| Flowers in Gods Garden
- Articles |
05/09/01
- Let little Rosie rest in peace
by Nick Morrison
FEW crimes have caused so much revulsion as the brutal
murder of three-year-old Rosie Palmer. Abducted as she
went to buy an ice cream, Rosie was sexually assaulted
and killed, her body stuffed into a bin liner and hidden
in a cupboard in a flat just yards from her home.
The savagery of the killing left deep and indelible
wounds on her family, wounds that will never heal and
need no re-opening. And the tragedy was felt throughout
the community. No one could hear about the depraved
circumstances surrounding her death without a wrenching
feeling in the pit of their stomach.
Just when it seemed that Shaun Armstrong had caused
as much grief as one human being could manage, he has
contrived to add new trauma to an already unimaginable
torment, a torment which began on a sunny summer's afternoon
seven years ago.
Ginger-haired and freckle-faced and just three feet
high, Rosie was as excited as any other three-year-old
when the ice cream van pulled into Henrietta Street
in Hartlepool, on Thursday, June 30, 1994. She ran home
to get some money for a lolly. And then she disappeared.
The van's arrival had coincided with Armstrong's return
from drinking six pints of beer and several large rums
at a social club where he celebrated his 32nd birthday.
But details of what happened then have never been revealed,
Armstrong's refusal to disclose how his victim met her
death added to the agony of a family already struggling
with unanswered questions.
According to the police, the likelihood is that Rosie
met her death within half-an-hour of her abduction,
but it was to be three days before her body was discovered.
Ignorant of her fate, her step-father John Thornton
went out to search for Rosie when she failed to appear.
A few hours later, with still no sign of the little
girl, the police were called and were joined by many
residents of the close-knit community in a huge search.
By this time, Armstrong had been seen in a local shop
with blood on his hands. He told the shopkeeper that
he had been bitten by his dog, even though there was
no sign of any teeth marks.
After buying a bottle of cider, he went to a nearby
beach with his dog. Security men at a nearby factory
saw him going in and out of the sea, fully-clothed,
and alerted police, who finally persuaded him to return
home.
Officers visited his home twice over the succeeding
days, but it was not until the Sunday that they carried
out an extensive search of his Frederic Street flat,
which was within sight of Rosie's home. And the search
was to destroy the hopes and confirm the fears of a
community which had been put on edge since the youngster's
disappearance. Inside a cupboard, a black plastic bin
bag contained Rosie's decomposing remains.
The state of the body meant it was impossible to pinpoint
an exact cause of death, although a post-mortem confirmed
she had been sexually assaulted. Police said it was
possible that the assault itself had caused the fatal
injuries. When news of the discovery spread, a crowd
gathered outside the flat, emotions heightened by the
tension of the previous three days.
The inflamed feelings continued as a furious mob gathered
outside the town's magistrates court when Armstrong
appeared charged with Rosie's murder a few days later.
He had originally been expected to deny the charge,
on the grounds of diminished responsibility, but, when
it came to the trial 13 months later, he pleaded guilty
to murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
But his admission and the knowledge that he was behind
bars did not ease the torment of her family. Mum Beverley
attempted suicide in the wake of her daughter's death
and later launched legal action to try to hold public
bodies responsible for the crime. Armstrong had been
discharged from the Royal Navy on psychological grounds
after just four months service and had been a patient
at Hartlepool General Hospital.
But Mrs Palmer's attempt to hold Tees Health Authority
and Hartlepool and East Durham Health Trust responsible
for Rosie's killing, on the grounds they allowed a former
psychiatric patient who had allegedly admitted to having
paedophile tendencies, to live near children, failed
in the Court of Appeal.
The court hearing was told that Mrs Palmer's life had
been wrecked by the killing, causing her mental health
problems. Five years after the murder, she was in court
as a defendant, admitting assaults on two police officers
and a doctor, for which she was given a conditional
discharge.
The tragedy also claimed another victim in Wilf Aves,
Rosie's grandfather, who doted on the little girl. Two
days after Rosie's funeral, he attacked John Thornton
with a knife, in his distress believing her step-father
to have been responsible for her death. He spent a year
on remand but was spared jail after he admitted unlawful
wounding.
A year later, and less than two years after Rosie's
killing, he was dead. Friends said he died of a broken
heart. |
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| Flowers in Gods Garden |
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| Paul Pearson |
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| Rosie Palmer |
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| Sophie Hook |
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