Thirty Year Old Kent Found a Bag

All criminal offense has a victim and it is impossible to quantify the unimaginable damage of its impact.

But some crimes can daze communities in ways only the most seriously depraved acts can.

They can leave towns frail and in mourning for some time afterwards as the backwash is repaired to normality.

Kent has witnessed its fair share of major crime over the years simply some stick in the retentivity longer than others.

Even more than recent convictions of the likes of Ben Lacomba, Andrew Griggs and Samantha Ford will be spoken of for years to come up inside the communities afflicted.

Here are 10 crimes that shook the county of Kent and the criminals who have gone down in history among the worst of the worst.

Michael Stone and the Chillenden murders

The brutal killing of a female parent and girl in Chillenden shook the entire land and is arguably ane of Kent’s about notorious crimes.

They were bludgeoned to death with a hammer in a state lane well-nigh Canterbury more than 20 years ago.

On July 9, 1996, Lin Russell, 45, and her daughters Megan, half-dozen, and Josie, 9, were walking dwelling with their dog downwards a repose country lane afterwards a school swimming competition.

They were then set upon by an attacker who tied them upwards, blindfolded them and launched a savage beating.

Lin, Megan and the canis familiaris all died, while Josie miraculously survived despite suffering horrendous injuries.

In July 1997, constabulary arrested and charged Michael Stone, who was 37 at the time, with the crimes.

He pleaded not guilty at his offset trial in 1998 but was convicted after a witness claimed Rock had confessed to the murders while in prison.

Stone, who was living in Gillingham, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2001 for two counts of murder and ane for attempted murder.

Stone’southward original conviction was actually overturned on entreatment merely he was plant guilty in his second trial, based on the evidence of some other inmate.

He also appealed in 2004 but it failed.

On December 21, 2006, a High Court estimate ruled that Stone must spend at least 25 years in prison before beingness considered for parole.

He is serving three life sentences and is likely to remain in prison until at least 2023, when he volition be 63.

Stone has always protested his innocence, claiming he was not responsible for the deaths of Lin and Megan Russell.

In 2017, his legal team launched an appeal with evidence of a “full confession” by Bellfield, the killer of schoolgirl Milly Dowler.

All the same, this has already been denied an Appeal Court hearing subject area to a concluding ruling on Dec 2.

Patrick Mackay and Anthony Crean

Patrick Mackay is thought to be the UK’south longest serving prisoner and one of the country’due south well-nigh notorious serial killers.

He was built-in in Dartford and committed his concluding killing in nearby village Shorne.

At the historic period of 22, Mackay dissever Begetter Anthony Crean’s skull open with an axe and repeatedly stabbed him to death in 1975.

The killer was at the priest’south home when he committed the horrific set on.

They had get friends but fell out after Mackay was caught stealing an £eighty check from Father Crean.

On March 21, 1975, Mackay returned to Father Crean’s Shorne home and struck him through the head with an axe.

The Nazi-obsessed beast dumped the 63-yr-old’south body in a bath and started the taps running while watching him die.

Mackay was arrested presently afterwards.

Website Crime + Investigation explains: “Mackay lets himself into Father Crean’s cottage in his absence, and when the Father returns they fight in the hallway of the business firm.

“Crean manages to break gratuitous and locks himself in the bathroom just Mackay finds an axe and uses it to break through the door.

“He then stabs the old man repeatedly in a frenzied set on, finally killing him by striking in the caput with the axe.

“Later on that evening a nun, who is concerned near the whereabouts of Father Crean, makes a horrific discovery.

“She finds him, floating in a bathroom full of bloody h2o.”

Mackay was found by police in Stockwell in Due south London on March 23, 1975, 2 days after he had killed Male parent Crean.

That November he was handed a life sentence in prison with a minimum term of twenty years.

Mackay was also convicted of two previous killings but admitted to 8 more than unsolved murders before retracting his confessions.

The Tonbridge Securitas robbery

The biggest ever cash robbery in British history happened right here in Kent.

This time thirteen years ago, a ruthless gang conspired to comport out not only one of the land’south most shocking criminal operations ever – just the 2nd largest scale cash raid in earth history.

At effectually 6.30pm on February 21, 2006, the manager of the Securitas cash depot in Vale Route, Tonbridge was abducted while driving his silver Nissan Almera on the A249 in Stockbury.

Colin Dixon had been kidnapped and was taken to a subcontract in Staplehurst, where his wife and eight-year-quondam son were too taken.

Held at gunpoint, the men told Colin that failure to cooperate could put him and his family unit in danger.

They were all then taken to the Securitas depot in Tonbridge in a white van at around 1am, at present on February 22, while still being held at gunpoint.

Armed with AK-47s, shotguns, handguns, a Škorpion and wearing balaclavas, xiv members of staff at the depot were bound by the robbers.

Later on a terrifying two hours, the robbery finally came to an end and the assailants fled at effectually two.45am, leaving the staff, Colin, his wife and their son locked in cash cages.

Fortunately, ane member of staff had a key to unlock the cage she was trapped in and was and so able to free the others once out.

Information technology took half an hour to raise the alarm merely thankfully no one was injure.

£53,116,760 in bank notes was stolen from the greenbacks depot.

The Banking concern of England, which owned the money at the Securitas depot, was reimbursed £25 million by Securitas the same day of the robbery.

The but more lucrative cash robbery worldwide was when $one billion was stolen from the Central Bank of Iraq after the United States started bombing Baghdad in March 2003.

Stuart Royle, Roger Coutts, Lea Rusha and Jetmir Bucpapa were all jailed for life for their part in the Securitas depot robbery.

Emir Hysenaj was sent down for 20 years, while former mixed martial arts fighter Lee Murray was later on sentenced to 25 years in prison house for his part in the heist.

At to the lowest degree 36 arrests were made during the extensive police investigation before a trial began for Royle, Coutts, Rusha, Bucpapa and Hysenaj on June 26, 2007.

On January 28, 2008, a guilty verdict was returned by the jury for those 5.

Murray wasn’t jailed until June one, 2010 in Morocco – his initial sentence was just 10 years simply information technology was later on increased to 25 years.

Peter Tobin and the bodies buried in Margate

It has been more than a decade since the bodies of two girls were discovered bound, gagged and murdered in a Margate garden.

They had been victims of notorious Scottish serial killer Peter Tobin, who is currently serving three life sentences.

Tobin had been sentenced to 21 years in prison in May 2007 for the rape and murder of Polish student Angelika Kluk.

In November of that year, police started digging in the garden of his Irvine Drive home in Margate.

Officers were investigating the murder of Dinah McNicol, an 18-year-one-time girl from Essex who went missing in Baronial 1991.

Forensic teams then fabricated the shocking discovery of not but young Dinah’s torso but also that of fifteen-yr-old Vicky Hamilton.

The Scottish teenager had gone missing just months earlier Dinah – in February 1991.

She had last been seen in Bathgate, lost and asking people for directions, as she fabricated her way home after spending the weekend with her sister.

Simply the mystery of her disappearance became clear when forensic teams who had been earthworks came beyond two bin bags containing her body.

The youngster had been abducted from her West Lothian hometown and later on raped and murdered.

Just a few anxiety away from her torso, they as well plant that of Dinah, who had been bound and gagged.

Dinah, who had just finished her A-Levels when she was murdered, had last been seen in August 1991 hitchhiking abode with a male companion she met at a music festival in Hampshire.

The pair had been picked up by a man who promised to take her to Brentwood and later on her companion was dropped off on the M25, she was never seen over again.

Both bodies had been covered by a thin layer of cement before being re-covered with soil.

Tobin had initially moved to the Irvine Drive address when he took part in a business firm swap with a Margate couple in March 1991 – five weeks after Vicky had gone missing and 5 months earlier Dinah disappeared.

David Martin, who lived next door to the serial killer, remarked how normal he had seemed and how he and his wife had advised their teenage daughter to go to Tobin’s business firm if they were not home.

Tobin had once told the unsuspecting Mr Martin that he was creating a sandpit for his son – he was actually excavation the graves.

On December 2, 2008, Tobin was convicted of Vicky’due south murder and on December 16, 2009, he was constitute guilty of kidnapping, drugging, raping and murdering Dinah.

In Dinah’due south instance, it took the jury but 13 minutes to detect him guilty.

Tobin currently resides in HM Prison house Edinburgh where he will spend the rest of his life. He was diagnosed with cancer in January and reportedly “on the verge of death”.

Anthony Imelia – the M25 rapist

The M25 rapist who never showed remorse for any of his crimes died in prison house while making a bid to exist freed from behind bars.

Sex brute Antoni Imiela who lived in Appledore was given his name as the M25 rapist afterward he targeted women and young girls near the London orbital pike.

The 63-year-old had spent less than 14 years in jail before he died of heart problems in March concluding yr at Wakefield Prison.

Imiela was behind bars for raping nine women and girls between 1987 and 2002, with the youngest victim existence 10.

Former railway worker Imiela would take hold of his victims, oftentimes beating them or ­threatening them with a knife.

The German national moved to England in 1961.

His first attack dated back to 1987 when he raped a woman on Christmas Day. The last was in 2002 when he ­indecently assaulted and attempted to rape a girl of 10 in Birmingham.

Det Supt Colin Murray, who led the investigation, called him “without exception, the worst criminal I have always dealt with”.

Imiela rang the mother of one victim, aged 25, after an attack and said: “You know your girl? I’ve just sh*gged her. You’ll hear about it later.”

The fauna was ­sentenced at Maidstone crown court in March 2004.

Although he was given vii life terms the judge ruled he should serve a minimum of only eight years.

Fearing he could be freed, prosecutors afterward pursued another rape case from 1987 and in 2012 he was convicted and sentenced to a further 12 years.

Imiela never admitted a sex ­offence.

Delyth Andrews: The three brothers who carried out a 7 hr WWE attack and killed her

On November 16, 2015, Scott, Adam and Joshua Knight viciously attacked 54-twelvemonth-one-time Delyth Andrews in one of the most brutal attacks in contempo years.

The trio beat out the woman in her Ramsgate habitation for at least six hours, kicking and jumping on her and practicing wrestling moves on her.

Ms Andrews was left with a broken dorsum, as well as cleaved ribs and bruising, and died 7 weeks later.

Both Adam and Joshua Knight were teenagers at the time of the attack.

Scott Knight told police force that he and his brothers had smoked the drug Spice before the set on on Ms Andrews.

Their victim had originally taken in the brothers’ homeless female parent rent-free in early 2015 and they also moved in within weeks, at which point they began bullying her.

They were all convicted of murder on July xiv, 2016 and were sentenced to life with a minimum of 23 years.

Tunbridge Wells bedsit murders

It has been more than than xxx years since 2 immature women were discovered expressionless in bedsits in Tunbridge Wells.

Wendy Knell’s body was discovered dead in her bedsit in Guildford Road on June 23, 1987 and Caroline Pierce, 20, who lived in a bedsit in Grosvenor Park, was murdered v months later on.

The circumstances were remarkably similar, and both cases stunned the nation. As notwithstanding, no killer has been brought to justice.

Both cases were connected by constabulary due to their similarities and dubbed ‘The Bedsit Murders’ by the public, but despite pregnant advances in forensic science and DNA analysis, the killer has still not been brought to justice.

Police force believe the murderer broke into Wendy Knell’s bedsit via a back window which was insecure because information technology could not be locked equally the latch was painted over.

Only when investigating the 25-year-onetime’due south room, officers said at that place were no clear signs of forced entry and no ane had heard anything from the flat.

The previous solar day Wendy had left her chore at SupaSnaps on Camden Road at about 5pm and went home after going to the banking company.

Later on she went to her boyfriend’s house, where she spent the evening with him and his mother watching boob tube.

At about 11pm, he dropped her off at her basis floor bedsit. He kissed her farewell on the doorstep just never saw her once again.

She was wearing blackness cords, a black leather jacket and carrying a crash helmet.

The investigation also established that Wendy’s keys with a distinctive keyring and diary were missing and have never been found.

Some fourth dimension that night Wendy was sexually assaulted, beaten and strangled. She was left naked on her bed, covered past a duvet. Constabulary believe her attacker got into the flat through the faulty window.

While almost three decades accept passed since Wendy’s death, Kent Police retains a full Dna profile of the prime suspect and detectives remain committed to identifying her killer and bringing them to justice.

What about Caroline Pierce?

The 2d bedsit murder in Tunbridge Wells of Caroline Pierce on November 24, 1987, remains formally linked past Kent Police and under review past cold case detectives from the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate.

Caroline was concluding seen at about midnight when she was dropped off by a taxi at her habitation after a dark out with friends.

She was wearing a long black brim and a red jumper. Caroline was attacked outside her abode and was non seen alive again. Several neighbours reported hearing screams.

Caroline’south keys, with the Buster Browns eatery play a trick on where she worked, accept never been found

Her naked body was found 40 miles abroad past a subcontract worker in a dyke in a remote field well-nigh St Mary in the Marsh on Romney Marsh three weeks after.

She had besides been sexually assaulted, beaten and strangled.

Kenneth Noye – the M25 killer

Kenneth Noye had been in prison for more than 2 decades before his release in June.

Following a minor collision on the Swanley slip road of the M25 in 1996, he killed a young man in a fit of road rage.

He stabbed 21-year-old Stephen Cameron, fled the scene and left him for dead at the side of the road.

His fiance, Danielle Cable, 17, had been driving his Bedford Rascal van on a trip to London to buy bagels.

Not used to driving his vehicle, they were involved in a minor collision with Noye’south Land Rover.

Simply rather than walking away, the killer pulled a knife out, walked back to the young couple and stabbed Stephen, who was unarmed.

His parents Ken and Toni Cameron received a devastating knock on the door simply when they arrived at infirmary it was too late, Stephen was dead.

Noye immediately fled the state and the police force search to detect him became an international chase.

Early police appeals said officers were looking for an Anthony Francis.

But by December 1996, it was revealed this had been a false identity.

Police had traced the nighttime green 50-plate Land Rover Discovery described as belonging to the man who killed Stephen, which had left the scene.

They establish it had been unloaded in Kyrenia in Cyprus in July that year and discovered the killer’s existent name was known gangster Kenneth Noye, who was on licence.

His criminal career took many paths, including his part in a huge money laundering of stolen gilt bullion taken during the Brink-Mat robbery by six armed men in November 1983.

While he was existence investigated for his interest, Noye fatally stabbed Detective Constable John Fordham, who had been function of the police surveillance of his home.

Incredibly, Noye was acquitted of murder on the grounds of self-defence.

Instead he was jailed in 1986 later on being found guilty for handling some of the stolen gold and conspiracy to evade VAT.

Despite his attempts to melt the stolen gold, which were worth £26 million in total, police constitute 11 aureate bars hidden in Noye’s home.

He was sentenced to 14 years before being released in 1994.

Noye was notwithstanding on licence for this offense when he fatally stabbed Stephen on the M25.

Following the assault Noye arranged for the Land Rover he was driving to be scrapped and an identical vehicle placed on the bulldoze of his £400,000 home.

He fled to France using a helicopter and then used a individual jet to reach the Spanish capital Madrid.

Noye travelled on to the Canaries and the Cote d’ivoire before going into hiding under an causeless named nearly Cadiz on the Costa del offense.

By 1998 he had a Spanish girlfriend and was posing as “Mickey the Architect”.

When police eventually traced him, Miss Cable was taken to a eating place in Kingdom of spain where Noye was eating. “That’southward the man who killed Stephen,” she whispered.

The next day Noye was ­arrested. He was tried at the One-time Bailey.

Noye had been serving fourth dimension at Standford Hill open prison house on the Island of Sheppey but was released from prison in June.

Deal billet bombing – IRA kill 11 Marine bandsmen

At 8.22am on September 22, 1989, the clock stopped ticking at the Royal Marine Depot in Deal.

xi Royal Marine bandsmen were killed in an explosion which likewise injured a further 21 marines.

The bandsmen were not combat-trained. Other than being musicians, their role was to occasionally requite medical help such as commencement aid.

A timebomb containing 15lb of explosives tore through the base of operations of the Regal Marines School of Music building, habitation to the globe’s most respected armed services ring.

It was planted by an IRA team who sneaked in after spying on the base for days.

Simply the bombers behind the IRA’s attack on the billet remain at big.

Despite one of the most extensive investigations in Kent Law history, there was insufficient evidence to prosecute anyone.

Detectives continue to appeal for new information in the example.

Claire Tiltman and the killer who attended his victim’s funeral

The brutal stabbing of an innocent teenager who was on her fashion to her meet a friend stunned Kent.

Information technology took 21 years to bring Claire Tiltman’s killer to justice later officers spoke to more than ane,500 witnesses.

The brazen killer Colin Ash-Smith fifty-fifty phoned constabulary the day afterward the attack to acknowledge he was at the scene.

Claire was just sixteen when she was attacked completely unprovoked on her style to see a friend nigh her habitation in Greenhithe, well-nigh Dartford, on Jan xviii, 1993.

The Dartford Grammer School for Girls pupil, who was in Year 11 at the time, cutting through an alleyway on her journey, merely well-nigh 100 steps away from a busy master route, she was attacked.

Claire was stabbed twoscore times in what was described as a “frenzied and remorseless” attack, four days afterward her 16th altogether.

Several witnesses saw Ash-Smith hurrying abroad from the alley moments after the stabbing, and gave detailed descriptions of him to the police.

Just over a month later Ash-Smith, from Swanscombe, had the gall to attend his victim’south funeral, surrounded by her grieving friends and family unit.

Unbelievably he showed up to the sad occasion on February 25 wearing the same beige jacket he had on when he stabbed her to death.

The former milkman was fifty-fifty interviewed again past police on the same solar day, having been quizzed by them a calendar month before.

Ash-Smith was interviewed on two other occasions in the weeks afterward the murder and kept changing his story.

At that time, he was already known as a trigger-happy offender but they failed to observe enough evidence to accuse him with Claire’due south murder and he continued to deny having annihilation to do with the killing.

In 2003 the case was reopened subsequently a change in the law meant jurors were allowed to hear nigh a defendant’due south bad graphic symbol during their trial, including any previous convictions.

It was non until a cold case review launched 20 years subsequently the murder that police interviewed Ash-Smith’s associates from prison.

He was already serving a prison sentence in Wakefield prison house for attacking two other women.

When they spoke to one of his pals Stefen Dubois, real proper name Molliere, he told the officers that Ash-Smith had described seeing a girl on a zebra crossing, ‘snapping’ and stabbing her multiple times.

Dubois idea he was talking nigh his attack on Charlotte Barnard, but that stabbing did not take place virtually a pedestrian crossing.

Officers realised that Ash-Smith must have been talking about Claire’southward murder, which happened yards away from a zebra crossing.

Constabulary finally had enough evidence to charge Ash-Smith with murder in Feb 2014, 21 years subsequently Claire died.

He was charged on the day he was due to be considered for release by the parole board, having already served eighteen years of a life sentence for his 2 previous attacks on women.

Just he was told on that twenty-four hours he would spend a minimum of 21 years behind bars.

Ash-Smith is currently imprisoned at HMP Durham.