Crime Agency joins hunt for killer of PCSO
THE lead police agency against serious crimes has joined the hunt for the killer of PCSO Julia James, as Kent Police vowed to “leave no stone unturned” to bring justice to her grieving family.
Investigators from the National Crime Agency are to help the force find the 53-year-old’s killer.
They were spotted assessing the crime scene on Friday and will provide “specialist support and advice” to aid the local force.
An NCA spokesman said: “The major crime investigative support unit is providing specialist support and advice to the ongoing Kent Police investigation.”
Kent Police said they are following a number of lines of inquiry to establish a motive for the killing, including a sex attack or revenge for her role as an domestic violence officer.
No arrests have been made over the attack, which took place just a few hundred yards from her home in the hamlet of Snowdown.
Mrs James, who joined Kent Police in 2008, was bludgeoned to death as she took her Jack Russell terrier for a walk around 4pm on Tuesday after finishing a shift working from home. She was not in uniform at the time. Kent Police left a floral tribute among dozens of others at the old Snowdown pit wheel memorial, in the centre of the former mining village of Aylesham, yesterday.
A message on the bouquet stated: “For our dear colleague Julia, A service so highly regarded. A precious life so tragically taken. We will leave no stone unturned. Your colleagues.”
The NCA is the UK’s lead agency against organised crime, trafficking, cyber crime and economic crime across regional and international borders. It can however be tasked to investigate any crime.
The search for clues has begun to move away from the rural bridleway where Mrs James was found dead near Ackholt Woods.
Investigators yesterday combed nearby fields, tracing possible routes the killer could have used to escape.
It comes as Mrs James’s uncle Michael Turnbull pleaded for the public’s help to find her killer “before he can cause more grief to another family”.
Writing on Facebook Mr Turnbull said: “Julia has been taken from us by some worthless cowardly excuse for a human being for no other reason than his own sense of self-gratification to justify what he did, leaving behind a family full of broken hearts and sadness.”