The neighbour of murdered six-year-old schoolboy Rikki Neave says she heard screams of children ‘of the type I have never heard before’ and called social services three times over concerns about his family, a court has heard.
Rikki was found naked and posed in a star shape in a woodland near his home in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, in November 1994.
James Watson, who was 13 at the time of the death, is standing trial at the Old Bailey charged with his murder after after sophisticated technology found a ‘definitive match’ between his DNA profile and samples taken from Rikki’s clothing when a new probe was launched in 2015.
Rikki’s mother Ruth Neave was cleared of his murder at Northampton Crown Court in 1996, before serving seven years’ imprisonment after admitting child cruelty offences.
Today, her former neighbour Janice Storey told the court she would hear Ms Neave’s children screaming ‘in distress’.
She said: ‘I very quickly became aware of screams which came from Ruth’s house…of the type I have never heard before.
‘The children next door would scream and it seemed to me that they were in distress. This happened the entirety of the time that Ruth lived next door.
Rikki was found naked and posed in a star shape in a woodland near his home in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, in November 1994
‘At night it seemed to go on and on and on.’
Ms Storey, who would give the children biscuits when they visited her home, said she called social services to Ms Neave’s house on three separate occasions.
In one incident, she found Rikki’s older sister Rebecca with a burn mark on her palm, before being told it had been inflicted with a cigarette.
On another occasion, she recalled Rikki crying in his pyjamas after being locked out the house.
Jurors also heard a statement from Sean Quinn today, who worked with Rikki’s stepfather Dean Neave and knew the family.
He said he found Ruth Neave ‘very aggressive’ with the children and she would ‘send Rikki out very late at night to get drugs for her’.
Rikki’s mother Ruth (pictured) was acquitted of her son’s murder, but was jailed for seven years after admitting child cruelty offences
He continued: ‘I also knew Ruth to take Rikki into town with her to shoplift for her. If he didn’t get anything for her she would hit him.’
Mr Quinn said that Ms Neave had a ‘code of ethics’ when it came to using drugs and would refer to speed as ‘sherbet’.
The mother would close the doors when taking drugs so her children could not see, but would become ‘very violent’ without them, the court heard.
He told the court: ‘If Ruth didn’t have any speed and I did I would give her mine. I only did this to stop her from going mental and taking it out on the kids.’
Mr Quinn added that he also saw Mr Neave assault Rikki on a number of occasions, including ‘punching him in the head and dragging him up the stairs’.
Victim support volunteer Susan Clarkson also gave evidence at the Old Bailey.
She told the court that Ms Neave had told her: ‘There’s nothing wrong with hitting them. They need it.’
Ms Clarkson also referred to claims Ms Neave said she would ‘kill’ Rikki.
Ms Neave had told her: ‘Every mother says that don’t they? At some time.’
A court sketch of James Watson, who is standing trial at the Old Bailey charged with the murder of Rikki
The mother earlier told jurors she pleaded guilty to child cruelty offences because it was going to maximise her chances of an acquittal on the murder.
However, Paul Bacon, Ms Neave’s former solicitor, denied she was bullied into admitting the charges.
Ms Neave was acquitted of Rikki’s murder, but went to prison for seven years for the child cruelty offences.
Watson, of no fixed address, denies murdering Rikki between 28 and 29 November 1994.
The trial continues on Wednesday.
