A convicted child killer who was last week convicted of rape and false imprisonment has died in a secure hospital.
Pickering, 80, died last night after being taken ill in a psychiatric hospital in Berkshire where he was being held. West Yorkshire Police said his death is not being treated as suspicious.
Pickering was convicted of raping and killing Shirley Boldy in 1972. He was convicted last week of raping an 18-year-old in 1972 just weeks before he killed Shirley.
His recent convictions for the rape came about as a result of a renewed investigation by West Yorkshire Police into the murder of Wakefield schoolgirl Elsie Frost who was killed in 1965.
Det Supt Nick Wallen, of West Yorkshire Police Homicide and Major Enquiry Team, said: “We can now formally confirm that Peter Pickering was the man we arrested and interviewed over the last two years as part of the renewed investigation into the murder of 14-year-old schoolgirl Elsie Frost in Wakefield in 1965.
“We strongly suspected that Peter Pickering was responsible for her murder. We had been liaising with the Crown Prosecution Service and it was our expectation that Pickering would be charged in due course.
"His unexpected death clearly means that will no longer happen. We have informed all those involved in the case of this development and we will be liaising with the West Yorkshire Coroner as to what proceedings are now necessary in relation to Elsie Frost’s death.”
