Who was Rikki Neave and what happened to him?

IT took decades to finally catch the twisted killer behind Rikki Neave’s murder.

The little boy died in 1994 when he was just six years old, and his mother Ruth was wrongly accused of his murder before the truth behind the evil crime was unveiled.

Who was Rikki Neave and what happened to him?

Rikki Neave was a young boy from Peterborough who lived on the Welland estate before his tragic death.

On November 28, 1994, Rikki’s mother Ruth reported him missing around 6pm.

The next day, his dead body was found naked and in a star-shaped pose with his arms outstretched and his legs wide apart in the woods near his home.

A post-mortem found the cause of death was “ligature strangulation.”

Rikki was on the Cambridgeshire Child Protection Register and was known to be a vulnerable child to the county’s social services.

Rikki has been described him as a “loving and caring” boy by his half-sister Rochelle Neave – who was just three-years-old at the time of his murder.

She said there were times her brother would “go to the shop [and] would nick [food] and come back and feed us” when there was nothing to eat in the house.

Rochelle added: “[He’d] make sure we were clean so he’d run a bath because he was so clean, he loved being clean.”

What has Rikki’s mum Ruth said about his death?

Rikki’s mother Ruth was wrongly accused of killing her son and stood trial six months after her son’s death charged with murder and child cruelty.

Police falsely accused Ruth after discovering a picture of the Vitruvian Man, the famous picture that shows a man with his limbs outstretched in a chilling echo of how Rikki’s dead body was arranged, at her home.

Prosecutors claimed Rikki’s mum – obsessed with the occult and black magic – killed the youngster in a sacrifice and then reported him missing.

Ruth admitted child cruelty and was imprisoned for seven years but was acquitted of murder.

She was jailed for “persistent and systematic cruelty,” including a time she had once threatened to kill Rikki, an instance which saw her scrawl “idiot” across his forehead and another in which she squirted washing up liquid into his mouth.

In 2014 Ruth, who was released from prison in 2000, urged police to reopen Rikki’s case.

James Watson – a local boy who was aged 13 at the time of the killing – was eventually discovered to be Rikki’s murderer.

Ruth has expressed her disappointed over the initial investigation which she felt “totally ruined [hers and her] daughters’ lives”.

She said: “The only thing now is to close this chapter in my life and open a new one.

“I wonder what Rikki would be like today, married, children? Who knows?

“But this monster has taken that all from me and my daughters.”

She also spoke in 2020 at the Peterborough Magistrates’ Court when the case against Watson heard.

Ruth said: “I am overwhelmed and in truth totally numb.

“This has always been about getting justice for my son Rikki.

“The news has not yet sunk in.

“It would be inappropriate to comment further but what I am looking forward to is a good night’s sleep.

“That has been lacking over many many years.”

After Watson was found guilty Ruth released a further statement.

She said: “Rikki’s murder left a massive hole in our lives and in our hearts.

“I miss him so much that it feels like I have had my heart ripped out.”

Who murdered Rikki Neave?

James Watson was jailed in 2022 for Rikki’s murder.

He was handed a life sentence with a minimum of 15 years after being convicted of murder.

The low minimum sentence, which works out as 12 years and eight months in jail due to time spent on remand, was given due to his age at the time he killed Rikki.

Jurors heard how he had been seen with Rikki the day he vanished and was spoken to by police at the time.

James, however, claimed he did not know Rikki and made no mention of “physical contact”.

He was charged with murder more than 20 years later when his DNA showed on Rikki’s clothes.

Watson has a string of previous convictions – including sexual assault, burglary, theft of a police uniform and unmarked cop car and smashing up a children’s home.

He also abused a five-year-old child a year before the murder and throttled a girlfriend during sex.

Watson fled the UK while on bail after his arrest in 2016 and contacted his sister from France to ask for help.

He was then flown home in August 2016, after being arrested in Lisbon, Portugal, at the Consulate building.

In June 2023 it was reported that Watson was appealing his conviction.

The Court of Appeal heard there was a “wholesale loss and destruction” of evidence.

On June 13, 2023, Watson appeared at the Court of Appeal in London via video link from HMP Wakefield.

Appeal judges said at the time that they would give their decision in writing at a later date.