18 classic true crime cases from around the world, including;
Innocence Betrayed: Tia Sharp is missing and only one person knows where she is, the pedophile who calls himself her granddad.
The Real Amityville Horror: The horrific true story behind America’s most infamous haunted house
The Vampire of Nuremburg: A monster is on the loose, desecrating graves and committing necrophilia. How long before he kills someone?
The Killing of Kitty Genovese: A young woman is brutally murdered in front of 38 witnesses. So why didn’t anyone call the police?
Geisha, Harlot, Killer: from Japan, a bizarre tale of sexual obsession, murder and emasculation.
Killing for God: He called himself a preacher but behaved more like a mafia don. The incredible true story of Ervil LeBaron.
The Babes in the Wood Murders: A deadly pedophile is preying on the innocent children of Enfield
The Most Dangerous Man in Australia: Meet Derek Percy, quite possible the most prolific child murderer in Australian history.
Plus 10 more riveting cases....Click here to grab a copy.
Murder Most Vile Volume Five
Innocence Betrayed
Tia Sharp was born in Croydon, a suburb of
London, England, on June 30, 2012. In the hot summer of 2012 she was a happy
and bubbly 12-year-old, much loved by her mother, grandmother and two younger
brothers. She was a confident and outgoing girl who did well at school and was
popular with classmates and teachers alike. Her mother described her as more of
a best friend than a daughter.
Aside from her direct family, there was
someone else in Tia’s life. Stuart Hazell was the 37-year-old boyfriend of
Tia’s grandmother, Christine Bicknell. He was very fond of Tia and the feeling
was mutual. She called him ‘Granddad’ and often visited him at her
grandmother’s house, even when Christine wasn’t there. When Tia’s mother,
Natalie, arranged a special day out for Tia’s 12th birthday, she
asked which friend Tia would like to bring along. “Stuart,” Tia replied without
hesitation. The relationship was that close.
But there was a dark side to Stuart Hazell,
some of which Tia’s family was aware of, and some of which they weren’t. They
knew, for example, that Hazell was the illegitimate son of a prostitute and had
grown up mostly in state care. They knew that he had a number of criminal
convictions and had served prison time for drug dealing, aggravated assault,
and for carrying a machete in a public place. They knew that he had a drinking
problem and that he often used cannabis.
But they never suspected that Stuart could
be violent, or that he was addicted to child pornography. They never knew that
he spent hours online searching for illicit images and videos, using search
terms like ‘schoolgirl rape’ and ‘incest sex.’ They never knew that one of his favorite
searches was for ‘little girls with glasses.’ Tia wore glasses. Tia’s mum and
grandmother never suspected that Hazell had become sexually obsessed with her.
But obsessed, Stuart Hazell most certainly
was, and as Tia reached puberty, his sick fantasies became all consuming. He
went to extraordinary lengths to indulge them. First he removed the bathroom
door so that he could spy on Tia. Then he rigged a light fitting in the
bathroom to fashion a peephole. He also began secretly filming Tia on his cell
phone, capturing her as she sat in her pajamas applying moisturizer to her
legs. Finally, he took to sneaking into her room at night and filming her while
she slept.
But eventually all of those things were not
enough to satisfy the warped obsessions that by now occupied most of Hazell’s
time. Tia was 12-years old and by his reckoning ready for sex. He decided to
make his move.
On the afternoon of Thursday, August 2,
2012, Tia sent a text to her grandmother, asking if she could spend the
evening. Hazell picked up the text and replied to Natalie, Tia’s mother,
telling her that he had no problem with Tia staying over, but that Christine
wouldn’t be there. Natalie then asked Tia if she still wanted to go. “Yes, yes,
yes,” was the little girl’s reply.
Later that evening, Tia took a tram to New
Addington. CCTV footage picked her up stepping off the tram and meeting Hazell.
Later, she and Hazell were seen shopping at a local supermarket. It was the
last time that anyone but her killer saw Tia Sharp alive.
The following day, Friday August 3,
Christine arrived home and found Hazell sprawled on the couch watching
television. Noticing that Tia wasn’t in the house, Christine asked about her.
Hazell said that she’d gone to a nearby shopping mall to buy some sandals.
Christine had no reason to disbelieve him.
However, when there was still no sign of
Tia by 6 p.m. Christine became concerned. She phoned Natalie to find out if Tia
had perhaps returned home. She hadn’t, so Natalie and Christine agreed to
search their respective neighborhoods, hoping to find Tia. When those searches
proved fruitless, Natalie called the police.
The following morning Natalie, Christine
and Hazell arrived at the Croydon police station to file a missing persons
report. Under questioning, Hazell stated that he’d last seen Tia at around
midday, when she’d left to walk to the shopping mall. The police then sent
officers to canvas the neighborhood around Christine and Hazell’s house. They
found one man who appeared to corroborate Hazell’s story. He said that he’d
seen Tia at around noon. Encouraged that Tia might still be alive, the police
stepped up their search, starting with Christine and Hazell’s home. They found
no trace of the missing girl.
By now the story had been picked up by the
media and reporters and TV crews were streaming into the area. Friends and
neighbors had also become involved in the search, all of them wearing t-shirts
bearing a photograph of Tia. One of the most diligent searchers was Stuart
Hazell himself. At one point during the search he took time to speak directly
into a TV camera. “Tia, come home babe,” he pleaded.
Of course, Hazell knew that Tia was never
coming home, that right now her dismembered remains were slowly decomposing in
the attic of his home. He knew exactly what had happened to her.
On the evening of Thursday August 2, while
alone in the house with Tia, Hazell had decided to make his move. Drunk on
booze and stoned on cannabis, he’d made sexual advances. Tia, of course, had
been disgusted. She’d threatened to tell her mum. But having come this far,
Hazell was not about to be denied. He forced himself on Tia, then suffocated her with a pillow to cover up the
crime.
Having murdered the 12 year old in order to
sate his lust, Hazell was now faced with a problem. There was a body to be
disposed of. Carrying Tia to the bathroom, he dismembered her in the tub, then
wrapped her body parts in a sheet and then in black garbage bags, securing the
packages with duct tape. These he carried up to the attic where he stashed them
beside the rafters, covering them with debris. He would soon come to regret his
disposal method.
On August 7, the police searched the house
again, this time using dogs. Again, they found nothing, although they did
notice a rank odor. Christine apologized for this and said that her cat had
probably carried in a dead bird. Little did she know that what they smelled was
the decomposing remains of her missing granddaughter, just twelve feet above their
heads.
The police, meanwhile, were pursuing
another avenue, sifting through 800 hours of CCTV footage in the hope of
picking up the missing girl on camera. They also followed up on over 50
sightings reported by members of the public.
On Monday, 8 August, Stuart Hazell
contacted ITV and asked to give an interview on camera. During this bizarre
interlude, Hazell claimed that he wanted to clear the air because he felt that
everyone was looking at him as the main suspect. He swore that he had nothing
to do with Tia’s disappearance and declared his love and support for her
grieving mother and grandmother.
Hazell’s motive for giving the interview is
unknown, although given what we know about this type of killer, it was probably
deeply gratifying for him to lie so blatantly on national television. The
pressure, however, was getting to him. With the stench in the house growing
ever stronger it was only a matter of time before Tia was found. He needed to
move the corpse, but with the strong police presence in the area and the media
parked outside his front door, he was effectively trapped.
On Friday August 10, Hazell must have
realized that the game was up. Rising early, he left the house, perhaps
thinking of going into hiding. His absence wasn’t noted until the police
returned to carry out a fourth search for Tia’s body. This time their noses led
them to the moldering remains. The search for Tia Sharp was over, now the hunt
was on to find the man suspected of killing her.
As it turned out that proved easier than
expected. Hazell hadn’t gone far. That same morning, he was picked up on CCTV
buying vodka in a liquor store in Cannon Hill Lane, South London. He was
arrested later that day on Cannon Hill Common. As the police took him into
custody an angry crowd formed and surrounded him, shouting abuse and insults.
Hazell might well have been lynched had the police not hustled him into a car
and driven him away.
The evidence against Hazell pointed to an
open and shut case. Yet even now the consummate liar had a new tale to tell. He
claimed that Tia’s death had been an accident. According to this new account,
the two of them had been goofing around and Tia had lost her balance and fallen
down the stairs. She had appeared unhurt after the tumble and had assured him
that she was okay. He’d then begun drinking and had eventually passed out. When
he woke he found that Tia was dead.
According to Hazell, he felt guilty at not
having done more for Tia and also worried at how Christine and Natalie would
react. He had therefore decided to hide the body.
The story was far-fetched to say the least
and unfortunately for Hazell it was easily disproved. While searching the house
police had found a sex toy, which proved to have Tia’s blood on it, suggesting
that he’d used it on the little girl. Investigators also found a memory card
from a cell phone that contained the secret video footage he had shot of Tia,
as well as some photographs that showed just what kind of a monster Hazell was.
The photos showed Tia posed in a crouching position, with the shot taken from
behind. After a pathologist examined the picture, he confirmed that it had been
taken after her death.
Stuart Hazell’s murder trial began at
London’s Old Bailey on May 7, 2013. He went into the trial still maintaining
his innocence and subjected Tia’s grieving family to four days of horrendously
graphic testimony before eventually changing his plea to guilty. He was sentenced
to life in prison with the stipulation that he must serve at least 38 years.
That means that Hazell will not be eligible for parole until he is 75 years of
age.
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