Yahoo News An open door, an empty cot and a trail of footprints - how a nurse's intuition uncovered a chilling child murder
It was just before midnight on May 15, 1848, that ward sister Gwendolyn Humphries got a feeling something was amiss.
The nurse at Queens Park Hospital, Blackburn, noticed a draft coming from an open oor on the children's ward and went to investigate. A trail of men's stocking footprints led from the door to one of the cots - but when Nurse Humphries checked inside, the cot was empty.
June Ann Devaney was just three years old when she was admitted to the hospital on May 5, suffering from a bout of pneumonia. Her parents Albert, 31, and Emily, 33, had entrusted her into the care of the hospital and returned home to care for her newborn baby sister Margaret.
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They had no reason to fear their precious middle daughter was anything but safe. The tot was making a good recovery and was expected to return to the family home on Princess Street on May 16.
But when Nurse Humphries went to check the cot, her fears mounted. The side of the cot was up and there was no way the little girl could have climbed out. The open door and the man's footprints only served to add to the ward sister's worst fears that June had been snatched.
She settled a little boy who was crying in the cot next to June's and went to look for her. An hour later, with no sign of the toddler, Nurse Humphries called the police.
Little June's body was found, face down on the grass, beside an eight foot high sandstone wall, within the grounds of the hospital. Her nightdress was torn and the wall was stained with blood. June had severe injuries and blood was pouring from her nose.
Detective Chief Inspector John Capstick, who led the investigation, later told a jury: "I am not ashamed to say I saw it through a mist of tears. Years of detective service had hardened me to many terrible things, but this tiny pathetic body, in its nightdress soaked in blood and mud, was something no man could see unmoved, and it haunts me to this day. I swore, standing there in the rain, that I would bring her murderer to justice."
A post mortem revealed June had died from shock after suffering blunt trauma to her head. The pathologist concluded she had been swung by her legs against the wall, causing head injuries. Further injuries showed she had been raped, and teeth marks were found on her little body.
Scotland Yard assisted with the investigation, but with little to go off, a manhunt was launched. A nurse at the hospital said she had seen a man peering through the windows of the hospital and later heard a car driving away. Bloodhounds were used to sniff out the direction of the suspects travel, and a fingerprint was found on a bottle of sterilised water on the children's ward.
June's murder provoked mass media coverage as papers across England followed updates of the police investigation closely throughout May of 1948. Within two days of discovering June's body, police were scouring the Lancashire moors around Blackburn and were watching the roads.
On May 18, the Manchester Evening News reported that police had searched the ports and harbours across the north west, believing that the man could have been a sailor. Officers also kept a special watch on Fleetwood and Preston Docks. They had decided that the murderer had local knowledge of Blackburn so was a native of the area who had some intimate knowledge of the hospital and its surroundings. On May 19 Police questioned a man seen at the hospital the night before but yielded no results.
With no real leads, the police checked the fingerprints of 2,000 people who had access to the hospital, but were unable to find the owner of the unidentified print. It was at this point that DCI Capstick decided that every male, aged 16 or over, in the town of Blackburn, would have his fingerprints checked. He was determined to catch the killer and if it took weeks of strenuous checking then he was willing to do it.
Unsuprisingly, the public was unnerved. The Manchester Evening News reported 16 children had to be escorted to school as their parents would not allow them to walk the route which took them through the hospital grounds. By June 4, police were forced to issue a statement quelling rumours June's killer was a 'lunar maniac' who would strike again at the next full moon.
The fingerprint operation continued and became the first and largest mass fingerprinting operation in the country at that time. Even with 16 specialists from Lancashire Police helping Scotland Yard with the investigation, it was a laborious process, but by the end of July they had tested 40,000 sets of prints. Still the killer remained at large.
However on August 11, there came a breakthrough. Officers visited a house in Birley Street to take the prints of Peter Griffiths. The sailor's name was not on the electoral roll so he had not been called to give a sample. Griffiths gladly gave his fingerprints and by 3pm the following day the police were convinced they had their man.
After taking more than 46,000 prints, Griffiths' matched those left on the Winchester bottle in the ward. As he set off for his nightshift at 10pm on August 12, Griffiths was arrested and taken to Blackburn Police headquarters. He initially denied all knowledge of June's killing, but when told about the forensic match, he said: "I'll tell you all about it."
Griffiths told officers that after a night of drinking alone in Blackburn he had decided to walk around in an attempt to sober up. He stopped by a man in a parked car to ask for a light for his cigarette. Seeing how drunk he was, the driver offered Griffiths a lift, dropping him off close to the hospital.
He said he broke into the hospital and picked up the bottle to use as a weapon if challenged by staff. He chose June as his victim and picked her up out of the cot. He refused to say what he had done to the little girl but said he had killed her in a fit of rage because she had started crying. As he carried her across the field, the trusting toddler placed her arms around his neck, he said.
Griffiths showed no remorse for what he had done, blaming the horror on his intoxication, but in a statement said he hoped he would be hanged for his crime. At Lancaster Assizes on October 15, Griffiths admitted he killed June but put forward a defence of insanity. His defence lawyer, Mr B Neild, said Griffiths was showing early signs of schizophrenia and produced a witness, a doctor, who had treated his father for the same condition.
It took the jury just 22 minutes to find Griffiths guilty of the brutal murder. Placing the black cap on his head, Mr Justice Oliver said: ""Peter Griffiths, this jury has found you guilty of a crime of the most brutal ferocity. I entirely agree with their verdict. The sentence of the Court is that you be taken from this place to a lawful prison and thence to a place of execution, and that you there suffer death by hanging from the neck until you are dead. May the Lord have mercy on your soul."
At Liverpool Gaol at 9am on November 19, Griffiths was executed by Albert Pierrepoint.
