Kent Murders (Sutton True Crime History)

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There would be an increased police presence in the area while investigations into the circumstances took place, the force added. The crime occurred 27 years ago – July 9, 1996 – in Chillenden, a pretty hamlet lying midway between Canterbury and Dover. Enough time for the dust to settle – for the stain it left on the community and the wider country to fade. Yet all these years later it continues to generate headlines. Hulton Archive/Getty Images Detectives initially did not suspect Constance Kent of killing her brother — attention focused on the nanny and the boy’s father.

Stone’s legal team travelled up to Durham – Bellfield is in the same jail as Stone – to get more information. 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

The evidence was fundamentally the same – Daley again providing the one key piece of non-circumstantial evidence linking Stone to the killings. Again, Stone was convicted. Miss Knell's body was left in her bedsit by the murderer, whereas Miss Pierce's was dumped on Romney Marsh. It was known as the Great Crime of 1860. On June 29, 1860, an unknown assailant murdered 3-year-old Francis Savile Kent in a brutal fashion. Police arrested Gough on the hunch. Rumors swirled that she confessed — and named father Samuel Kent as her lover. But the nursemaid didn’t confess, and the police eventually released her.

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. The headless body of a teenager was discovered more than 10 years ago but no one has ever been charged with his murder.But then, earlier this year, Bellfield produces another signed confession – this time witnessed by his solicitor – admitting he carried out the crime.