Kent Murders (Sutton True Crime History)

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But once the details are established, it is unease in the police case – which would form the basis of Stone’s conviction – which dominate the storytelling in this documentary. It is, for the most part, a well-trodden path. Chillenden was a peaceful, idyllic hamlet before the crime shattered the peace It does not appear to us that the Road-hill murder has become any the less mysterious even now that Constance Kent has confessed and has come under the penalty of the law,” penned Harper’s Weekly. A full DNA profile, which police believe belongs to the killer, was created from crime scene evidence in 2008 but "a missing piece of the jigsaw has yet to be traced". Stone was proven to be in Medway four hours before the crime took place (he signed a timed receipt in a branch of Cash Convertors) and he did not closely resemble the photofit circulated by Kent Police, as described by a witness who saw a man exit the lane the murders took place in a car. And at the heart of all of them is a simple question – did the man convicted of the crime actually do it?

Stone says leading up his first trial, he was so fed up with people claiming he had admitted to the murders, that by the time he was moved to Canterbury Prison he’d asked to be put in an isolated cell. Constance Kent went down in history as a cold, calculating teen killer. But the truth of what happened in Hill House Road the night Francis Kent died may remain a mystery. The man who killed her is still on the loose and he is believed to be a serial killer who five months later targeted another young woman in the town, Caroline Pierce.

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That trip to his local shop in Gillingham was the last time he tasted freedom. Barbara Stone –sister of Michael –has long campaigned for his release A 47-year-old woman, also from Coulsdon, has also been arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender. All five remain in custody. He concludes: “Josie and Shaun Russell blame me for that crime. It really tears me apart thinking they think I did that. That’s the worst part of it. I want them to know I didn’t do that.” Dr Shaun Russell and his surviving daughter Josie moved out of Kent after the murder

Scotland Yard investigated. The public followed the case closely in the press. But the main suspect, 16-year-old Constance Emily Kent, refused to confess to the crime. The police eventually released her and young Francis’s death went unsolved. Constance Kent was unusually strong — and “she appears to possess a very strong mind,” Whicher said. She also slept alone and had hidden things in the outhouse in the past. The 33-year-old from Latvia was meant to be flying to Egypt with her husband and children and police enquiries showed she arrived at the airport. Two years later members of the Staff Band of the Royal Marines School of music were in their recreation room in Deal when a bomb went off. The impression of the child was still there, as if he had been softly taken out,” Elizabeth recalled.Stone, himself, features heavily – heard in telephone conversations with his long-time barrister, Mark McDonald, with whom he speaks “every day”. Miss Knell's body was left in her bedsit by the murderer, whereas Miss Pierce's was dumped on Romney Marsh.

The re-trial was conducted in Nottingham in 2001. However, Stone’s reputation had spread nationwide by then following the massive coverage following his first conviction. When I came out of the appeals court the media were there,” says Stone, “and they shouted out ‘Michael’. I shouted out, right at the top of my voice ‘I’m an innocent man’ to reach the media. And if you look at my face [in still photographs] it looks like I’m going psychopathic or something – but I’m actually shouting ‘I’m an innocent man’. In 2017, Stone’s legal team – who admit in the documentary that at this stage they had reached a “dead end” – received a letter from a prisoner who said Levi Bellfield had confessed to the Russell murders.

Scotland Yard Investigates The Murder Of Francis Savile Kent

DI Lee Neiles, of the Kent and Essex serious crime directorate, said: “We thank those who have come forward with information so far and we are continuing to appeal for witnesses. It is crucial that we speak to anyone who may have heard or seen anything suspicious, just after midnight.