A TEENAGER was yesterday unmasked as Britain’s youngest serial killer after
murdering two strangers — then plotting to slay 15 more victims.
James Fairweather was convicted of stabbing brain-damaged James Attfield 102
times then knifing to death Nahid Almanea three months later.
He was just 15 at the time.
Fairweather, who can finally be named after a legal order was lifted
yesterday, was eventually caught following a 14-month manhunt while out
looking for a third victim.
The Yorkshire Ripper-obsessed teen, who admitted manslaughter but blamed
“voices in the head”, was yesterday convicted by a jury of both murders
after a two-week trial.
As he left the dock ahead of sentencing next week, the now 17-year-old
appeared to mouth “chin up” to his sobbing mum Anita, 45.
Experts are divided over whether Fairweather, who stabbed both victims in the
eye, is mentally ill or simply plain evil.
But James Attfield’s mum Julie Finch branded him a “monster” after the
verdict.
She added: “He was aware what he was doing, he knew right from wrong.”
Fairweather, who told one teacher he wanted “to be a murderer”, was almost
locked up days before the first murder. He had been convicted of robbing a
shop at knifepoint in his school uniform.
The defendant was told off for sniggering in court by a magistrate who warned
him in March 2014: “You are very much on the edge of custody for this
offence.”
He was given a 12-month referral order instead and three days later attacked
complete stranger James, 33, who had been left brain-damaged from a car
crash.
Fairweather later told cops he “snuck out of the house through the living-room
window” and went “looking for a sacrifice” in his home town of Colchester,
Essex.
He went on: “I couldn’t find no one. I then saw James Attfield lying there on
the grass.”
Fairweather said of father-of-five James, who had been to the pub: “He was
drunk. They were saying ‘He’s the one, do it’.
“So I started stabbing, one shot missed and went into his eye and I went into
a rage. There was a big pool of blood.”
Attfield was stabbed 102 times in a frenzied two-minute attack, Guildford
crown court was told.
Three months later Nahid, 31, was also attacked in Colchester as she walked
by a nature trail in broad daylight dressed in a Hijab and full-length
Muslim robe.
Fairweather said: “I went behind her and the voices started laughing, I
remember again they were really, really loud.
“She stumbled and I hit her in the eye, the third blow I popped her in the eye
and I went into a rage again. They were laughing in my head, going, ‘You did
it’.”
He said he knocked off her sunglasses “so I could stab her in the eye”. Asked
if he killed her because she was Muslim, he replied: “No she was a sinner, a
sacrifice.”
Fairweather was pulled in for questioning as he had a knife crime conviction
and lived near the murder scene but was allowed to go.
He was finally caught 11 months later when dog walker Michelle Sadler spotted
him lurking where Nahid was killed.
When cops arrived the teen, armed with a lock knife and gloves, told them:
“I’m waiting for someone to kill.”
He added: “I’ve done it twice before.”
A search of his home revealed a knife and a latex glove in the pocket of his
blazer. He also had a stash of serial killer books and films, including a
documentary on Peter Sutcliffe. They also found traces of Nahid’s DNA.
In interviews Fairweather claimed “voices” in his head began two years earlier
after he was bullied at school.
He said they had ordered him to carry out the killings. He told one doctor: “I
wish I had not told anyone so I could be out killing more people.”
The teen claimed he had also been told to kill the detention officer bringing
him tea at the police station. The court heard that he had wanted to kill 15
more times.
The jury was also told that Fairweather had developed a growing interest in
violent pornography as well as an obsession with serial killers, the Nazis
and cannibalism.
Two psychiatric experts said it was “highly likely” or “more than likely” he
was suffering from “psychosis” at the time of the murders.
Dr Simon Hill is a consultant psychiatrist at a secure hospital in the south
of England where Fairweather is currently a patient.
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He said violence gave Fairweather a “warm and exciting” feeling, adding the
schoolboy “felt he was possessed by the devil”. But leading criminal
psychiatrist Dr Philip Joseph told the jury it was “inconceivable” the
defendant had been hearing voices for two years yet nobody noticed.
Dr Joseph said: “It is significant he has not mentioned voices until he is
arrested, and then there is a torrent of voices. They are a fallback
position if arrested.
“In my view it’s inconceivable that voices would have been happening and a boy
hid it from people around him.
“It is inevitable they would have been picked up and observed.
“I think he is doing that to distance himself from what he has done.
“Maybe over the years he heard his internal thoughts. We can all have that
experience of audible thoughts, that is not psychosis.”
Speaking outside court, Julie Finch paid tribute to her “kind and brave son”
James Attfield.
She said: “He had been through so much already, having fought hard to overcome
the effects of brain damage suffered when he was struck by a car. He didn’t
deserve to die.
“At the time we had no idea the killer was so young — a fact that makes my
son’s death feel all the more cruel and unnecessary. James Fairweather is a
monster in our eyes — and we will never be able to forgive him.”
Nahid’s family said in a statement: “Nahid was a remarkable and gentle person
who was loved for her kind and caring nature.”
Her murderer is said to have been a normal shy boy before he “flipped” during
secondary school.
One report when he was six described him as “a quiet and well-behaved child.
He is very hard-working, kind, sensitive to the needs of others”.
He showed an early interest in darts, which he played with “down to earth dad”
James Snr, a cleaner at Colchester United FC. One local, who played with
the pair, said of the boy: “He was as quiet as a church mouse.”
However, his behaviour changed when his nan died of cancer in April 2012. An
expert said: “He believed that she was a good person who shouldn’t be taken
away.”
He became increasingly angry, repeatedly getting into trouble at secondary
school after kicking and headbutting other lads.
One female classmate at Colchester Academy said: “A teacher asked him what he
wanted to do when he was older, and he said, ‘I want to be a murderer’. Just
before his Year 11 final assembly, he said he was going to come in and shoot
everyone.” He was then allowed back into school to sit his GCSEs in
isolation after holding up a local convenience store.
A neighbour said his hospital worker mum Anita was now “broken”, adding:
“She is a really lovely woman.”
Nick Alston, Police and Crime Commissioner for Essex said the “deeply
disturbing case” highlights the danger of young people’s exposure to
“extreme violence and pornography”.
Judge Mr Justice Robin Spencer QC yesterday told Fairweather he will sentence
him at the Old Bailey next Friday.
He looked like a perv
By ROB PATTINSON
A HAIRDRESSER believes she dodged becoming James Fairweather’s third victim
when she saw him lurking in bushes.
Michelle Sadler, 41, was walking her dog near the spot where the schoolboy
knifed second victim Nahid Almanea.
At first the mum of one thought the lurker — in combat jacket and gloves — was
a paedophile.
But then, remembering cops’ warnings, Michelle calmly turned to walk away and
dialled 999.
She said: “People have told me I’ve saved lives, but the truth is I think I
saved my own life.
“I think he was waiting for me to be his third victim.”
Michelle went on: “I walk my dog close to the nature trail and was down there
on my own.
“I saw him hiding in the bushes and looking really suspicious. I nearly s***
myself when I saw him there.
“I am sure that I was going to be his next victim.
“There was just me and him there so I am not sure why he did not attack.
“I’d been to the gym so I can only think that it was because I was in my
running gear that he thought I would be too strong.
“I called the police because I thought he was a paedophile.
“It was only later I found out he had been arrested for the killing.”
Salon owner Michelle added: “When I close my eyes I see his face. I see those
thick black glasses of his staring back at me.
“I followed the case really closely online which was probably a bad idea as it
has made me an emotional wreck.
“I want to put all this behind me and get on with my life.
“People have said I should claim the £10,000 reward from Crimestoppers but
it’s not about the money for me. But then you start to think, why offer it
if they’re not prepared to pay it?”
Michelle admits she has been haunted by the events of the day Fairweather was
captured.
She believes the trauma quickened a split from her partner.
The mum explained: “It made me realise that life can be so short.
“It’s not the reason we split up but what happened on that morning took its
toll on me.
“The last 11 months have been so difficult.
“It’s been traumatic and I’ve had to move house.
“I’m not a hero, I just got lucky not to be the next victim.”
Speaking from her home in Colchester yesterday, Michelle said she was fighting
back tears when the guilty verdict came back from the jury.
She admitted: “I have tried to stay strong for my daughter but it has not been
easy.”
Police let him go free
COPS quizzing James Fairweather over Nahid Almanea’s murder 400 yards from his
house let him go because they believed his alibi that he had been in his
bedroom.
Police also said yesterday the technology to match DNA on Nahid’s body was
not available at the time.
Fairweather was not questioned at all over the earlier murder of Jim Attfield
— even though he walked free from court days before for holding up a shop
with a knife.
He had sniggered at his trial for stealing £30 and some cigars in an armed
raid. But he was released from North Essex Youth Court without a curfew or
electronic tag.
James Attfield’s mum Julie Finch said: “It’s unbelievable Fairweather was out
on the streets. He was clearly a threat to society.”
Essex Police spent £2.6million probing the murders, but refused to believe
they were linked.
Asked whether a harsher sentence for the shop raid would have stopped the
killings, Asst Chief Constable Steve Worron said: “No one will ever know —
apart from James Fairweather.”