Kent Murders (Sutton True Crime History)

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The only physical evidence connecting Constance to the crime was a missing nightdress — that Whicher believed Constance was wearing when she killed the child. Two years later members of the Staff Band of the Royal Marines School of music were in their recreation room in Deal when a bomb went off. As his barrister concludes, it comes down to which of three men – all found guilty of murder – do you believe: Stone, Bellfield or Daley?

A full DNA profile, which police believe belongs to the killer, was created from crime scene evidence in 2008 but "a missing piece of the jigsaw has yet to be traced".

Scotland Yard Investigates The Murder Of Francis Savile Kent

Mr Dighton said: "I have still got hope that it will be done and dusted one day and they will catch who did it." The full list has been revealed by Kent Police and, despite many fresh appeals as well as more modern forensic techniques, the killers of these 40 people have never been caught. Hulton Archive/Getty Images Constance Kent was 16 years old when her brother’s body was found behind her house. Despite numerous appeals for information and multiple arrests, police have never been able to make any significant progress, leaving his family desperate for answers.

The impact on the people involved in those first moments is both harrowing and clearly emotional all these years later. Michael Stone has been behind bars since he was first arrested in 1997 As Jim Fraser, head of forensic investigations at Kent Police at the time, says: “Could he have done it? Yes. Did he do it? That’s a completely different question.” Kent Police’s only contribution – other than historic clips and comments from former employees – is merely a submitted statement at the end of the programme insisting that Stone has been tried and found guilty on two occasions. The detonation caused the building to collapse and a further 21 people were injured but the people responsible have never been found. That trip to his local shop in Gillingham was the last time he tasted freedom. Barbara Stone –sister of Michael –has long campaigned for his releaseIt does not appear to us that the Road-hill murder has become any the less mysterious even now that Constance Kent has confessed and has come under the penalty of the law,” penned Harper’s Weekly. In just April this year, the parents of Wendy Knell asked the public for help to establish the identity of their daughter's killer. When I came out of the appeals court the media were there,” says Stone, “and they shouted out ‘Michael’. I shouted out, right at the top of my voice ‘I’m an innocent man’ to reach the media. And if you look at my face [in still photographs] it looks like I’m going psychopathic or something – but I’m actually shouting ‘I’m an innocent man’. He concludes: “Josie and Shaun Russell blame me for that crime. It really tears me apart thinking they think I did that. That’s the worst part of it. I want them to know I didn’t do that.” Dr Shaun Russell and his surviving daughter Josie moved out of Kent after the murder

After a month of desperate searching, the 19-year-old’s decapitated body was eventually discovered buried beneath branches in woodland adjoining the nearby Warren Retail Park. Richard Leivers – the Kent Police officer who saw the dead bodies and carried Josie Russell from the copse when he noticed she was still alive – speaks of the profound impact it still has on him all these years later. “Nothing,” he reflects, “could prepare me for what I saw.” Explains Stone’s barrister, Mark McDonald: “From that meeting, we got a lot more detail. We had the description by Bellfield, of what they were wearing, how he did it, who he hit first, how he murdered them, who he tied up, how he’d killed the dog. He said he knew the area very well. Bellfield wanted to get it off his chest, but Bellfield said we couldn’t tell anyone. That it was just between ‘you, me and CCRC’. Within hours it was leaked to The Sun newspaper. As a result of it being leaked, Bellfield goes up the wall. He writes to Kent Police saying ‘it’s all a load of lies – I’m withdrawing it’But despite repeated efforts to overturn his conviction, it is only in the last few years any real opportunity for any case to be presented to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) has emerged. Formal identification has not yet taken place, however, the family of a 54-year-old woman reported missing from Upstreet on Wednesday 23 August are aware. The death is being treated as suspicious and on 24 August a man in his 20s from Margate was arrested on suspicion of murder.” Stone, himself, features heavily – heard in telephone conversations with his long-time barrister, Mark McDonald, with whom he speaks “every day”. Scotland Yard investigated. The public followed the case closely in the press. But the main suspect, 16-year-old Constance Emily Kent, refused to confess to the crime. The police eventually released her and young Francis’s death went unsolved.