Linda Cook

Linda Cook was raped and murdered in Portsmouth shortly after midnight, about 12.40am on 8 December 1986.

Her half-naked body was found in a shallow grave on wasteland at Merry Row, Lake Road, Portsmouth on the afternoon of Tuesday 9 December 1986.

She had been raped, asphyxiated and then killed by someone stamping on her head and neck.

She had been walking from a friend’s home in Sultan Road, Portsmouth back to her lodgings in Victoria Road North, Southsea at the time. She had left her home in Victoria Road North at about 11.30pm to go to her friend’s house about a mile away and it was thought that she was probably attacked just minutes after starting her return journey.

An 18-year-old sailor was initially convicted of her murder, but his conviction was later quashed in 2003 after fresh DNA evidence was revealed.

Her murder was dubbed the Cinderella Murder by detectives because of a vital footprint that was found on her stomach that incorporated a logo with the word 'flash' in it.

Linda Cook's body was found in a shallow grave on wasteland by Merry Row, near Lake Road and close to a school. Her body was found by a 50-year-old man out looking for rabbit food.

It was later noted that the murderer's attempt to hide Linda Cook's body in the shrubland might have been his undoing as by covering her body with bramble and undergrowth, he had protected it from heavy rain that later fell, which it was said gave the 100 strong murder squad their vital breakthrough, as her stomach had born the muddy footprint that allowed them to identify the footwear involved.

Linda Cook had been an unemployed part-time barmaid at the time and a jeans packer, although it was reported that she had recently taken a part-time job at the Lord Chichester pub in Portsmouth. She had been 5ft tall.

She was sexually assaulted and choked to death as she had been walking home in the early hours. She suffered a broken jaw, a broken spine and had been subjected to what the police described as a serious sexual assault. It was heard that her killer had stamped so hard on her that he had left the imprint of the logo, 'flash', from the sole of his shoes on her stomach.

The police found that 250 pairs of shoes with the logo 'flash' had been sold in the Portsmouth area that year alone and that they were popular with, and bought mostly, by sailors.

Taxi-Passenger Appeal

On 11 December 1986 the police appealed for information about a man that had been picked up by a taxi-driver just 400 yards from the murder scene at about 1.15am on Tuesday 9 December 1986. However, nothing more is known about that. However, it was later used in evidence to note that the sailor had been the only man seen about in the area, as he had been, at the time.

11 December 1986 Arrests

The police arrested a 20-year-old man and a middle-aged woman on the morning of 11 December 1986. The woman was released early on 12 December 1986 although the man, who had been taken to Kingston Crescent police station in Portsmouth and against whom the police were granted a second 24-hour warrant for further detention for further questioning, was similarly released later the same day.

12 December 1986 Arrest Of 18-year-old Youth

It was reported on 13 December 1986 that the police were continuing to question a  18-year-old youth. However, although the same age, it was not the sailor that was convicted as he was not arrested until four weeks after the murder.

Kent Road Area Rape

It was noted that a woman was attacked and raped in her home in the Kent Road area of Southea in the early hours of Wednesday 17 December 1986. She had been in her early twenties and the attacked took place about a mile away from where Linda Cook was murdered. She had been attacked by a masked man, thought to be in his twenties, that had broken into her ground floor flat.

Other Sex Attacks

The police said that they thought that her murder could have been linked to other sex attacks in the Landport and Buckland area of the city over the previous two years which it was thought might have been carried out by the same young man who was dubbed:

The Beast of Buckland was described as a baby-faced ginger-haired youth, who it was said had struck at least four times in 1985. It was heard that a senior detective had warned in 1985 that the Beast of Buckland could eventually kill, citing the increasing violence of his attacks.

One of the attacks included the attempted rape of a 14-year-old girl.

The police said:

It was noted that due to the number of sex attacks in the area at the time that the police had been under enormous pressure to solve Linda Cook's murder, and that that could have resulted in the sailor being convicted.

Sailor Charged With Murder

The sailor was charged with murder on 10 January 1987. He was further remanded on 16 January 1987 and then also on 1 May 1987 for eight days and due to appear before Portsmouth magistrates not before 26 May 1987.

He was committed for trial on Wednesday 24 June 1987, the day of his 19th birthday.

The sailor had been serving on the frigate HMS Apollo at the time and had lived in Elton Close, Leamington. HMS Apollo, a Leander class frigate, had been in dry dock at the time.

Sailor Convicted of Murder

The sailor was convicted of murder on 29 January 1988 at Winchester Crown Court. The jury returned an 11-1 guilty verdict. It was later heard at his appeal that he was convicted on the basis of four pieces of evidence:

1. His blood group matched that on swaps taken from the victim’s body.
2. Injuries on him could have been inflicted by her during the attack.
3. Her abdomen bore the impression of a right shoe that matched one he accepted he may have been wearing.
4. He admitted to having been in the area at the time of the murder.

However, other reports from the time of the trial stated that there were seven major points linking him with the murder. When the prosecution summed up, they said:

The sailor had been on shore leave at the time of the murder. He said that he had become friendly with a girl in a night club and that he thought that he was going to her house that night, but that she:

He said that he then spent 24 minutes waiting and looking for the girl, before returning to his ship.

However, the police submitted that on his way back he had raped and murdered Linda Cook and then abandoned her near naked body on the wasteland.

The prosecution listed the following points against him:

1. Proximity of time and place to the scene.
2. The fact that he was sexually aroused, frustrated and pushy.
3. Had a guilty conscience after the event of his arrest.
4. Injuries on his body.
5. His blood type. Which at the time of the trial was noted as having matched 23.3% of the adult population.
6. His shoes.

The prosecution submitted that the sailor had felt badly let down after the girl in the taxi had given him the slip.

The court also heard that during seven hours of questioning by Portsmouth murder squad detectives that the sailor had been:

One detective said that the sailor seemed unmoved by the situation.

The interview was recorded and part of the recording was played back at the trial, which went:

The court heard that it was due to painstaking dedication on the behalf of the police that traced the woman that the sailor said he had been with at the time of the murder. Up until then the sailor had not been a suspect.

The court heard that the woman, when questioned, had told the police about meeting the sailor on the night and that as a result, a plain clothes woman detective posed as her cousin and they went back to the nightclub four weeks after the murder and whilst there the sailor went up to the girl and said:

He was then arrested.

The girl told the police that she had met the sailor on the night of the killing at a nightclub and that he had:

She said that she agreed to go home with him in a taxi, but that in the words of the sailor, she:

And escaped. She said that she ran off, leaving him in the taxi.

The court heard that the sailor had forced his company on the girl and had insisted on paying for her meal and repeatedly grabbed hold of her and kissed her roughly.

She said then that she pulled a fast one on him by saying that she had to stop off at her mother's to pick up her child and then made her escape.

The prosecution claimed that minutes later the sailor murdered Linda Cook.

It was heard that he had waited in the taxi for the girl for 15 minutes before going to look for her and that whilst doing so he had followed Linda Cook and then killed her. The taxi had stopped in the Buckland area of Portsmouth.

The prosecution said that the sailor might have seen Linda Cook leave her friend's house in Sultan Road and followed her before killing her and then slipping back to his ship unnoticed.

A Home Office pathologist said that Linda Cook's cause of death was due to asphyxia and injury to the cervical spine. He said that Linda Cook might have been unconscious after being strangled, but that she was still alive at the time of the sexual attack.

The court heard that the mark of the shoe impression was found on her bare stomach.

It was noted that the fact that the mark on her stomach had clearly showed the word 'Flash', had been a secret well-guarded by the police until the trial, the logo identifying the sailors favourite 'civvy' shoes that he had worn and had bought from a shop in Portsmouth. It was further heard that the pair owned by the sailor had been a continental size 44 and that the forensic scientists said that the imprint left on Linda Cook's stomach had been made by a shoe sized 43, 44 or 45, which it was noted as although being insufficient proof to convict someone for murder, completed a jigsaw puzzle of circumstantial evidence sufficient to convince them that they had the right man.

A detective said:

Another detective said:

It was also revealed that the police eventually determined that less than 7,000 pairs of shoes that could have had the Flash logo were brought into the country and that only 133 were sold in Portsmouth, mainly to navy personnel.

The police said that they spoke to 87 British shoe manufacturers and spoke to 790 people in connection with the shoe inquiry.

The sailor admitted that he had walked along the deserted streets near Merry Row at the time of the murder, but denied that he had ever set foot on the wasteland or murdered Linda Cook.

The man that found her body, a Portsmouth plant operator, said:

The prosecution stated that along with the shoeprint, the fact that the sailor was frustrated after having been tricked by the girl in the taxi, and that his blood group matched, that he also had a damning catalogue of scratches on his face, arms and body, all injuries that had been caused about the same time as Linda Cook's murder. They were described as mainly unexplained injuries which, they said, were consistent with someone involved in a violent fight on scrubland.

When the defence summed up, they said that the jury should be wary of an ill structured case against  the sailor, who they described as a man of previous good character and with no history of violence.

The defence said:

The defence then noted that there were four factors against the sailor:

1. Shoe marks.
2. The scratch marks on his body.
3. His blood grouping.
4. His own admission that he had been in the area at the time of the murder.

However, the defence noted that the forensic scientist had stated that it was impossible to be certain that it had been the sailors shoes that had caused the mark on Linda Cook's body or even determine the exact size of the shoe that had been involved.

The defence then noted that one in four men in Portsmouth had the same blood group as the sailor, adding that:

The defence further noted that although the sailor had admitted that he had been near the murder scene on the night, that he had continually protested his innocence.

The defence then reminded the jury that another taxi had picked up a 'nervous' passenger in the area on the night of the murder, which showed that the sailor was not the only man around.

However, the sailor was convicted.

Following his conviction it was heard that the sailor continued to maintain his innocence and undertook hunger strikes, rooftop protests and also wrote hundreds of letters in an attempt to clear his name.

Sailor's Murder Conviction Quashed

His conviction was later quashed in 2003 after fresh evidence obtained by way of DNA analysis rendered the conviction unsafe after it was heard that DNA in the original swabs didn't belong to either the sailor or Linda Cook. The court heard that the DNA found could not have been the sailors. As such, it was heard that the new DNA evidence established that the sailor was 'probably not' the culprit. The defence argued that the new DNA evidence pointed to an unknown man who was probably the real killer.

The defence said:

It was also heard that new evidence submitted made the prosecution arguments relating to the timing of events unlikely.

It was noted that although his blood-type had matched, that the blood type was common to a third of all males in the country.

It was also heard at the trial that his pair of shoes with the 'flash' logo on them had been at his parents’ house in Leamington Spa at the time of the murder.

It was also heard at the trial that he had also had an alibi, having taken out the girl that he met at the nightclub that night who had ‘given him the slip’. It was heard that the girl's original statement made it impossible for him to have been the murderer but that she had been interviewed again by the police six months later at which time she changed her account of the times, and that it was that statement that the court at the trial heard, with the girl's original statement not being presented. When the girl's original statement was reviewed at his appeal, it was heard that it placed him half-an-hour away from the murder scene at the time of the murder.

It was also noted that at the time of his appeal that he had already served his minimum 15 years, but was being refused parole because he was maintaining his innocence.

As such, the court of appeal concluded that the conviction was plainly unsafe.

Connection With The Murders Of Wendy Knell and Caroline Pierce

The man that was later convicted of the murders of Wendy Knell and Caroline Pierce, who were both murdered in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, in 1987 and whose murders were unsolved until 2021, was later ruled out as a suspect in Linda Cook's murder. It was heard that he had grown up in Angerstein Road in North End, about a mile away from where Linda Cook was found.

Following enquiries, the police said:

Police Inquiry

It was noted that the police inquiry around the conviction of the sailor involved interviewing all but five of the 239 crew of HMS Apollo, speaking to 6,000 people during house to house inquiries, and another 862 during road checks, taking 1,888 statements, and following up 972 phone calls from the public. It was further noted that they interviewed many of Portsmouth's 150 licensed taxi and 450 private hire drivers.

After The Appeal

Following the appeal it was noted that the Sailor could be in line for a substantial compensation award.

After being released, the Sailor described life in prison as hell and said:

He noted that the evidence that had helped clear his name had been available for some time.

He said: