Evil paedo who abducted and murdered hitchhiking schoolboy, 14, dies in jail

23 April 2024 , 04:57

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Paedophile Brian Field, 65, pleaed guilty to the murder of schoolboy Roy Tutill, 33 years previous - but he was always suspected of other child killings

A paedophile who murdered a 14-year-old boy in 1968 and was linked to several other unsolved cases has died in prison.

Brian Field, 87, from Solihull, who was jailed for life in 2001 for the murder of Roy Tutill in 1968, died in February at HMP Full Sutton in Yorkshire, the Ministry of Justice said.

The department said the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman will carry out an investigation as is procedure with all deaths in custody.

Roy, 14, was sexually assaulted and killed after accepting a lift from Field. The Kingston Grammar School pupil, who lived in Brockham Green, Dorking, Surrey, was abducted as he hitchhiked between home and school to save money to buy a bicycle. His body was found in a woodland in Mickleham three days later.

More than 30 years after Roy was murdered, police linked Field to the murder when a sample of his DNA was fed into a national police computer system after he was stopped during a routine drink-driving test.

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David Spencer, 13, went missing on Boxing Day and Brian Field was a suspect (PA)

Brian Field in 2001 (PA)

Field was jailed for life at the Old Bailey in November 2001.

At his sentencing, Judge Gerald Gordon said the evidence against Field was "overwhelming" and that the forensic evidence used to link him to Roy's murder "should stand as a warning that there is no hiding place for sexual and violent criminals".

Some of exhibits gathered by Surrey Police during the course of their investigation into the death of schoolboy Roy Tutill (PA)

Picture released by Surrey Police of Brian Field, 65, a farm labourer, of Rowood Drive, Solihull, West Midlands, who pleaded guilty Thursday, November 15, 2001 to the murder 33 years ago of schoolboy Roy Tutill (Press Association)

After his imprisonment, Field was questioned by police regarding several other unsolved cases including that of David Spencer, 13, and Patrick Warren, 11, who went missing from the Chelmsley Wood area of Birmingham on Boxing Day 1996, and Mark Billington, who was found dead in a woodland a few miles from where Field lived in Solihull in 1984.

A harrowing case - and more suspicions

The Old Bailey had heard that Field spotted Roy as he hitchhiked home from his Surrey grammar school. The Mail reported at the time of the hearing that the teenager was saving the bus fare towards a train set.

Field sexually assaulted the youngster before strangling him with a rope. The monster hid Roy's corpse in the boot of his white Mini before driving home to see his wife and new-born son. Three days later, he disposed of the body at a private estate in Surrey.

Patrick 'Paddy' Warren went missing with friend David Spencer from their Chelmsley Wood, Birmingham, homes on Boxing Day. David and Patrick were last seen playing in Chelmsley Wood, Solihull, West Midlands - a short distance from Field's home (PA)

Undated picture released by Surrey Police of Brian Field (PA)

The case went cold but was reopened in the 1990s as advances in DNA increased the possibility of obtaining a profile from samples taken from Roy's clothes. He was questioned by West Midlands Police in 2006 about the disappearance of Patrick Warren and David Spencer but no charge was ever made.
Best pals Patrick and David, 11 and 13, became known as 'the Milk Carton Kids', and left their homes to meet up and play but were never seen again, nor have their bodies been found.

Field was also questioned over the death of Mark Billington, 15, who was found hanged in November 1984 in a wood in Meriden, near Solihull. Field had already been questioned about an assault on a seven-year-old boy on the M4 in 1998 and an attempted assault on a 14-year-old in Surrey in 1999.

Detective Chief Superintendent David Cook, who led the fresh inquiry into Roy Tutill's death, said at the time: "We have to look carefully at the last three decades of Field's life, bearing in mind that he had carried out his first murder as early as 1968."

Joseph Wilkes