Wild Justice: Lynn Siddons Murder

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A 20-year dispute over who murdered teenager Lynn Siddons on a canal towpath in Derby has ended after the Court of Appeal upheld the conviction against Michael Brookes.

It would be interesting to know what the people of Derby think I should have done. Read More Related Articles I could have said nothing but I chose not to and the support I got from people afterwards was overwhelming and still is.” Read More Related Articles In 1998 he mounted an appeal, but the appeal court judges determined that a murderer's defence was worth more in criminal trials than the logic of the evidence or the eyewitnesses, and his appeal failed. Justice, Mrs Siddons said: "We've been going for 20 years now and I am very pleased with the result."

Lynn Siddons did not get justice, and for many years her female relatives turned their need for this on to the step-father, Michael Brookes, who experienced years of persecution with their campaign. He found it increasingly impossible to get employment, and he was willing and open in TV interviews about his situation.

The memorial was arranged by British Waterways and is located about two miles from Lynn's home in Sinfin. The appeal court judges declared that they had "no lurking doubt about the safety of the conviction", which is an astonishing admission, since it means that they had neither instinct nor intelligence for any doubt about it. This would mean that they were not qualified to judge the appeal. Music used in this episode: "The Descent" by Kevin Macleod. All music used is sourced from https://filmmusic.io/ and used under an Attribution Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) A friend of 16-year-old Lynn, Fitzroy Brookes, confessed to the murder, but was acquitted at his trial after accusing his stepfather Michael of the murder. But while speaking to his teenage client before and during the trial, it became clear to him that the real killer was the boy's stepfather, Michael Brookes.He said: "Among the information I handed over was evidence the boy told me and a psychiatrist of how he was scared of his stepfather, who would cut out pictures of women from the magazines and stab them with a knife.” The Derby step-strangler case has the step-son committing the murder and the step-father doing the punishment for it, while the hereditary difference between them is the motive. This case serves as a warning against the bringing up of children by unnatural parents. Miss Siddons's late grandmother, Flo Siddons, campaigned hard to bring Brookes to justice and was handed a string of awards for her tireless work. While a motive can be detected in the case of the step-son, it is impossible to find one in the case of Michael Brookes. One would have to imagine one. A detectable motive for the boy using his step-father to carry the blame for the murder is that he was very immature, that he was still dependent on the protection and provision of the parent, and that he was homicidal. He was strongly attached to both his victims, and there is an interesting logic in the matter of this motive, because the physical weakness that is evident in the murder would not only have disappointed the boy's sexual success with the murdered girl, it would also have disappointed his self-esteem as the progeny of the 6 ft. 2 in. giant Michael Brookes, who was not his natural father, and who had not therefore passed his quality of strength to the boy, who must naturally look up to the parent and identify with it. The victims therefore share the same relationship problem for the killer, and they are combined in his motive. A Derby woman who spent 18 years campaigning to bring her granddaughter's murderer to justice has died aged 92.

Within the papers was, Mr Chittenden said, evidence from Roy Brookes that he had been put up by his stepfather to take part in killing Miss Siddons with him. Read More Related Articles In 1978, 16 year-old Lynn Siddons was murdered on a canal towpath in Derby and her body left hidden in bushes. She had been stabbed 43 times, strangled unsuccessfully, and finally drowned in a puddle. Algae was found in her lungs. A 15 year-old boy was seen by eyewitnesses to leave the crime scene alone, and his age helps to explain why the killer had had so much trouble in killing the girl. The boy, who was recognized by the witnesses, was taken in for questioning, charged with murder, and tried in November. There is also a palpable tendency nowadays for the police to yield to pressure from the press in the matters of both detection and prosecution, and they are apparently suffering from the media bends. His conviction followed a rare civil suit brought by Lynn's family after police failed to charge him with the murder.Mr Chittenden, of Aston-on-Trent, said: “I have nothing at all against the SRA for what they did to me because I admitted it and they are just doing their job. It was only then that Derbyshire police, who accepted criticism of the way they had handled the case, charged Brookes with the murder. Brookes, serving a minimum 26-year life sentence, had argued he did not get a fair trial, partly because of the intense media coverage of the campaign - including a civil damages action in which a judge said he was the murderer. Brookes was later tried and convicted, but appealed against the verdict in 1998, saying he could not get a fair trial following publicity about the case, but his appeal was rejected. I am sure there will be people who will read this and say to themselves ‘the law is the law and he needs to be punished for breaching that confidentiality’.