The heartbroken mother of an eight-year-old girl found strangled with her throat cut more than 43 years ago has called for justice after a coroner recorded a conclusion of ‘unlawful killing’ in a re-opened inquest.
Margaret Bailey said her daughter Helen’s death had ‘blighted’ her family and left her ‘grieving for all these years’.
Birmingham coroner’s court heard today that John Sir, also known as Kenneth Etchells, who had made three ‘entirely consistent’ confessions to killing the schoolgirl between 1978 and 1979, claim he had invented then to get into Highcroft mental hospital.
Helen Bailey was found by her father lying in a woodland near Birmingham with her throat slit the day after she disappeared on August 10.
She was dubbed Little Girl Blue after it emerged that she was wearing her favourite dress when she vanished.
A murder suspect has told a reopened inquest that his three ‘entirely consistent’ confessions were invented. Helen Bailey, 8, (pictured) was found in woodland with her throat slit a day after she disappeared
Helen’s mother margaret (centre) and older brother Adrian (left) arrive at Birmingham Coroner’s Court this morning. Coroner Louise Hunt recorded a conclusion of unlawful killing and said she would ask the Crown Prosecution Service to re-open the case
The 86-year-old mother said she ‘wants closure’ and ‘want this man named’.
‘We’ve waited 44 years to this day,’ she said, ‘so that we can get closure for Helen’.
After her husband found Helen’s body she said he stood by it for three hours so he could identify her when the coroner arrived. The was ‘tormented every day’ by the experience.
‘I have grieved for all these years,’ she said speaking about her daughter, ‘she’s never left me really’.
‘She’s with me all the time, I’m talking about her all the time, my friends all know about her, and my family, everybody knows about it.
‘It’s just blighted our lives. So now it would be lovely to have closure – a bit late.
‘But better late than never.’
Sir John, now 72, said that he had made up the confessions in order to get into hospital
After recording a conclusion coroner Louise Hunt said she would ask the Crown Prosecution Service to re-investigate the case.
They had previously refused unless there was new evidence.
The retired receptionist said her daughter Helen had disappeared a few days before the family were due to go on holiday to Cornwall.
She had been desperate to play games with her sibling and his friends after bathtime, but after going out searching for them she was never seen alive again.
Sir was arrested in 2014, after the statements emerged during a cold case review in 2012, but claimed he lied about murdering Helen.
Appearing in Birmingham coroner’s court via video-link wearing a yellow t-shirt and glasses, he said he couldn’t remember what happened because it was ‘so long ago’.
‘I only know what happened to Helen Bailey from what I heard or saw in the papers or whatever’, he said.
‘I remember being admitted to hospital in 1978 because I was feeling suicidal and I wanted somewhere to sort myself out.
‘I had taken quite a serious overdose. I recalled myself because of problems. And I wanted somewhere to sort myself out.
‘I confessed to the murder to make myself interesting to them. To ensure I got in.
‘I didn’t think wanting to kill myself or my wife was enough.
‘I can only say it was a coincidence [that my confessions were consistent with later post mortem findings].’
Asked if he was responsible for Helen’s death, he answered: ‘No.’
When asked if he could provide any information as to how Helen came by her death, he said: ‘No.’
When asked if he owned a penknife at the time he paused and eventually said: ‘I may have owned a penknife, as I go fishing, but it would have been in with my fishing tackle.’
The inquest heard Sir made three confessions to the murder while undergoing psychiatric treatment at Highcroft Hospital, in Birmingham.
A post mortem examination carried out by pathologist Dr Nathaniel Cary in 2012 showed she had been strangled prior to her throat being cut.
This is a feature of Helen’s death which the original pathologist missed, the inquest heard.
The inquest heard Sir, now 72, admitted strangling Helen before cutting her neck with a penknife as she was still breathing to medical staff.
Detective Chief Superintendent Caroline Marsh said: ‘I have no doubt in my mind. I believe the perpetrator was Kenneth Etchells [Sir] and there are no outstanding suspects in this inquiry.
‘Etchells/Sir described to medical staff how he killed Helen by strangling her and then cut her throat with a pen knife when he realised she was still breathing.’
Helen’s mother Margaret Bailey, who attended the hearing, said in a video interview played to the court: ‘I just want closure.
‘I would like to think I can finish my life and know justice has been done for Helen.’
The inquest heard Sir attacked his mother in 1991 with a hammer. She never recovered and died months later from pneumonia.