The Abduction and Murder of 9-year-old Christopher Laverack
Solved 28 Years Later
Every other Friday, when not staying with his biological father, Christopher would spend the evening at his half-sister Kim’s house. On Friday, March 9th, 1984, Christopher’s mother Pam Cawley and his stepfather dropped him off at Kim’s home located on Harpham Grove, off Preston Road in east Hull at approximately 6:50 pm. Christopher always liked to watch The Fall Guy on TV at 7 pm and always enjoyed staying with Kim and her husband. Christopher was generally happy and was said to be a shy child. He was a good student and was part of the church choir, he enjoyed watching television and motorbikes.
At around 7:50 PM, Kim went to work at the local pub, the Crown. Her husband, Stephen, stayed home with Christopher and their young son, Martin. That evening, Chris’s mother and stepfather called into the pub to see Kim on their way to visit relatives. Christopher watched television for most of the evening and seemed occupied when Stephen checked in on him. The baby was asleep upstairs, so Stephen decided to go out. At 9:15 pm, Stephen went to the Crown pub, where Kim was working. Stephen was the last person to see Christopher alive.
A neighbour, known as Aunty Marj noticed that there was an unfamiliar car parked on Harpham Grove, at about 9:15 pm. She noticed that the headlights of the car were left on, but nobody was in the car. Marj heard the voice of a man outside, in front of Kim and Stephens's front door, she recalled the man saying “Stephen are you in, I want to talk to you”. Marj heard the front door open and then everything was quiet, so she went to bed. A few minutes later, she heard the car pull away. When later questioned by police, Marj said that she did not see the man’s face, nor could she make out what make and model the car was. However, she did describe its basic outline.
After an hour in the pub, Stephen returned home to find the baby crying upstairs, but there was no sign of Stephen and the television had been ripped out. Stephen ran to tell Kim and then called the police. Police started a search in and around the house. Christopher had never run away before, so his family did not think that could be a possibility. The search went on all night. The next day, police extended their search to the surrounding areas and in nearby waters. They found nothing. On Sunday, March 11th, 1984, at 11:20 am, Christopher’s body was found by a dog walker in Beverley Beck, 9 miles away from where he was taken from in Harpham Grove. Christopher had been wrapped in a Tredaire carpet underlay bag, weighed down by a brick. His cause of death was from severe head injuries from a blunt object, and he had been sexually assaulted. The police believe that he was killed on Friday evening. Forensics discovered that he died in a field which contained winter barley.
The police appealed to anyone who may recognize the bag. They asked if anyone had thrown away a similar bag to get in contact. They received about 80 calls, but nothing came of their enquiries. They also appealed to anyone who may have been near Beverly Beck between Friday and Sunday. They also appealed to anyone who had been asked to repair a television or if anyone knew of any used televisions for sale in the area due to the TV that had been taken from the house.
Suspects
Melvyn Read, Christopher’s uncle, identified Christopher’s body with other family members. At the time of Christopher's murder, Read lived just a 10-minute walk away from Harpham Grove. Police questioned Read, and despite the evening that Christopher disappeared, Read did not have a solid alibi for his whereabouts, but there was no evidence to point that he was the culprit. Police were interested in Read as he worked at a Beckside factory, near Beverly Beck, and he owned a car that had a similar outline to the one the Marj saw outside the house.
17-years later, in 2001, several boys accused Read of sexual abuse. He was arrested, charged, and spent seven and a half years in prison. Whilst in prison, police began looking at Christopher’s case again, as they were convinced that Read had killed Christopher. In 2006, Read was again arrested for Christopher's murder. However, their evidence was all circumstantial, so the Crown Prosecution Service failed to charge him with the crime. Read committed sexual abuse of boys for a long stretch of his life, all of which went unnoticed. He was, on the outside, a loving and dependable uncle and man, but he had a knack for being able to silence his victims.
The police were determined to prove that Read killed Christopher and kept searching for forensic evidence and DNA. A crucial breakthrough came from the clothing that Christopher was wearing when he was killed, along with one of the bricks used to weigh down the carpet bag in the river. Forensic ecologist Patricia Wiltshire linked some pollen and soil found on the clothing to Read’s garden. She discovered that, at one point, Christopher was on his knees and then laid face down in Read's Garden. She also proved that the brick found in the bag was the murder weapon. Christopher also had a bite mark on his buttock, similar to what was discovered on some of Read’s other victims.
Read died in prison in 2008 without ever being charged for Christopher's murder. The police thought that he had an accomplice, but this is unlikely to be ever proven. However, in 2014, Stephen, Kim’s husband, was arrested and sentenced to 5 years in prison for sexually assaulting two girls aged 8 and 10. There have also been reports that Christopher had shown signs of abuse before his murder.
The case was the longest-ever unsolved case by Humberside police.
Sources and Further Reading
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/aug/01/christopher-laverack-murder-case-closed
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Armchair Detective
Amateur writer, I mostly write about true crime.
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