Editing Colin Pitchfork (section)

== Crimes ==
In October 1977, he was fined £30 by Market Bosworth magistrates for exposing himself to a schoolgirl, pleading guilty, when aged 17.<ref>''Leicester Mercury'' Wednesday 19 October 1977, page 21</ref>

In 1979, Pitchfork forced a 16-year-old girl into a field and [[sexually assault]]ed her.<ref name=":8">{{Cite web |date=2021-07-13 |title=Murderer who raped and killed two schoolgirls to be released after government loses legal challenge |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/colin-pitchfork-release-prison-murder-b1883137.html |access-date=2023-06-17 |website=The Independent |language=en}}</ref><ref name="auto" />

On 14 February 1980, when aged 20, he exposed himself to two teenage girls in [[Earl Shilton]], and was given a year's probation by [[Hinckley]] magistrates.<ref>''Leicester Mercury'' Friday 11 April 1980, page 13</ref><ref>''Hinckley Times'' Friday 18 April 1980, page 5</ref>

On 21 November 1983, 15-year-old Lynda Mann took a shortcut on her way home from [[babysitting]] instead of taking her normal route home.<ref name=":5" /> She did not return and her parents and neighbours spent the night searching for her. The next morning, she was found raped and strangled on a deserted footpath known locally as the Black Pad. Using [[forensic science]] techniques available at the time, police linked a [[semen]] sample taken from her body to a person with [[Blood type|type A blood]] and an [[enzyme]] profile that matched only 10% of males. With no other leads or [[evidence]], the case was left open.{{R|Wambaugh 1995}}

In October 1985, Pitchfork sexually assaulted another 16-year-old girl, threatening her with a screwdriver and with a knife at her throat.<ref name=":8" /><ref name="auto" /> 

Liz Knight was picked up by Pitchfork on a Saturday in June 1986 and driven for 40 minutes from [[Wigston]] towards [[Great Glen, Leicestershire|Great Glen]]. When she grabbed the steering wheel, Pitchfork's demeanour suddenly changed, and he decided to drive to her house, and not attack. Pitchfork put his hand on her knee, saying: "I haven't hurt you yet." Pitchfork dropped Knight at her house, asking, "How about a goodnight kiss?" which she refused. Pitchfork said, "I bet you would never accept a lift from a stranger again."<ref>''Leicester Mercury'' Saturday 23 January 1988, page 10</ref>

On 31 July 1986, 15-year-old Dawn Ashworth left her home to visit a friend's house.<ref name=":5" /> Her parents expected her to return at 9:30 pm; when she failed to do so they called police to report her missing. Two days later, her body was found in a wooded area near a footpath called Ten Pound Lane.<ref name=":5" /> She had been beaten, savagely raped, and strangled. The ''[[modus operandi]]'' matched that of the first attack, and semen samples revealed the same [[blood type]].<ref name=":5" /> Both girls had attended [[Brockington College|Brockington High School]].<ref>''Leicester Mercury'' Saturday 22 November 1986, page 10</ref> Dawn's mother worked at [[Next plc]] in Enderby; [[George Davies (retailer)|George Davies]] offered a £10,000 reward.

An initial suspect was Richard Buckland, a local 17-year-old with [[Intellectual disability|learning difficulties]] who, while innocent of both murders, revealed knowledge of Ashworth's body and [[false confession|admitted]] to the Ashworth crime under questioning, denying the first murder.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Graff |first=Vincent |date=6 April 2015 |title=Code of a Killer: the true story of the first case solved by DNA |url=http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2015-04-06/code-of-a-killer-the-true-story-of-the-first-case-solved-by-dna-profiling |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150408213437/http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2015-04-06/code-of-a-killer-the-true-story-of-the-first-case-solved-by-dna-profiling |archive-date=8 April 2015 |access-date=15 June 2023 |website=www.radiotimes.com}}</ref>

===Arrest and conviction===
In early 1987, police asked every local male between the ages of 16 and 34 to voluntarily give blood samples for DNA testing. By the end of January, a thousand men had been tested. Men who declined to give blood samples found themselves under scrutiny by police.<ref name="evan" />

[[File:The Clarendon - geograph.org.uk - 5301673.jpg|thumb|right|The pub where Ian Kelly admitted, on Saturday 1 August 1987, that he had taken the test]]
According to 1988 news reports, one of Pitchfork's colleagues at the bakery, 23-year-old Ian Kelly, who lived outside the area under investigation, was overheard in a pub discussing how he had provided a blood sample on Pitchfork's behalf, by using a fake passport to masquerade as Pitchfork. He had agreed to do this in exchange for £200, and took the test on 29 January 1987.<ref>''Leicester Mercury'' Friday 22 January 1988, page 1</ref> The conversation, during the lunchtime of Saturday, 1 August 1987, was overheard by other bakery colleagues, and 28-year-old Jackie Foggin ({{nee|Tyson}}), of [[Fleckney]], reported it to the police.<ref>''Leicester Mercury'' Monday 16 May 1988, page 24</ref> This vital tip-off was later credited with enabling Pitchfork to be caught. Pitchfork had told Kelly that he wanted to avoid being harassed by police because of his prior convictions for indecent exposure. <ref name="evan">{{cite book | last = Evans | first = Colin | title = The Casebook of Forensic Detection: How Science Solved 100 of the World's Most Baffling Crimes | publisher = John Wiley & Sons | location = London | year = 1998 | isbn = 978-0471283690 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/casebookofforens00coli/page/62 62] | url = https://archive.org/details/casebookofforens00coli/page/62 }}</ref> Kelly was arrested at 31 Stuart Street in Leicester on Friday, 18 September.

On Saturday, 19 September 1987, Pitchfork was arrested<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/pitchfork/story-29568073-detail/story.html|title=Memories of Colin Pitchfork's second murder - 30 years on|date=2016-07-31|newspaper=Leicester Mercury|language=en|access-date=2017-02-04}}{{Dead link|date=July 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> at 32 Haybarn Close, in [[Littlethorpe, Leicestershire|Littlethorpe]], by Detective Inspector Mick Thomas. Pitchfork's wife tried to attack him, when he told her that he had killed two girls.<ref>''Leicester Mercury'' Saturday 23 January 1988, page 10</ref>

During questioning, Pitchfork admitted to [[Indecent exposure|exposing himself]] to more than 1,000 women, a compulsion that began in his early teens. He later progressed to [[sexual assault]] and then to strangling his victims. Pitchfork said this was in order to protect his identity. Investigators rejected this, viewing the motivation for the strangulations as "perverted sadism".<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Crim/2009/963.html|title=Pitchfork, R v [2009] EWCA Crim 963 (14 May 2009)}}</ref> During his interviews with the police he admitted his crimes, but lied about the level and nature of the violence he had inflicted on his victims.{{R|Wambaugh 1995}} 

At his trial at [[Leicester Crown Court]], Pitchfork pleaded guilty to the two rapes and murders, in addition to sexual assault of two other girls, and conspiring to pervert the course of justice.<ref name="2023PBPH1"/><ref name=":7">{{Cite news |last=Hoyland |first=Paul |date=23 January 1988 |title=Genetic test traps girls' killer |pages=1 |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-guardian/33455288/ |access-date=16 June 2023}}</ref> In January 1988 he was sentenced to [[life imprisonment]] for the two murders and 10 years for raping the victims; he was also sentenced to three years for each count of sexual assault and three years for perverting the course of justice, with all sentences to run concurrently.<ref name="2023PBPH1"/><ref name=":7" /> A [[psychiatric]] report prepared for the court described Pitchfork as possessing a [[psychopathic personality disorder]] accompanied with a serious psychosexual [[pathology]].<ref name="auto" /> The [[Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales|Lord Chief Justice]] at the time of his sentencing said: "From the point of view of the safety of the public I doubt if he should ever be released."<ref name=":4">{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-32487464|title='DNA' child killer Colin Pitchfork gets parole review|last=Shaw|first=Danny|date=2015-04-27|newspaper=BBC News|language=en-GB|access-date=2017-02-04}}</ref> The [[Secretary of State (United Kingdom)|Secretary of State]] set a [[Life imprisonment in England and Wales|minimum term]] of 30 years; in 2009, Pitchfork's minimum term sentence was reduced on appeal to 28 years.<ref>[http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Crim/2009/963.html Pitchfork, R v] [2009] EWCA Crim 963</ref>