|
Name: |
Raymond Leslie Morris |
|
AKA: |
Cannock Chase Murders
A34
Murders |
|
D.O.B. |
13
August 1929 |
|
Kill
Total: |
3 +
? |
|
Kill
date: |
1966
& 1967 |
|
Kill
Place: |
Staffordshire |
|
Status: |
|
|
Occupation: |
|
|
Victim: |
Margaret Reynolds
Dianna Tilt
Christine Darby |
|
D.O.B. |
|
Margaret |
1960 |
|
Dianna |
1961 |
|
Christine |
1960 |
|
|
Court: |
Staffordshire
Assizes |
|
Judge: |
|
|
Prosecution: |
|
|
Defence: |
|
|
FACTFILE
8th
September 1965, Margaret Reynolds went missing on
way to school in Aston Birmingham.
30th
December 1965, Dianna Tift went missing
on her way to her grandmother's house in Bloxwich
12th
January 1966, the bodies of children Margaret
Reynolds, age 6, and Diana Tift, age 5, were found in a
ditch at Mansty Gully on Cannock Chase in Staffordshire.
14th August
1966,
10-year-old Jane Taylor disappeared from the Cannock
area and has not been seen since,
Morris is considered by many to be the main suspect.
19th August 1967, Christine Darby was enticed
into a car by a strange man near her home in Camden
Street, Walsall.
Witnesses in Walsall said that they saw a man in a grey
car who spoke in a local accent,
22nd August 1967, a soldier who was a member of a
search party found the sprawled, naked body of
seven-year-old Christine Darby beneath brushwood only a
mile away from where Reynolds and Tift were discovered.
16th November 1968 Raymond Leslie Morris,
was taken to Cannock court, charged with the murder of
Christine Darby.
Morris was jailed for life at Stafford Assizes for the
brutal murder of seven-year-old Christine Darby 18
months earlier.
The verdict ended the seven-day trial of Morris which
had attracted unprecedented public interest with queues
more than 100 people long forming each day for seats in
the public gallery.
Morris, who is frequently referred to as being
responsible for the A34 murders, was only ever convicted
of that of Christine who had been abducted from her home
in Walsall.
Many attempts have been made over the years to get
Morris - aged 39 at the time of his trial - to killing
two other little girls, Diane Tift and Margaret
Reynolds.
The charges were allowed to lie on the file and have
been lying there ever since.
It took 15 months for the police to arrest Morris, an
engineer. who was living opposite Walsall police
station. His name had come up as a potential suspect
five times during the course of the long investigation.
UPDATE
August 2001. - Raymond Morris to appeal against his
conviction for the Murder of 7 year old Christine Darby.
He claims the evidence was dubious and circumstantial,
and that the identification evidence was unreliable.
One of the police officers involved in the case is
certain Morris is guilty and said as soon as Morris was
put away the murders stopped.
Morris, who is being held at Wymott prison in Preston,
is supposed to have told a newspaper that he was
identified by a man who saw him handcuffed to a
detective more than a year after the killing, and a
woman who only saw him in court 15 months later.
November 2010, Morris was granted a judicial review in
the case of the murder of Christine Darby. The review
failed, he remains in prison.
May 2011, Morris breaks a 40 year silence, claims his
innocence and says he may go to the European court of
human rights.
Morris is one of the UK's longest serving prisoners.
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