Rikki Neave: Man guilty of murdering six-year-old boy 28 years after naked body found in the woods

The case was reopened in 2014, 20 years after the schoolboy’s body was found

A 41-year-old man has been found guilty of the murder of six-year-old schoolboy Rikki Neave.

The verdict comes nearly 28 years after the child’s naked body was found in woodland a few minutes walk from his home in Redmile Walk, Welland, Peterborough, on 29 November 1994.

James Watson, 41, was found guilty by majority verdict at the Old Bailey today and will be sentenced on a date to be fixed.

James Watson (right) is accused of the murder of Rikki Neave (Elizabeth Cook/PA) (PA Wire)

Watson, of no fixed address, was put on trial for the 1994 murder following a decision by the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Major Crime Unit to reopen the case in 2014 after DNA from Rikki’s clothes pointed to Watson, who was 13 years-old at the time.

The former animal rights activist, who has a long list of previous convictions including sexual assault, evaded detection for more than two decades, changing his account of his interactions with Neave as evidence piled up against him.

A jury deliberated for 36 hours and 31 minutes to convict Watson following an 11-week trial.

A ‘victory’ for the family

Rikki's sister Rochelle Neave, 30, hailed the verdict as a "victory" for the family who had campaigned for justice.

She said: “He thought he'd got away with it for that many years and thought we were just going to go away and roll under the table. We weren't.”

She remembered her brother as a “cheeky” and “loving” boy, who would look after his siblings.

Sheradyn (left) and Rochelle Neave, the sisters of murdered schoolboy Rikki Neave (PA)

Youngest sister Sheradyn Neave, 27, who was a baby when Rikki died, added: “I think we were let down by the police at the time, we were let down by social services, we were let down by everyone who was in our lives who was meant to care.”

‘Morbid fantasist’ finally jailed

Watson lured six-year-old Rikki to woods near his home in Peterborough on 28 November 1994 before he the boy from behind with a ligature or anorak collar to fulfill a “morbid fantasy” he had told his mother about three days before.

He stripped Rikki and posed his naked body in a star shape for sexual gratification, deliberately “exhibiting” him near a children's woodland den, jurors were told.

Rikki was reported missing that evening by Ms Neave and found the next day.

Watson obsessed over newspaper coverage of the killing, copying front page stories at school.

A policeman leaving flowers at Welland County Primary School in Peterborough, the school of murdered six-year-old Rikki Neave. (PA)

The next month, he was interviewed as a witness by police after an elderly resident reported seeing him with Rikki on the nearby Welland Estate.

His lying account was unchallenged as police wrongly focused on a theory Ms Neave killed her son and used a buggy to dump his body.

Following the verdict, former assistant chief constable Paul Fullwood, who led the cold case, said Watson is "a fantasist, a dangerous individual, and a compulsive liar".

Mr Fullwood said: "All the way through this, it's been a monumental series of challenges. But as far as we're concerned, we've got the right person responsible for the dreadful, dreadful murder of that little boy Rikki Neave.

"Hopefully, we can bring some justice for his family... and also make sure that we put a dangerous individual in prison."

Rikki Neave, whose naked body was dumped in undergrowth less than 500 yards from his home (PA) (PA Archive)

The conviction brings to a close a cold case mystery in which Rikki’s own mother, Ruth Neave, was acquitted of his murder in 1996, removing suspicion that has haunted her ever since she pleaded guilty to a litany of shocking child cruelty offences against the boy, of which the jury in her murder trial were unaware.

For more than two decades, no one has been convicted over the child’s death, but in 2014 police decided to review the cold case and began reinvestigating in 2015.

Watson will be sentenced as if he were a teenager, meaning he will receive a life sentence but the starting point for the minimum term is 12 years.