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??/??/?? - Rosie Palmer 3 years old
Murdered
A man who sexually assaulted and then murdered and mutilated
a three-year-old girl he saw playing near his home was
jailed for life. Shaun Armstrong, 33, seized Rosie within
minutes of her buying an ice cream from a passing van.
He then carried out such a vicious attack on the little
girl that her blood was still on him when he visited
a local shop over an hour later. Police found the child's
body three days later. Because Armstrong had placed
it inside a bin liner, which he hid in a cupboard at
his home, forensic scientists were unable to determine
whether she had been strangled or suffocated.
James Spencer, QC, prosecuting, said ginger haired and
bespectacled Rosie was murdered on Armstrong's 32nd
birthday. Like other children she had spent the afternoon
playing on the streets near her home. Armstrong, unemployed,
who had moved into the area only six months earlier,
spent from noon to 3 p.m. at a bar drinking beer and
rum.
"He arrived back at the neighborhood at about 3.30
p.m., just about the same time that an ice cream van
came round," said Mr. Spencer. "The van's
chimes attracted the children in the area, including
Rosie. "She ran into her home asking for money
for an ice cream, and then went outside to buy an ice
cream."
Police called at Armstrong's flat the day after the
murder but found nothing untoward Within moments of
Rosie leaving the ice cream van, Armstrong had seized
her and dragged her to his home. Scientific tests showed
she died within 65 minutes. Mr. Spencer said that Armstrong
later went to a local shop to buy two two-litre bottles
of cider.
When an assistant noticed blood on his right hand he
claimed his dog had bit him. At a time when Rosie had
not even been reported missing, he also volunteered
the information that he was helping to look for her.
Instead, he went to the beach, where he ran in and out
of the sea fully clothed.
Two police officers, unaware that Rosie was missing,
persuaded him to leave the beach and go home. Police
called at Armstrong's home the day after the murder
but found nothing untoward, said Mr. Spencer. "He
continued life as normal, arranging to meet his friends."
Police again spoke to Armstrong, but it was not until
the next day that they made a full search after he gave
them an inappropriate reply to a question.
Scientific tests showed that Rosie had at some stage
been beside the settee, where there were the remains
of a pool of blood. Armstrong, wearing a dark pin-stripe
suit, stood impassively as he pleaded guilty to the
child's murder. His barrister, Gilbert Gray, QC, said
he had suffered from psychological disorders and had
such low self-esteem that he had made 17 attempts to
commit suicide.
"He is utterly mortified by the misery he has caused;
and by his plea he has moved to cause no more, even
though there was evidence of diminished responsibility."
Passing sentence, Mr. Justice Ognall told Armstrong:
"Your counsel speaks of your state of anguish and
of grief, yet it can surely be as nothing compared to
that suffered by little Rosie Palmer's family.
"There is evidence suggesting that you have a severely
disordered personality. But you are, and were at the
time, fully responsible for your actions." Armstrong
was a social misfit whose strange behavior and addiction
to violence had marked him out long before the killing
of Rosie Palmer, writes Nigel Bunyan. His life was scarred
by the incest that dominated his childhood.
He discovered as a teenager that he was the product
of his mother's relationship with his grandfather and,
later, even when married, he would return to her bed
for sex. His two ex-wives recall both how he beat them
and enjoyed dressing up in women's clothing.
While Armstrong fantasized openly about having served
with the Royal Navy's Elite Special Boat Squadron in
the Falklands, the reality was that the former mining
apprentice and security guard had been discharged from
the Navy after four months because of his psychological
disorder.
His first wife, Christine Teat, 40, married him, three
days before his 19th birthday. "People told me
he was a weirdo, but he was all right in company,"
said Mrs. Teat, who already had two children. "I
never loved him and he slapped me about a bit during
our courtship. I suppose I was too scared to call it
off, and I did want a father for my children."
Mrs. Teat realized her mistake when, on their wedding
night, he pounded her head against the hearth of an
open fire because she was reluctant to have sex. Other
beatings followed, and Armstrong also threatened his
stepchildren, then aged four and five. On one occasion
his new wife found him wearing her nightie and dressing
gown, and on another he was in bed with his mother,
Rachael, who has since died of cancer.
Mrs. Teat finally walked out when Armstrong tried to
molest her daughter. "I shudder when I think of
the monster I married," she said. "Little
Rosie's murder brought it all back. It could have been
my daughter." |
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