Tia Sharp was 12 years old in the summer of 2012, and the Olympics had come to her city, London. She was a carefree and bubbly young girl and was close with her family. Which is why it was so surprising when she went missing from her grandmothers house in New Addington, South London. They knew she wasn’t a runaway. A huge search began for the missing girl, and eventually she was found – in the home she had gone missing from. Suspicion fell on the man she knew as her step-gradfather, Stuart Hazel. Was this man that she trusted and loved responsible for her death and the hiding of her body in her grandmother’s attic?
Tag: child death
6 – The Kerry Babies Murder & familial false confessions
In the year 1984, Ireland was a very different place. Contraception, Abortion and Divorce were illegal. The country was dogged by religious conservatism and was facing into a terrible recession. Amidst this, the body of a baby boy was found on a beach in Cahersiveen, Co Kerry.
The police began to look for the likely suspect: a recently-pregnant unmarried mother. Joanne Hayes was accused and charged with the murder of the infant. She and her whole family eventually confessed to the murder, despite Joanne’s baby being located. So what had caused the family to confess?
A judicial inquiry was set up to investigate Garda maltreatment, but it soon turned into a trial of Joanne’s character.
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