed.

Det Chief Insp Bent, who led the new investigation into Scott’s murder, explained how she told detectives that she had met a lad called Steve, who was known as ‘Ste’ and from Hendon in Sunderland, at a car rally and they became friends through their mutual interest in cars.

She went on to reveal how when Ste owed her money he said he would pay her back after retrieving cash he was owed by Scott, who Tunmore had never met.

Det Chief Insp Bent said Tunmore, who was in her late teens at the time, admitted that she was a violent drunk when she was younger.

And she told detectives she had been drinking heavily on the night in question, so Ste drove them from Tyneside to Hendon, in Tunmore’s car. The friends found Scott, whose leg was injured and in plaster, walking with crutches near his family home, on Lindsay Close in Hendon.

Tunmore said that when Ste asked him for money he briefly went into his house, but then came out saying he did not have any cash.

The killer then claimed she ‘saw red,’ took a baseball bat from the car, and battered Scott.

Det Chief Insp Bent said Tunmore says she and Ste left Scott to die and set about disposing of the car and the weapon.

Since Tunmore’s confession police have been trying to discover Ste’s real identity.

Officers have spoken to former members of the Hendon Mad Dogs, and witnesses from the original murder probe ion 2004.

But so far all efforts have proved fruitless.

“She is absolutely adamant that she is the one that killed Scott and doesn’t describe Ste as having as any part of in that attack, but we still want to speak to him,” Det Chief Insp Bent said. “Any information will be gratefully received. A lot of the Hendon Mad Dogs were spoken to at the time. It was a very difficult enquiry. It wasn’t a community that enjoyed police presence.”

Det Chief Insp Bent says if what Tunmore is saying is true, Ste would be in his late 30s now.

He said: “She describes him as having lateral scarring on the left side of his head, and dark brushed forward hair.”

Anyone with any information is asked to call Northumbria Police on 101.