Doctor named boy's sex killer to police

A leading psychiatrist put aside patient confidentiality to tell police he suspected a man of the murder of nine-year-old Daniel Handley, the Old Bailey heard yesterday.

The expert on child sexual abuse - identified only as Dr B - said he had "no hesitation" in informing detectives about the sexual fantasies of Timothy Morss after being told by his wife of a BBC TV Crimewatch programme on Daniel's murder.

Asked by John Bevan, for the prosecution, if he had agonised with his conscience over the decision, the doctor replied: "On the matter of the murder of a child and child protection there was no hesitation on my part." The man he named, Morss, 33, and his co-defendant, Brett Tyler, were arrested days later. Morss has admitted the murder. His former lover, Tyler, 30, admits abducting and sexually assaulting Daniel, but denies murdering him on 2 October 1994.

Dr B, said to be national expert on child sexual abuse, told the jury that Morss had become his client after a recommendation by Morss's friend and later lover David Guttridge, 59. Morss and Tyler were then in Wormwood Scrubs prison, serving sentences for sexual offences.

Morss, who was more curious than a willing participant in sessions, had described to Dr B his fantasy of abducting and murdering a pre-pubescent boy aged eight to 13. The boy had to have blond hair and blue eyes. "He was very specific about that," said Dr B. "The fantasy was to find a boy, a small boy with blond hair and blue eyes, take him in a van, abduct him, bugger him and then kill him and dispose of the body."

A month later, on 19 May 1995, Dr B was told of the Crimewatch programme on the murder of Daniel, whose body had been found buried in woods near Bradley Stoke, Bristol. He was "sufficiently concerned" to contact police and later heard from another psychiatrist, who was treating Guttridge, that Guttridge and Morss might be trying to leave the country.

Under cross-examination from Rock Tansey, QC, for Tyler, Dr B agreed Morss had a powerful personality, was brash, sadistic and enjoyed shocking people with his fantasies. He had been emotionally cold while describing his "violent paedophiliac fantasies".

Earlier, Guttridge, who awaits sentencing for perverting the course of justice after paying for Morss to flee to the Philippines, described how he had "hated Tyler's guts".

He believed Tyler was winding up Morss, who believed sex was about vengeance, over his love for young boys. But he agreed that while Morss was capable of killing a child, he did not believe Tyler could. Guttridge, who had also been in Wormwood Scrubs, told the jury that Mr Morss confessed to him about the killing, but he "could not or would not" believe it of a man he had loved.

Morss and Tyler are said to have abducted Daniel close to his home in Beckton, east London and taken him to a flat where they videoed themselves having sex with him. They allegedly strangled and buried him near the home Morss shared with Guttridge. The case continues.