Wild Justice: Lynn Siddons Murder

Product Information

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. Lynn's mother, Gail Halford, 53, said: "We are really pleased because he would have been a free man if he had won the appeal. Now he must serve his sentence. He deserved what he got." Mr Chittenden, a father-of-three, helped to clear 16-year-old Roy Brookes of the murder of Sinfin girl Lynn Siddons when he was acquitted of the killing in 1978.

For nearly two decades the police had declined to prosecute Brookes for obvious reasons, but after this judgment, they bowed to the mobbing pressure of the press and these women and prosecuted their case in the criminal courts. Michael Brookes and the step-son's story went through the jury like a dose of salts, and into jail he went, where he has pleaded innocence ever since.

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. In 1991 the three women turned to the civil courts, which are noted for having a cavalier attitude to culpability in criminal cases, and they prosecuted the step-father there. The women saw the frenzy with which they had hounded Brookes for so many years as the explanation for the 43 stab wounds and the messy finish, but this didn't accord with the other part of the story that their case was based on, which was that Brookes had only held the girl and that he had given the knife to his step-son instead. The family of a woman murdered 25 years ago have unveiled a plaque at the spot where she was killed. 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.

Lynn's grandmother Florence Siddons, 83, who campaigned to bring her killer to justice, was in court to hear the appeal judges say they had "no lurking doubt" about the safety of 53-year-old Brookes's conviction. Flo's daughter Gail Holford, said: "It was a long hard fight but my mum was always there at the front.

The plaque reads: "In loving memory of Lynn Siddons, 16 years old, tragically killed April 3 1978 - deep in our heart you will stay, loved and remembered every day."