For over 25 years, the family of Judith Roberts believed the murderer that committed this crime was behind bars. But all is not as it seems.
On June 7, 1972, 14-year-old Judith Roberts left her family home in Wigginton near Tamworth, Staffordshire to embark on a cycle ride.
But that very same day, her battered body was discovered underneath a heap of hedge clippings and discarded fertiliser bags in a field, not far from home.
Police worked out that she was dragged off her green bicycle, before being beaten to death and discarded where her body was discovered.
The murder inquiries
This discovery led to an intense murder hunt, one of the most intense in the history of the Midlands. Around 200 detectives were involved in the case. Between them, they took over 15,000 sets of fingerprints, undertook 11,000 door-to-door inquiries and took over 11,000 statements.
Over 4,000 pieces of information were acted upon by this huge team of police.
The inquiries had been ongoing for four months before the police believed they had their first real breakthrough. 17-year-old Andrew Evans, an Army recruit, confessed to her killing.
Nervously, he approached detectives after he was disturbed following a dream in which he believed he saw Judith’s face and requested to see a photo of her. He was quoted as saying: “I keep seeing a face. I want to see a picture of her. I wonder if I’ve done it.”
Police asked him if he’d ever even been to Tamworth, and Evans’ response was: “I don’t know. I don’t know. I could’ve been. I forget where I have been.” And when asked if he murdered Judith, he replied: “This is it. I don’t know. Show me a picture and I’ll tell you if I’ve seen it.”
Was this a hoax?
Originally, police weren’t sure if this was a hoax. Evans, a teenager that had been prescribed medication to treat depression, was believed to be a fantasist. His confessions, which he seemed to get more adamant about as questioning went on, were not seen as credible.
After three days of questioning, in which Evans’ parents, a doctor or a lawyer were not present at any stage, he confessed to the murder.
Evans’ alibi was that he was in his barracks in Lichfield, not far from Tamworth, with three other soldiers. Police discredited this story because two of the soldiers had left the barracks before the time of the murder and the third was untraceable. Now, the police were certain they had their man.
But, by the time the trial came around in June 1973, 12 months after the murder, Evans believed that he was innocent of this crime. But he still couldn’t support his alibi with any credible evidence.
The Trial for the murder of Judith Roberts
Shockingly, Evans was injected with a truth serum during his hearing. More on this later. But both prosecution and defence teams agreed on the use of the drug, so Evans was given it.
During the trial, no other evidence, save the confession, was presented. No scientific evidence was produced, and no eyewitnesses were presented in front of the crown court.
Evans’ lack of an alibi, and a doctor testifying that Evans was suffering from amnesia, led to his conviction for Judith’s murder, and he was passed down a sentence of life imprisonment.
He was advised he had no grounds for appeal, so Evans accepted his fate. Evans spent the next two decades in prison, before the British media took an interest in his case in 1994, and was taken up by Justice, a human rights group when Evans got in contact with them.
Justice or injustice?
During his stay in Verne Prison in Dorset, Andrew Evans had a chance encounter with Steve Elsworth. In 1994, Elsworth was at the prison giving a talk on behalf of Greenpeace and met Evans after. Elsworth later returned to interview Evans, and as Evans recounted his story, Elsworth took detailed notes. He passed his notes onto two producers at Carlton Television, which featured the case on Crime Stalker, a regional TV programme, and produced a documentary on the case called The Nightmare.
During this period, Evans also wrote to Justice pleading them to take his case on, and they did just that. Evans’ team won the right to appeal against his conviction. In 1997, Evans’ case returned to the court, this time it was the Court of Appeal of England and Wales. This hearing was told that in 1972, Evans was on prescription drugs to treat depression, and the judges were critical about the way the case was handled by detectives. It was also during this trial that the use of a truth drug was questioned. It was here that the judge was told this drug produced false memories. After the appeal was heard, the court overturned the original conviction.
Evans was released. As of his release, the time he spent in prison was the longest period served by an individual in the United Kingdom as a result of a miscarriage of justice. Evans was awarded £750,000 in compensation from the Home Office.
Who is the killer?
This case remains unsolved, although a few theories have surfaced since the original conviction was overturned.
Some people even think that Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, could be responsible for 14-year-old Judith Roberts’ death. It’s widely accepted that Sutcliffe’s murder spree started in 1975, but historic files have since revealed that he could’ve been active from around nine years prior to that date.
Historian and forensic psychology student Sarah Clark has put Sutcliffe’s name to this murder amongst seven other unsolved cases she was researching.
Clark reports that a man matching Sutcliffe’s description was spotted at the scene in 1972, and a car seen at the spot also matched that of Sutcliffe.
Although these links seem strong, many other people believe that it’s an easy conviction by putting Sutcliffe’s name to murders that occurred in this area around this time, and no formal connection has ever been corroborated. But the method of murder matched those that were committed by the Yorkshire Ripper – a head injury caused by a blunt object.
For more on the connection to Peter Sutcliffe, check out this article from the Birmingham Mail back in February 2019.