True Crime/Paranormal/Conspiracy Theories Part VII

1st DNA Murder Conviction: Colin Pitchfork

Colin Pitchfork is a British double child murderer and rapist. He was the first person convicted of rape and murder using DNA profiling after he murdered two girls in neighboring Leicestershire villages: Lynda Mann in Narborough in November 1983, and Dawn Ashworth in Enderby in July 1986. He was arrested on 19 September 1987 and was sentenced to life imprisonment on 22 January 1988 after pleading guilty to both murders, with the judge giving him a 30-year minimum term (reduced to 28 years on appeal).

He was granted parole in June 2021 and was released on license on 1 September that year. On 19 November of the same year, he was recalled to prison for breaching his license conditions. Pitchfork was granted parole a second time in June 2023, but after intervention from the Lord Chancellor Alex Chalk the Parole Board reviewed its decision and decided not to release him.

Life

Pitchfork lived in Newbold Verdon, attending school in Market Bosworth and Desford, until his marriage in 1981 to a social worker.

Before his marriage, Pitchfork had been convicted of indecent exposure and had been referred for therapy to the Carlton Hayes Hospital, Narborough.

Pitchfork had obtained work in Hampshires Bakery in Leicester, in 1976, as an apprentice. He continued to work there until his arrest for the murders. He became particularly skilled as a sculptor of cake decorations and had hoped, eventually, to start his own cake-decorating business. According to his supervisor, he was "a good worker and time-keeper, but he was moody... and he couldn't leave women employees alone. He was always chatting them up."

Crimes

In 1979, Pitchfork forced a 16-year-old girl into a field and sexually assaulted her.

On 21 November 1983, 15-year-old Lynda Mann took a shortcut on her way home from babysitting instead of taking her normal route home. She did not return and her parents and neighbors spent the night searching for her. The next morning, she was found raped and strangled on a deserted footpath known locally as the Black Pad. Using forensic science techniques available at the time, police linked a semen sample taken from her body to a person with type A blood and an enzyme profile that matched only 10% of males. With no other leads or evidence, the case was left open.

In October 1985, Pitchfork sexually assaulted another 16-year-old girl, threatening her with a screwdriver and with a knife at her throat.

On 31 July 1986, 15-year-old Dawn Ashworth left her home to visit a friend's house. Her parents expected her to return at 9:30 pm; when she failed to do so they called the police to report her missing. Two days later, her body was found in a wooded area near a footpath called Ten Pound Lane. She had been beaten, savagely raped, and strangled. The modus operandi matched that of the first attack, and semen samples revealed the same blood type.

An initial suspect was Richard Buckland, a local 17-year-old with learning difficulties who, while innocent of both murders, revealed knowledge of Ashworth's body and admitted to the Ashworth crime under questioning, denying the first murder.

Arrest and conviction

In early 1987, police asked every local male between the ages of sixteen and thirty-four to voluntarily give blood samples for DNA testing. By the end of January, a thousand men had been tested. Men who declined to give blood samples found themselves under scrutiny by police.

On 1 August 1987, one of Pitchfork's colleagues at the bakery, Ian Kelly, revealed to fellow workers in a Leicester pub that he had taken the blood test while masquerading as Pitchfork. Pitchfork had told Kelly that he wanted to avoid being harassed by police because of prior convictions for indecent exposure. A female colleague who was present in the pub reported it to the police approximately six weeks later.