THE family of a 14-year-old girl who was fatally stabbed in 1965 has won a High Court bid for a fresh inquest after new evidence pointed towards a convicted child killer from Barnsley
Elsie Frost was stabbed to death as she walked home in Wakefield and although there did not prove to be a successful prosecution over her murder at the time, convicted child killer Peter Pickering - dubbed the ‘Beast of Wombwell’ - was expected to be charged before he died in March last year.
Pickering stabbed and strangled 14-year-old Shirley Boldy in Wombwell in 1972 and was suspected of murdering Elsie. Shortly before he died, he was convicted of raping a woman weeks before he killed Shirley and was waiting to be sentenced.
West Yorkshire Police said Pickering died after falling ill in a secure psychiatric accommodation in Berkshire and his death was not treated as suspicious.
After Pickering’s death, police confirmed he was arrested and interviewed as part of a renewed investigation into Elsie’s murder.
Det Sup Nick Wallen said West Yorkshire Police ‘strongly suspected’ that Pickering had been responsible.
The attorney general, Geoffrey Cox QC, said there was new evidence which an inquest in 1966 did not hear following a campaign by Elsie’s siblings, Anne Cleave and Colin Frost, who started a Crowdfunding campaign last summer in order to keep the case in the public’s minds.
A statement said: “We had to persuade the Attorney General that it is in the public interest to hold a new inquest. We can then approach the Chief Coroner to request the new inquest.
“While Peter Pickering would not be named in the findings of the new inquest, West Yorkshire Police would have the opportunity to reveal all the evidence they found against Pickering resulting from the enquiries of the last three years.
“Ian Bernard Spencer (who was originally accused of Elsie’s murder) spent the rest of his life with this dreadful shadow at his back, knowing he was totally innocent. Ian died in March 2018 and West Yorkshire Police had visited him to advise him that there was to be a charge against a major suspect and he would be totally exonerated.
“For local people, who have been so deeply affected by what happened to Elsie, it would mean the closing of a dark chapter.”
A post-mortem examination revealed Pickering died of a retroperitoneal haemorrhage due to a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm. It also showed he was suffering from heart disease and the hearing was told Pickering had previously suffered a heart attack in 1996.
Mr Spencer always maintained he was innocent, something which the Frost family accepted.
Mr Frost said he thought Pickering had ‘got away with the perfect murder back in 1965’, which was ‘very, very frustrating and very upsetting’.
