Channel 4's 24 Hours in Police Custody returns on Monday, July 4 and explores the horrific murder of six-year-old Rikki Neave, whose body was discovered in 1994. The murder, which happened a year after the highly publicized death of two-year-old James Bulger, remained unsolved for almost 30 years.
Earlier this year - Rikki’s killer, James Watson, was sentenced to life for the murder. A two-part special of the Channel 4 hit TV series focuses on how the case was solved. The episodes follow the re-investigation of Rikki’s murder, which saw a 13-year-old Watson, strangle the young child.
Watson, now 41, was found guilty of Rikki’s murder last month. The 6-year-old’s corpse was discovered in a woodland on the Welland Estate in Peterborough, where he had been strangled with a ligature or anorak collar. Rikki’s body had been stripped, where he had been left naked with his legs and arms outstretched. Watson had previously told his mother that he had carried out the attack to fulfil a “morbid fantasy”. Rikki was found a day after he was reported missing.
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Rikki’s mother, Ruth Neave, had initially been accused of killing him, but while she was jailed for seven years for child cruelty after a trial in 1996, she was cleared of his murder. Following Watson’s sentencing, Ruth Neave called her son’s killer a “monster” and described him as “pure evil, with no conscience”.
In 2014, former assistant chief constable, Paul Fullwood, came out of retirement to see out the case. He organised a cold case investigation with a new team made up of staff not involved in the original investigation, which is depicted in two episodes of the Channel 4 programme.
Of the case, Fullwood said: "This investigation was extremely complex and quite unlike anything else the team has encountered before." He added: "We meticulously trawled through hundreds of statements, exhibits and other evidence to build a timeline of Rikki's last movements and find his killer.
"The programme will take people on the whole journey, over the past three decades from Rikki's tragic death to the conviction of his killer after an almost eight-year battle by the investigation team.” The documentary shows never-seen-before bodycam footage of Watson’s arrest for the murder.
The first episode of the two-part special, 24 Hours in Police Custody: The Murder of Rikki Neave airs on Channel 4 at 9pm on Monday, July 4
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