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Murder on the Train: Deborah Linsley

Deborah Linsley, 26, was stabbed to death on the 2.16pm train from Orpington to Victoria Station on Wednesday 23 March 1988.

She was found lying on the floor of the carriage in a pool of blood when the train arrived at platform 2 at around 2.50pm.

Debbie, who worked as a hotel manager in Edinburgh and was visiting family in London, had suffered at least five stab wounds, including a fatal injury to her heart, and defence wounds to her hands suggested she had tried to fend off her attacker.

Although detectives have a full DNA profile of her killer from blood left at the scene, nobody has ever been arrested and the case remains unsolved.

When Debbie was murdered the Senior Investigating Officer described the attack as savage and brutal. She was stabbed at least five times and because of the severity of the attack he was of the opinion that it was unlikely that this was the culprit’s first violent offence. Debbie had deep defence wounds on her hands but despite this she injured him during the struggle. As a result of this a full DNA profile has subsequently been obtained of the attacker. So here we have a probable repeat violent offender and we have his full DNA profile but he is not on the DNA Database. I find that very puzzling. There must be a partner, relative or friend out there who knows of someone who returned home with an unexplained injury and we are appealing for that person or persons to come forward. After all we only need one phone call if it is the right one.”
Debbie’s father, Arthur Linsley, speaking in 2018

A £20,000 reward is on offer for information leading to the arrest, charge and prosecution of the person or persons responsible for the murder.

Debbie had been visiting her parents and her brother Gordon in southeast London as part of the preparations for Gordon’s wedding a few weeks later.

She caught the train at Petts Wood and boarded a six-person compartment with doors at each side of the carriage.

A French passenger later told police she heard screaming on board the train after it left Brixton.

The murder weapon has not been recovered but is thought to have been a heavy bladed knife between five and seven and a half inches long.

In 2018 the Metropolitan Police said state of the art DNA techniques were being used to try and identify the killer through his relatives.

DI Susan Stansfield of the Met’s Special Casework Investigation Team said: “Our efforts to trace the perpetrator continue. We will do everything in our power to identify the killer and bring them to justice.

“We have a DNA profile of the suspect and this remains a key piece of evidence that we are following up on. As well as the physical evidence at our disposal, we would be keen to hear from anyone who has information that might assist the inquiry.

“Have you had an unusual, out-of-the-blue conversation with someone about the murder in the intervening years? Has someone confided in you with information only the killer would know?

“Although this happened 30 years ago, you may recall being on that train or at a station on the route and seeing something which at the time you thought nothing of but in light of what happened was out of place and suspicious, and might be significant.”

Contact the incident room on 0207 230 4294 or 0207 230 0992, or to remain anonymous ring Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

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Femicide in London

The murder of Sarah Everard by a police officer in London has prompted much greater public interest in the issue of ‘femicide’, normally defined as the killing of a woman or girl by a man. Following the court case, the Guardian and Sunday Times newspapers both published a gallery of the 80 or so women vicitms across the UK since March 2021.*

Many of these cases would otherwise have received little or no attention, ironically because they are not felt to be ‘unusual’ or remarkable enough. By contrast, the murder of Sarah Everard became a national issue because of its relatively rare nature: a young woman walking home along a busy street one evening was targeted at random by a stranger who not only worked as a police officer but also used his status to kidnap her from a public place.

In London there have been 18 such alleged ‘femicides’ since the murder of Sarah Everard (plus one alleged killing of a woman by another woman). However it is difficult to examine these cases in detail because they have not yet gone through the justice system. So, in an attempt to look more closely at the nature of fatal violence against women and girls, we decided to focus on the 29 female victims of homicide in London in the calendar year of 2019.

Female victims accounted for 19.2% of the total that year (29 out of 151), according to our statistics*. The figures can vary quite a lot each year as they are relatively low numbers (see table below), but the proportion of female victims tends to be between 20 and 25 per cent of the total. In 2020 there were 28 female victims out of a total of 123 (22.6%).

Year	Female Victims #	Female Victims %	Total Homicides
2016	19	17.4	109
2017	26	19.6	133
2018	31	23.1	134
2019	29	19.2	151*
2020	28	22.6	123

Based on murdermap figures, which may be slightly different from police. *We have removed one 2019 case where the police have not confirmed the sex of the child victim.

Looking at the cases in 2019, we can try and distinguish between them based on a number of features such as age, weapon, location (of the attack), and relationship with the killer or suspect.

Here’s a graph comparing male and female homicide victims by location of attack.

London Homicides in 2019, by location of attack

It’s clear that most (86 per cent) female victims in 2019 were killed at a residential address – either their own home or someone else’s. It’s striking that the only female street homicide involved a fight between two women which ended in a fatal stabbing. By contrast male homicides mostly (66.4%) take place in the street.

One reason for this disparity is that a large proportion of male homicides involve fights between young males (between the ages of 15 and 30) in public places, whereas the ages of female victims are not as concentrated in this range.

This difference is mostly due to the closer relationship between female victims and their killer and, as we have already seen, the fact that most female victims are attacked indoors.

In 2019 the vast majority of killers/suspects in female homicides were male. This is generally the case every year, as well as in the UK as a whole. If we exclude the four cases where a relationship is not known (two are unsolved murders and two are ongoing investigations into baby deaths), then 23 out of the 25 victims (92%) were killed by men. The two female suspects were a mother who killed her child and a woman who killed a ‘rival’ after an argument in the street.

Suspect relationship to female homicide victims

Of the 25 confirmed ‘femicides’ (female victims killed by men), 12 out of 25 (48%) victims were killed by a partner or ex-partner and 5 (20%) were killed by a relative.

To end, here’s the chart of female victims by weapon used. While knives are still the most common weapon used (38%), the percentage is much less than for male victims (68%), and ‘None’ – which mainly involves the use of hands and feet (including manual strangulation – is much higher (28% compared to 12%).

If you have any questions then please comment below and we will try to answer them, either in the comments or with an addition to this post.

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Adam: The Torso in the Thames

On the afternoon of Friday September 21, 2001, passers-by spotted an brightly-coloured object floating in the water past the Tower of London and under Tower Bridge.

It was recovered by the Metropolitan Police near the Globe Theatre and found to be the body of an African boy, aged five or six. His head and limbs had been severed from his body and he was still wearing a pair of orange shorts.

The boy was later named Adam, after police were unable to identify him.

Police graphic of torso found in the River Thames

Detectives said they believed he was the victim of a ritual murder and had been paralysed with an extract from the carabar bean. A £50,000 reward was offered for information leading to a conviction.

In April 2002 an international appeal was made by apartheid campaigner and former South African President Nelson Mandela.

Police arrested Nigerian Joyce Osiagede in Glasgow in 2002 and found clothing similar to that found on Adam in her tower block flat. She was later deported.

One of her Nigerian associates, Kingsley Ojo, was also arrested and later charged with people trafficking. Police found a video of mock-up ritual killings and a rat’s skull, thought to be a voodoo talisman, but said there was no evidence linking him to the death of Adam. He was jailed for four years and six months in July 2004 and was deported in 2008.

The orange shorts worn by the boy ‘Adam’

In March 2011, London Tonight broadcast an interview with Ms Osiagede in which she claimed that the boy’s name was a six year-old boy called Ikpomwosa. She said she had looked after him for a year in Germany before handing him to a man named ‘Bawa’.

Then in February 2013 Ms Osiagede told the BBC the boy’s name was in fact Patrick Erhabor and ‘Bawa’ was Kingsley Ojo, the convicted people smuggler.

The case remains unsolved and Adam’s true identity remains unknown despite regular reviews of the evidence.

A new appeal for information was made in September 2021.

DCI Kate Kieran, a homicide detective from the Met’s Specialist Crime Command, said: “It is incredibly sad and frustrating that Adam’s murder remains unsolved. The homicide command have been working tirelessly over the years to find out who is responsible.

“We recognise people may not have wanted to speak up at the time and may have felt loyal to the person or people involved in this.

“However, over the past 20 years, allegiances and relationships may have changed and some people may now feel more comfortable talking to us. We implore them be bold and come forward if they know something so that we can finally deliver justice once and for all.

“No matter how old or small that information may seem, it really could make all the difference.

“This young boy has not and will not be forgotten. He deserved better and we will not give up on him.”

To provide information, call police on 101 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

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Links:

‘Adam’ has an entry in Wikipedia with links to articles and videos related to the case.

See also the London Tonight interview with Joyce Osiagede and the reporter’s account of the investigation in the Daily Mail ‘Voodoo and human sacrifice: The haunting story of how Adam, the Torso in the Thames boy, was finally identified‘. The BBC story ‘Torso case boy identified’ was published on 7 February 2013.

The Regent’s Park Bombing of 1982

Seven military bandsmen were killed by an IRA bomb in Regent’s Park on 20 July 1982.

Serjeant Major Graham Barker, 36, Serjeant Robert Livingstone, 31, Corporal John McKnight, 30, George Mesure, 19, Keith Powell, 24, Laurence Smith, 19, and John Heritage, 29, were all members of the Royal Green Jackets.

They were performing music from the musical Oliver! at the bandstand before a crowd of 120 people when the bomb exploded at around 12.55pm.

Six of the bandsmen were killed instantly and at least eight civilians were injured. John Heritage died in hospital on 1 August.

The bombing took place two hours after four soldiers were killed in a bomb at Hyde Park.

In a statement referring prime minister Margaret Thatcher’s words in relation to the Falklands War, the IRA claimed responsibility for the terror attack.

Now it is our turn to properly invoke article 51 of the UN statute and properly quote all Thatcher’s fine phrases on the right to self-determination of a people. The Irish people have sovereign and national rights which no task or occupational force can put down.
IRA statement, issued under the name “P.O’Neill”.

While two suspects were charged with the Hyde Park bombing, nobody has ever been charged in relation to the Regent’s Park Bomb.

This case is featured in the historical murder map.

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The unsolved murder of Lynne Weedon

Lynne Weedon, 16, was raped and beaten to death near her home in Hounslow, west London, in 1975.

Her case remains unsolved but has been linked to the killing of Eve Stratford six months earlier.

Lynne was on her way home after an evening out with friends and was attacked after entering an alleyway called The Short Hedges of the Great Western Road at around 11pm on 3 September.

She was hit with a blunt instrument and thrown over a fence into the grounds of an electricity substation. She was then raped.

Lynne was still alive when she was found by a local school caretaker whose house overlooked the sub-station. She never regained consciousness and died a week later in hospital on 10 September 1975.

The cause of death was a single blow to the head which caused a skull fracture. The weapon was never recovered.

In 2004 officers from the Metropolitan Police’s Murder Review Group re-examined Lynne’s case and recovered a DNA profile. Further checks revealed a match to a DNA profile linked to Eve’s murder.

A £40,000 reward is on offer for information leading to the conviction of those responsible.

On the 40th anniversary of the murder, investigating officer Detective Chief Inspector Noel McHugh, from the Homicide and Major Crime Command, made a direct appeal for the killer to come forward.

He said: “I firmly believe there is someone out there who has information about who carried out these murders. It is inconceivable the killer of Eve and Lynne has kept the perfect secret for 40 years. It’s a heavy burden to carry and he must have let details slip over the years – maybe to a partner, a friend, even a cellmate – and I would appeal to anyone with information to contact us. The families of Eve and Lynne had spent decades not knowing who brutally killed their loved ones and they surely deserve some answers.

“The man who carried out these murders is now of a different, older generation. I would imagine he must have reflected upon his actions every day over the past 40 years.

“Does he feel guilt, remorse, a need to explain what happened? Sadly Eve’s parents have passed away but this man has a chance to bring peace to Lynne’s mother and father, now in their 80s.

“I am directly appealing to that person to come forward and speak to us and make things right for the sake of the families affected.

“One phone call to the incident room could be all that it takes to bring two bereaved families closer to some closure or justice.

“I urge you to examine your conscience and if you are wavering on making that call, think of Eve’s family who have now passed away and Lynne’s parents who are in their 80s and have endured 40 dreadful years not knowing who murdered their daughter. Perhaps the person who killed Lynne and Eve confided in you? Please do not keep their secret for a day longer and come forward.”

Anyone with information is asked to call the incident room on 020 8785 8099 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

1975 seems so long ago and it is. We have missed out on so much; she missed out on life, no relationship or marriage, no career or children or even just travelling the world, all taken from her. We are left wondering what it would have been like. A true life sentence.
We are well aware that whoever murdered Lynne also murdered Eve Stratford. That young lady also had her life snubbed out. Her family have died now. Another true life sentence. The hurt eases but the pain still sits deep somewhere inside. There are so many questions. So many thoughts. So much heartache.
I will make a mother’s plea for anyone who can tell us some information about the person who took my daughter and Eve Stratford’s lives to come forward. Please, please give us some sort of closure.
Lynne’s mother Margaret Weedon, speaking in March 2015

This case is featured on the historical murder map of London.

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