Death of Helen Bailey

For the children's author who was murdered in 2016, see Helen Bailey.

Helen Bailey
Helen Louise Bailey, c. 1975
Born	5 March 1967 Birmingham, England
Died	10 August 1975 (aged 8) Great Barr, Birmingham, England
Cause of death	Knife wound to jugular vein
Body discovered	11 August 1975 Booths Farm, Great Barr, Birmingham 52.5415°N 1.9104°W / 52.5415; -1.9104 (approximate)
Nationality	British
Other names	Little Girl Blue
Education	Calshot Road Junior School, Birmingham
Known for	Victim of unsolved child murder

The death of Helen Bailey is a British child murder case dating from 1975 in which an eight-year-old girl's death was originally classified by a coroner as being due to undetermined causes and potentially sourcing from an "accident or [a] practical joke gone wrong" despite the fact the child was found in a secluded area and that her jugular vein had been severed. The original verdict into Bailey's death was overturned and replaced with one of unlawful killing in 2019.

Despite intense police efforts, Bailey's killer was never identified, although several investigators strongly believe the child was murdered by a suspect who is known to have confessed in the late 1970s to having strangled, then cut the child's throat—also contemporarily divulging forensic details of the child's death not revealed in the original 1976 inquest into her death.

Officially, Helen Bailey's murder remains unsolved. Contemporary media accounts dubbed Bailey as "Little Girl Blue" due to the fact the child was dressed entirely in blue at the time of her death.

Background

Calshot Road Junior School (now Calshot Primary School), seen in 2023

Helen Bailey was an eight-year-old schoolgirl who lived in the Great Barr district of Birmingham, England. She was a pupil at Calshot Road Junior School and lived in nearby Booths Farm Road with her parents and older brother. The family were close-knit, and Bailey has been described by her family as a "bubbly, chatty" and friendly young girl.

10 August 1975

By August 1975, the Bailey family had plans to holiday in Cornwall in middle of the month. On the afternoon of 10 August, Bailey returned home from playing outdoors with her clothes, hands and face in a dirty state; she failed to inform her parents how she had become so grubby and took her Sunday afternoon bath slightly early before leaving the family home to play with her brother and his friends at approximately 4:30 p.m. She had changed into blue shorts, a blue blouse, blue socks and blue plimsolls.

Disappearance

The final verifiable sighting of Helen Bailey occurred shortly after she left her home when she was observed playing with a skipping rope close to her home. Shortly after 5 p.m., Bailey's parents became concerned when their daughter failed to return home. After a brief, fruitless search of nearby streets and friends' houses, the Baileys reported their daughter missing to West Midlands Police at 5:30 p.m.

After initial standard procedures failed to locate Bailey, West Midlands Police immediately began a full-scale search for the child; this full-scale search began at approximately 8:30 p.m. and involved house-to-house inquiries in addition to police searches of local terrain such as waste ground, and a sand and gravel quarry throughout the night of 10–11 August. The search for Bailey was assisted by numerous civilian volunteers, including Bailey's father, neighbours, and parents of her friends.

Discovery

At approximately 6:30 a.m. on 11 August, following a ten-hour police-coordinated search, a search party which included Bailey's father discovered her fully clothed body. The child was lying on her back, with a knife wound to her throat; her body lay in a section of scrubland on the former Booths Farm, close to the M6 motorway and on the opposite side of the motorway to her home. This location was known to local children as the "Magic Wood", and Bailey's mother had forbidden her daughter to play there.

Post-mortem

The post-mortem conducted by Home Office pathologist Frederick Griffiths on 11 August established that Bailey had received a single knife wound to the throat which, although described as shallow, had perforated her jugular vein. No signs of a struggle were evident upon her body nor within the vicinity where she was found, and Griffiths noted no evident signs of bruising or other forms of pressure upon her neck. Bailey had not been subjected to any form of sexual assault.

Initial investigation

The underpass beneath the M6 motorway, looking towards Booths Farm, in 2020. Bailey is believed to have been seen walking beneath this underpass at 7:10 p.m. on 10 August.

West Midlands Police launched an intense investigation into Bailey's death; police investigations into the child's background, acquaintances, and her movements on the date of her death failed to identify either a motive for her death or the individual(s) responsible. In addition, police were unable to conclusively determine Bailey's movements in the hours immediately prior to her returning home in a markedly dirty state to take her afternoon bath, although they were able to establish a likely sighting of the child walking alone through a pedestrian underpass beneath the M6 motorway at 7:10 p.m.

The circumstances surrounding Bailey's death and the relatively minimum force necessary to inflict the wound to her throat meant investigators were unable to discount the possibility a child or children were responsible for her death. Contemporary eyewitness accounts given to investigators revealed a "ginger-haired" young man had been seen loitering in the vicinity of the location of Bailey's body on the afternoon of her death; this individual had also been seen walking through the underpass at approximately the same time as Bailey, though not in her company. The description of this individual—described as being between 35 and 40 years old with bushy, ginger hair and wearing brown trousers and a lime shirt—closely matched the description of a suspect given to police days prior in relation to the sexual assault of a local underage girl. This individual was never traced.

Initial inquest

The initial inquest into Bailey's death was held on 10 March 1976; the jury at this inquest heard testimony from Frederick Griffiths that the sole wound discovered upon the child was a markedly shallow knife wound to her neck which may have been caused either accidentally or as an unintended result of a childish prank, with the latter being his preferred explanation. Griffiths further elaborated at this hearing he had performed numerous autopsies upon victims of murder who had sustained serious injuries to the neck and that, in his opinion, the circumstances of Bailey's death lacked "the hallmarks" of a homicidal attack. Resultingly, the jury returned an open verdict and the case ultimately became cold, although members of Bailey's family remained convinced she had been murdered.

Cold case review

In 2012, West Midlands Police commenced a cold case review into Bailey's death; this review saw Home Office pathologist Nathaniel Cary examine all original post-mortem documentation relating to the case and conclude the child's death had been a "clear case of homicide", adding the margins of the knife wound indicated Bailey had actually endured two cutting incisions to her throat. Cary further noted that petechiae evident upon the skin of Bailey's face, eyelids and forehead indicated she had also been manually strangled before receiving the fatal knife wounds to her throat and that, contrary to his predecessor's conclusions regarding the depths of the single incision wound, the force used to inflict these knife wounds to the child's neck had been sufficient to sever subcutaneous fat in addition to neck musculature.

Cary's revelations led a Detective Chief Superintendent (DCI) named Caroline Marsh to state investigators were "absolutely certain" the child had died as a result of murder as opposed to misadventure.

Renewed witness appeal

In June 2017, a renewed appeal for witnesses to Bailey's murder was featured on the BBC's Crimewatch Roadshow. The programme also featured an unsuccessful appeal for her murderer or anyone with knowledge of his identity to come forward.

Fresh inquest

In December 2018, Lord Justice Hickinbottom and Mrs Justice Whipple formally approved a request submitted before the High Court of Justice by senior coroner Louise Hunt that the original inquest verdict into Bailey's death be quashed and a new inquest into the child's death be held. Within this ruling, Hickinbottom and Whipple also noted that a suspect in Bailey's death had given three separate confessions to Bailey's murder in 1978 and 1979—each of which was "entirely consistent" with known facts pertaining to the child's death and containing forensic information not previously disclosed to the public but only uncovered in 2012. Within these accounts, the suspect had related how he had strangled Bailey before cutting her throat with a penknife upon noting the child was still breathing. In addition, at the time of Bailey's death, this suspect had lived close to where her body was discovered.

Prime suspect

At a May 2019 pre-inquest review into Bailey's death in which evidence was first publicly divulged the child had been strangled before her throat had been cut, the Detective Chief Superintendent leading the cold case investigation revealed that a current prison inmate named John Sir was considered the prime and sole suspect in her murder and that this individual had been questioned intently in 1975, but had never been charged in relation to her murder.

In 2014, Sir had been arrested at the prison in which he was incarcerated and taken to Bloxwich police station to face questioning pertaining to Bailey's death. Although questioned over the course of two days, he did not admit to Bailey's murder during these interrogations. However, his 2014 questioning into Bailey's death in light of the forensic developments regarding the actual circumstances preceding her death led investigators to conclude he was responsible for her murder.

Sir had been in his late 20s and a resident of Tamworth at the time of Bailey's death; his family home was near the murder scene. At the time of Bailey's murder, he had been known as Kenneth Etchells but had since changed his name. He had been sentenced to life imprisonment in 1991 for the attempted murder of his own mother, whom he had severely injured with a hammer and who died of pneumonia nine months later.

In July 2019, Sir lost a legal bid for his right to anonymity to remain enforced prior to his being ordered to testify at ensuing legal hearings into Bailey's death. Both due to concerns for his safety should he testify in person and the fact Bailey's family were to be present at the scheduled hearings, Sir was allowed to testify via video-link.

July 2019 hearings

At the formal inquest into Bailey's death on 5 July 2019, Sir—represented by solicitor Spencer Stephens—admitted to being in the vicinity of her death on the date in question, but claimed his repeated admissions to psychiatric hospital staff of his culpability in murdering Bailey in the late 1970s were entirely fabricated and had been concocted to make himself "look interesting" to specialists at this facility and to ensure his admission to the premises following a failed suicide attempt; he also claimed to be unable to account for the fact his admissions into Bailey's death were entirely consistent with recently-uncovered pathological evidence into the child's death, insisting his knowledge of the case was limited solely to "what [he had] heard or saw in the papers or whatever." Sir's inquest testimony lasted for over twenty-five minutes.

Pathologist Nathaniel Cary also testified at the renewed inquest into Bailey's death. Questioned as to the discrepancies between the original coroner's findings and those of the 2012 cold case review into the child's death, Cary testified as to his belief the original post-mortem examination would have misled Frederick Griffiths into believing the wound was a shallow one, which Griffiths had actually concluded may have been caused by a tree branch, and that Griffiths had also failed to note the clear signs of strangulation inflicted upon the child. Cary also testified Bailey was most likely lying on the ground and possibly unconscious at the time the fatal knife wound was inflicted to her neck.

We're very pleased today that the coroner has recorded a different verdict which properly reflects the way that Helen met her death. We are actively pursuing this investigation ... and are very much hopeful of bringing an offender to justice

West Midlands Police Detective Chief Superintendent Mark Payne reflecting upon the renewed inquest verdict into Bailey's death. July 2019.

Unlawful killing verdict

The original verdict into Bailey's death was overturned and replaced with one of unlawful killing in July 2019. At these hearings, coroner Louise Hunt stated that prior to the inquest she had written to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), who had informed her they would only be willing to consider reopening the case into Bailey's death should sufficient new evidence be presented at the hearing.

Upon hearing the verdict of unlawful killing at this inquest, Hunt stated: "I will be writing to [the CPS] again with the outcome of this case and asking them to reconsider their decision." However, due to insufficient new evidence presented at the inquest, the CPS refused to prosecute Sir in relation to Bailey's murder, with a spokesman stating the "realistic prospect" of securing a conviction against Sir in light of the lack of any sufficient new evidence divulged at the hearings would be highly unlikely. Nonetheless, this spokesman did emphasize that, should "new evidence come to light", the CPS would review the developments accordingly.

See also

• Cold case
• List of solved missing person cases
• List of unsolved murders in the United Kingdom
• Motion to quash

Cited works and further reading

• Benish, James (2024). Closed Eyes: Who's Killing Our Children. Codefore Publications. ISBN 978-0-982-42491-9.
• Billingham, Nick (2007). More Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths in Birmingham. Pen & Sword Books. ISBN 978-1-783-03738-4.
• Drake, Phillip (2024). Unsolved Murders of the UK: Cold Cases from 1951 to Present Day. Pen & Sword Books Limited. ISBN 978-1-399-03255-1.
• Greene, Karen Shalev; Alys, Llian (2016). Missing Persons: A Handbook of Research. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-409-46802-8.
• Hunt, Amber; Thompson, Emily G. (2020). Unsolved Murders. Dorling Kindersley Limited. ISBN 978-0-241-44961-5.
• Tedisco, James N.; Paludi, Michele (1996). Missing Children: A Psychological Approach to Understanding the Causes and Consequences of Stranger and Non-Stranger Abduction. State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-585-07649-2.
• Turton, Kevin (2019). Britain's Unsolved Murders. Pen & Sword Books. ISBN 978-1-526-72633-9.
• Wilkes, Roger (2011). The Mammoth Book of Unsolved Crimes. Hachette UK. ISBN 978-1-780-33373-1.

External links

• Coroner Urges Review into Girl's Death After Cops Say it was Murder: A 2012 news article pertaining to the reopened inquest into Bailey's death
• 2019 ITV news article pertaining to the murder of Helen Bailey
• In the Matter of the Inquest into the Death of Helen Bailey: Judgement of the High Court of Justice, in response to the 2018 submission by HM Coroner for Birmingham and Solihull to quash the original inquest verdict into Bailey's death