Sex offender Richard Scatchard wanted after ‘murder’ of partner is ‘found dead in caravan’ months on from disappearance
POLICE have found a body in the hunt for a sex attacker who vanished after a woman was found dead at his home.
Richard Scatchard, 70, was last seen in Minehead, Somerset in October last year - disappearing the day after Kelly Faiers' body was discovered.
Cops put out a plea, urging the public for help to find him but warned the convicted sex attacker could be a "risk".
In the weeks that followed the mum's death, her heartbroken family put out a plea for Scatchard to hand himself in.
Now Avon and Somerset Police have said a body had been found inside a caravan near Cleeve Hill, in Watchet.
The force said while formal identification is yet to take place, the body is thought to be Scatchard.
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Chilling footage showed the moment Kelly, 61, left a pub with the convicted criminal just hours before her death.
Ambulance crews were rushed to Scatchard's home on Blenheim Road, Minehead on October 15 to find the body of Kelly, 61.
But when cops returned the next day about the tragic mum's death, the criminal had disappeared.
They quickly launched a manhunt - and offered a £10,000 reward for information to help track the criminal down.
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Kelly's grief-stricken family slammed police, saying they made a massive mistake by failing to question Scatchard, who was previously jailed for drugging and sexually assaulting women, after finding Kelly at his home.
They said she would always be remembered as "very loving, trusting, happy... and always smiling".
Detective Superintendent Gary Haskins, of the Major Crime Investigation Team, today said: “Kelly’s family have been informed of the latest development and we will keep them, and Richard Scatchard’s family, updated as our enquiries progress.
"Specialist family liaison officers continue to provide support to Kelly’s family at this difficult time.
“A forensic post-mortem examination will be carried out in due course, but we believe the man’s death occurred some time ago.
CONVICTED SEX OFFENDER
"Until that has been completed we will be treating the man’s death as unexplained, albeit we are not aware of any suspicious circumstances at this time.
“We would like to thank those people who have responded to the appeals for information we have issued over the past five-and-a-half months and will continue to update the public as our enquiries progress.”
Scatchard was found guilty of eight offences at Warrington Crown Court in 2000.
This included three charges of drugging his victims, two charges of indecent assault, one attempted rape, one charge of theft and one charge of burglary.
At the time, the court heard of Scatchard's depraved obsession with drugging women he shared relationships with in order to create explicit videos.
'DANGER TO ANY WOMAN'
One of his partners told the court that when she discovered intimate, non-consensual images of herself, she moved away from Scatchard's area.
He later broke into her home, stole personal papers so he could find her and even sprayed battery acid around the house, destroying possessions worth thousands of pounds.
Sentencing Scatchard in 2000, Judge Hale said "You have pleaded guilty to three sexual offences directed towards three women who showed you considerable kindness and love.
"In each case, you drugged them for your own purposes to commit offences.
"You are in my view a considerable danger to any woman with whom you enter a relationship.
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"These are very grave sexual offences demanding a sentence of life imprisonment.
"I say that because I cannot predict at what stage you would be safe to release."
