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Harold Jones

Child Killer - Harold Jones
AKA
DOB1906
OccupationShop Assistant
Kill Total2
Kill PlaceAbertillery, Wales, 
Kill Date1921
M.O.Strangulation.
VictimFreda Burnel - 8, 
Florence Little - 11.
CourtMonmouth Assizes
Judge
Prosceution
Defence
Case No:
February 1921, 8-year-old Freda Burnell was abducted from near her home in Abertillery, Wales, She had been sent to the local shop by her father, to buy bird-seed. Jones was the assistant ion the shop.
Her body was found in a nearby lane, but it was the discovery of her handkerchief in the shop’s shed which saw Jones accused and stand trial for her death.

23rd June 1921, Harold Jones was always a suspect, and he was finally taken to trial at Monmouth Assizes but with little evidence he was found not guilty after a 4-day trial and was released.

8th July 1921, 11-year-old Florence Little disappeared from her home. Police and local residents  launched a house to house search through Abertillery, they even searched the surrounding mountains.

At the Jones house, officers found a trapdoor leading from Harold's bedroom into the attic, there they discovered the body of Florence Little, her throat slashed from ear to ear.

22nd July 1921, Jones was charged with murder.

November 1921, while In custody Harold Jones confessed to both murders.

At Monmouth Assizes, a magistrate handed down the maximum sentence possible for Jones as he was only 16-years-old, he was ordered to be detained 'at his Majesty's Pleasure'.

December 1941, Aged-35, Jones was released from HMP Wandsworth, London.

1971, Harold Jones died from cancer aged 65, he was buried in Hammersmith cemetery in West London.

It was been alleged  that Jones was guilty of other crimes, these include the murder of  Muriel Drinkwater  in 1946, the 12-year-old was found dumped in woodland near Swansea. Given the name 'The Little red Ridding Hood case'.

2019, New forensic tests on a semen sample taken from the scene of Muriel's murder, tests conclusively confirmed that Harold Jones was not the killer.