16/11/2009

The curious case of Harvey Richardson

In 1970 a murder shocked Liverpool, a murder that has remained unsolved until now.

Now Inside Out can reveal the extraordinary story behind the murder, and how the chance discovery of a seven page handwritten confession has convinced police they now know the killer.

The story begins in Liverpool in 1970. Lorraine Jacob’s body was found in an alleyway behind Rodney Street in the heart of the city. She had been beaten and strangled.

Lorraine, who was 19 and mother of two young babies, was killed on her way home from the chip shop.

The murder took place just yards away from the headquarters of the old Liverpool and Bootle constabulary.

More than 100 police officers were drafted in to find Lorraine’s killer. Two and a half thousand people were interviewed and an appeal for information was made to 55,000 football fans at the Liverpool versus Manchester United football match at Anfield.

But the killer remained elusive.

Despite a major police investigation nobody was ever charged.

In 2009 decorators made a shocking discovery 20 miles away from the murder scene at a house in Aspull, near Wigan - a seven page confession to the murder.

MURDER SUSPECT

The man police are now convinced that the man who killed Lorraine is called Harvey Richardson.

He was born in Rochdale, but was a mature student back in 1970 in Liverpool, where he was studying to become a librarian.

But Richardson, who was 77 when he died from cancer in February 2008, kept a secret in his leather case.

It was a seven page confession to Lorraine’s murder found by decorators called in to clean up his house after he died.

Detective Superintendent Ian Kemble is Merseyside police’s top murder investigator - he was brought in to begin a new investigation.

As a policeman with 35 years of experience he'd never come across a case like this - a case where he had the confession before he began the investigation.

Once the police realised the serious nature of the confession they had to begin a race against time. They had only hours to stop Richardson from being cremated so they could get a DNA sample that would later prove to be a crucial breakthrough in the case.

Nobody will ever be able to say for certain why Harvey Richardson may have killed Lorraine Jacob.

Harvey Richardson kept his secret to the grave.