19/07/96 - Never set him free
The Mirror
The monster who raped and murdered seven-year-old Sophie
Hook was finally caged yesterday - never to be freed.
Handing out three life sentences to 31-year-old Howard
Hughes, Mr Justice Richard Curtis declared: "You
are a fiend.Your crimes are every parent's nightmare
come to pass. At night you spirited a girl of seven
from her family, raped her with savage ferocity and
so cruelly put her to death.
"No girl is or ever will be safe from you."
Hughes, an unemployed gardener known as "Mad Howard,"
haunted the streets of Colwyn Bay in North Wales for
16 years and was linked to a string of sex attacks.
The 6ft 8in freak - with acne-scarred face and rotten
teeth - was a peeping Tom and petty thief whose depraved
lust raged out of control in the crime that shocked
the nation last July 30.
Hughes snatched Sophie from the back garden of her
uncle's Llandudno home as she camped overnight in a
tent with her sister Jemma, 9, and nine-year-old cousin
Luke.
She was strangled and her body dumped in the sea.
Applause echoed around Chester Crown Court's historic
No 2 Court - where Moors murderers Myra Hindley and
Ian Brady were also convicted - as the gaunt killer
was led to the cells on the 19th day of the trial.
The judge urged immediate Home Office action to protect
Britain's children.
Sentencing Hughes to life three times, one for murder
and two for rape, he said: "I make it crystal clear
to you here and now that my recommendation in view of
your appalling crimes and the maximum risk you pose
to young girls, is that you are never, never ever released."
Sophie's 40-year-old uncle Danny Jones, from whose
garden she was grabbed, wept as Hughes was led away
still protesting his innocence.
Her parents Chris and Julie Hook were not in court.
After the killer was taken down, Mr Justice Curtis
told prosecutor Gerard Alias: "This case seems
to me to be a clarion call for immediate steps to be
taken to improve society's protection of its children.
"There seems to be nothing in the way of a statutory
system that would enable a responsible citizen to supervise
and control someone like Howard Hughes.
"I would express the hope that some immediate
action is taken so that perhaps Sophie Hook will not
have died in vain."
The judge ordered that Hughes's vile store of pornography
along with a teddy bear torn at the crutch, and stuffed
with a child's knickers, be retained "so if anybody
considers releasing him they may see what we have seen
and the risk he poses to little girls."
Mad Howard was a familiar figure in the North Wales
seaside resorts of Colwyn Bay, Llandudno and Rhos-on-Sea.
He would hurtle about on his mountain bike in his scruffy
old denims at all hours of the day and night, his hair
greasy and unwashed, his 14- stone rottweiler dog Bryn
at his side. In the carefree summers, Hughes was a dark
brooding presence, feared and shunned for his bizarre
ways.
Police had been watching him for 16 years. He even
complained about police harassment.
But detectives did not have enough evidence to trap
him.
The brute, who took sickening pictures of children,
was accused of indecently assaulting two girls aged
five and three. The case was dropped.
He was also accused of assaulting a nine-year-old girl,
but her parents did not want the case to go ahead.
Other children still have nightmares about their terrifying
encounters with the gangling bully. The court heard
how he tried to lure a six-year-old girl away as she
played in a Llandudno park hours before Sophie's abduction.
And two teenage girls told how he threatened rape and
murder in Erias Park, Colwyn Bay, the previous Wednesday.
He threatened one girl: "If I ever saw you walking
down a dark street at night I wouldn't hesitate to rape
you." Then he told her friend: "If you tell
anyone I'll kill you."
One of Hughes's schoolgirl victims even tried to run
him down in the street at Colwyn Bay years later. Last
night she was sorry she failed.
Mary - the Mirror has changed her name to protect her
identity - was 13 and Hughes was 18 when he abused her
and left her covered in bites.
Her sister said: "She saw him in town recently.
She was in her car, something snapped and she just put
her foot down. For some reason it didn't happen. I wish
it had, and so does she."
Brendan Jones, 14, also fell under the malevolent gaze
of Mad Howard.
Hughes had watched the boy fishing for mackerel from
the prom at Rhos- on-Sea two days before Sophie was
killed.
Brendan said: "The next day he asked if I wanted
to go fishing on the Saturday. My parents had often
warned me about him, so I said no. I'm really glad I
did now."
Brendan's mother Eirlys said: "He could so easily
have been a victim.
"I shake with fear when I think what could have
happened."
Fisherman's wife Eirlys, 42, and her family lived six
doors from Hughes and his mother in Yerburgh Avenue,
Colwyn Bay.
Eirlys added: "Everyone knows Howard, what he's
like and what he's got up to over the years.
"But to think my son could have been one of his
victims makes me weep." Neighbour Elizabeth Kelly,
a 34-year-old mother of six, lived next door to Hughes
for seven years.
She said last night: "I feel so guilty. Everybody
around here has known what he is like.
"Should we have done something? Could we have
done something before Sophie was killed?"
Detective Superintendent Eric Jones, who headed the
Sophie Hook murder inquiry, said he was satisfied there
was nothing the police could have done to stop Hughes
committing the murder.
Mr Jones said: "We can only go on the evidence
that was available at the time.
"We can't go out on the streets and grab anyone
we like and bring them in."
He praised Hughes's father Gerald for turning him in.
"It was a brave thing to do, and the right thing
to do," said Mr Jones.
For four weeks, Chester Crown Court had been gripped
by the tragedy that unfolded on a searing summer weekend
last year. The jury of eight men and four women heard
how Hughes loitered on a bridle path as Sophie and her
cousins splashed naked in the paddling pool, talking
excitedly of their plans to camp out that night.
And how Sophie, in pink and white striped Winnie the
Pooh nightie, was pulled from her sleeping bag in the
early hours and murdered.
It took the jury six-and-a-half hours to find Hughes
unanimously guilty.
As they returned their verdict, he leaned forward and
stroked the hair of a member of his legal team in the
well of the court.
Sophie's parents - advertising manager Chris, 38, and
supply teacher Julie, 36 - left their Cheshire home
with Jemma, son Joseph, 6, and three- year-old daughter
Ellie during the trial.
Today they will speak publicly about their loss.
One detective said: "They will bear this cross for
the rest of their lives." |
