John Straffen - Child Killings

Child Killings

According to Letitia Fairfield in the introduction to the "Notable British Trials" series volume about Straffen, Straffen had a "smouldering hatred" and an "intense resentment" of the police, and blamed them for all his troubles from the age of eight. On the morning of Straffen's assessment, a young girl named Christine Butcher was murdered. Fairfield speculates that Straffen saw the press coverage that followed and made the connection that strangling young girls gave the maximum amount of trouble to the police.

On 15 July 1951 Straffen went on a visit to the cinema, on his own. His route took him past 1 Camden Crescent in Bath, where five-year-old Brenda Goddard lived with her foster parents. According to Straffen's later statement to the police, he saw Brenda gathering flowers and offered to show her a better place. After lifting Brenda over a fence into a copse, he strangled her and when she did not scream, bashed her head against a stone. After killing Brenda Goddard, Straffen did not make any attempt to hide the body and simply went on to the cinema (the film was Shockproof) and returned home.

Although Bath police had not suspected Straffen was violent, he was considered a suspect in the murder and was seen by police on 3 August. Meanwhile the police had visited Straffen's employer to check on his movements; this resulted in Straffen being dismissed on 31 July. In a later interview with a prison psychiatrist, Straffen said that he knew he was under suspicion and wanted to annoy the police, because he hated them for shadowing him.

On 8 August Straffen was again at the cinema when he met nine year-old Cicely Batstone. He first took Cicely to a different cinema to see another film, and then went on the bus to a meadow known as "Tumps" on the outskirts of Bath. There he strangled her to death. The circumstances of the murder left many witnesses who had seen Straffen with the girl: the bus conductor recognised Straffen as a former workmate, a courting couple in the meadow had seen Straffen very closely, and a policeman's wife had also seen the two together. She mentioned it to her husband; when the alarm was raised the next morning, she guided police to where she had seen the two and the body of Cicely Batstone was discovered. Her description of the man was enough to identify Straffen immediately as the suspect.