Rikki Neave’s mother ‘horrified’ to be jailed for ‘smacking’ children

Rikki, aged six, was strangled and then posed naked in woods near his Peterborough home in November 1994.

His mother Ruth Neave was cleared of his murder in 1995 but admitted child cruelty, for which she was sentenced to seven years in prison, the Old Bailey heard.

Rikki’s death remained a mystery for more than 20 years until a DNA breakthrough allegedly pointing to James Watson, a local boy who was seen with the victim on the day he went missing.

On Tuesday, Ms Neave was cross-examined by Watson’s barrister Jennifer Dempster QC about why she admitted child cruelty.

Ms Dempster said: “You told the jury last Thursday that you got told to plead guilty, that you were bullied into it, you did not know what you were pleading guilty to. Why did you plead guilty?”

Ms Neave replied: “I thought I was pleading guilty to just smacking the children and that’s it.”

Ms Dempster asked: “You were told if you do not plead guilty to the cruelty charges you may go away for the murder for a very long time?

“And so it comes to this that you now say in 2022 you were not guilty of the cruelty and neglect charges, save that you smacked your children from time to time?”

Ms Neave said: “Yes, it is actually, if you don’t mind.”

The lawyer said: “That, Ms Neave, is nonsense.”

The witness replied: “It is not nonsense.”

Ms Dempster went on: “The judge told you you were guilty of appalling and systematic cruelty to your children, and he was right.

“The judge described you as wholly unfit to be a mother, and that’s the truth.

“The judge told you that the harm you had done to your children was incalculable.”

Ms Neave repeatedly denied the barrister’s claims.

Ms Dempster said: “The judge told you he had to impose a sentence to reflect just how serious your offending was.

“What sentence were you expecting for the cruelty?”

The witness replied: “Probation, that’s what I got told by my solicitor.”

Ms Dempster said: “You must have been horrified when the judge sentenced you to seven years’ imprisonment because in your mind all you had done was smacked your children?”

Ms Neave, who has had no contact with her children since, replied: “To put it bluntly, yeah.”

The witness went on to admit having taken “dope” and “speed” but said she stopped when she was pregnant.

She denied that she would inject speed six or seven times a day or that she had taken drugs the night before Rikki went missing.

She admitted dealing in speed until October 1994 to “feed the kids”.

Ms Dempster went on: “I suggest it’s well known and it’s true you were using the children to collect drugs.”

Ms Neave, who gave evidence by video link, replied: “I never used the children to get drugs for me.”

Watson, now aged 40, of no fixed address, has denied Rikki’s murder.