Murder of Wendy Sewell

Wendy Sewell was attacked, in Bakewell Cemetery, at lunchtime on 12 September 1973.

A witness, Charles Carman, saw her enter the cemetery at about 12:50 pm.

She was beaten around the head seven times with the handle of a pickaxe, which had caused severe head injuries and fractures to her skull.

She had been sexually assaulted, with her trousers, pants, plimsolls and parts of her bra removed by her killer.

When help arrived the woman was still conscious and she then tried to stand up, before falling and banging her head on a gravestone.

She died from her injuries in Chesterfield Royal Hospital two days later.

The 17-year-old cemetery groundskeeper who found the body, Stephen Downing, was immediately suspected of committing the attack.

He told police he wanted to wash blood from his hands, at which point he was arrested.

He later told police that he had found Sewell lying on the ground, covered in blood, and that her blood got on his clothes because she shook her head.

He was a virgin and had never had a girlfriend.

Despite having learning difficulties and a reading age of 11, he was questioned for nine hours without a solicitor present – although he was in fact allowed to see his parents and they agreed he did not need to speak to a solicitor at that point.

He admitted he had committed the attack, saying that he had done it.

At this point Sewell had not died, and he was only charged with the lesser crime of assault.

He then willingly signed a confession.

After he confessed to the assault it was revealed that Sewell had died, and Downing's charge was elevated to murder, soon after Stephen retracted his confession, claiming he was at home at the time of the attack.

There was no evidence to support this claim.

In 1974, 17-year-old Stephen Downing was convicted of murdering Wendy Sewell, a 32-year-old legal secretary, in the town of Bakewell in the Peak District in Derbyshire.

Downing's trial took place between 13 and 15 February 1974 at the Crown Court at Nottingham before Mr Justice Nield and a jury.

He pleaded not guilty to murder, although he admitted to sexually assaulting Sewell as she lay in the cemetery.

A forensic scientist Norman Lee, gave evidence that the blood found on the accused could only have been present if he had been responsible for the assault.

Lee described this evidence as "a textbook example ... which might be expected on the clothing of the assailant".

Downing said at the trial that he had been using the murder weapon, the pickaxe handle, to break up firewood.

No full transcript of the trial exists, but it is known that, in summing up, the judge drew attention to Downing's admission during the trial of having indecently assaulted Sewell as she lay injured in the cemetery.

He had also only begun to claim his confession to the murder was not genuine several weeks after he was originally charged.

He said he had only confessed because he thought that she had not been seriously injured and would not die.

By a unanimous verdict, and after only 1 hour of deliberations, the jury found Downing guilty of murder.

He was sentenced to be indefinitely detained at Her Majesty's pleasure, with a stipulation that he should serve a minimum of seventeen years.

Claiming he was in an innocent prisoner's dilemma, Downing was unable to be paroled, as he did not admit to the crime.

He was classified as "In Denial of Murder" and therefore ineligible for parole under English law.

A witness was found who said she saw Downing leaving the cemetery, and at that time she also saw Wendy Sewell alive and unharmed.

Following a campaign by a local newspaper led by Don Hale, in which Sewell was purported to be promiscuous, Downing's conviction was overturned in 2002.

The case is thought to be the longest miscarriage of justice in British legal history, and attracted worldwide media attention.

Downing remains the prime (and only) suspect in the case, with police reinvestigations finding that all the alternative suspects suggested by Don Hale could be eliminated from inquiries.

Downing, meanwhile, was the only suspect who could not be eliminated, and new forensic evidence indicated that he had committed the murder.

He was also recorded confessing to the crime after he was released, although he refused to be re-interviewed by police.

Don Hale's book was subsequently criticised for falsehoods and inaccuracies, and police considered bringing charges against him for its contents.

Wider attention on the case was also reignited by linked coverage of Downing's father being charged with 13 indecent assaults in 2003, of which he was convicted of one committed against a teenager, and also of Downing father's death whilst also awaiting trial for attempted rape in 2008.

When the law of double jeopardy was changed in England and Wales in 2005, allowing individuals who had previously been acquitted of a crime to be re-tried in certain circumstances, Derbyshire Police applied to the Crown Prosecution Service to re-charge Downing.

However, as of July 2022, Downing has not been retried.

In 2008, six years after his release, Downing was convicted of deception, having previously been arrested but not charged in 2004 of apparent intimidation of a witness only days before a BBC programme was due to be shown that suggested he was guilty.