As the family came to hear James Watson’s sentence for killing schoolboy Rikki Neave, his sister broke down in tears in court.
In an effort to finally bring Watson, 41, to justice for the 1994 murder of the six-year-old in Peterborough, he has appeared in court.
On Friday morning, Watson was escorted into Court One at the Old Bailey by a dock officer while wearing a light, short-sleeved shirt, a dark tie, and trousers.
After the case sat unsolved for nearly three decades, a jury in April found him guilty of killing the boy.
Mrs. Justice McGowan earlier stated that Watson’s age at the time of the attack would be taken into account while determining the minimum prison term. He will receive a life sentence.
One of Rikki’s younger sisters, Rochelle Orr, gave the first victim impact statement in front of the court.
She said: ‘I was only three when Rikki was murdered and I was removed from my family. After I entered the care system I suffered severe mental health issues.
‘I remember Rikki feeding me, washing me and help me with my clothes.
‘He has missed so much or our lives, happy times that we have had. I also wonder what he would be like if he was still here but, sadly, I will never know because he was taken from me.’
Ms Orr looked at Watson in the dock at points.
Rebecca Maria Harvey, Rikki’s eldest sister, broke down as she addressed the court.
She said: ‘Although I was the eldest, it wasn’t like that as he would look after me.
‘Losing Rikki was like losing the other half of me. I still wake up every day thinking it was a nightmare. I never had a brother to grow up with.
‘Rikki is the one who is not here and lost his life, but the effect this had on me and my family is just never-ending.’
She added: ‘I just cannot understand what happened or why.
‘This has been so traumatic, not knowing what happened to him or why. Not only did I lose Rikki, but I lost my whole family.
‘I miss him so much. All of our lives have been turned upside down and nothing has been the same since.
‘After all these years, it is about time Rikki has justice.’
The boy’s mother Ruth Neave said she felt like she had her ‘heart ripped out’ when Rikki was murdered, as James Watson prepared to be sentenced at the Old Bailey on Friday.
Addressing Watson, but not using his name, she said: ‘After all these years of living your life… you finally get your comeuppance and Rikki Lee Harvey finally gets justice.’
Ms Neave said she did not want to be at court for Watson’s sentencing, but in a victim impact statement said: ‘Rikki was the most beautiful person ever. I miss all of his cheekiness, his laughter.
‘Why would someone kill such a beautiful child?’
She said the murder had a huge impact on her family. Ms Neave said: ‘Like stones dropping in a pond, it has rippled out far and wide.
‘Rikki’s murder left a massive hole in our lives and in our hearts. I miss him so much that it feels like I have had my heart ripped out.’
Addressing the court, John Price QC, prosecuting, said Rikki was particularly vulnerable due to being six years old. He said: ‘The fact is that it (his age) did play a part in what happened to him.
‘He was waylaid by this defendant (Watson) and taken to the woods on a day when he should have been at school.’
Rikki’s body was found posed naked in a star shape by Watson, who would have been 13 at the time of the killing and whose father lived on the same estate as Rikki.
Less than two years prior, James Bulger, 2, of Merseyside, had been kidnapped, tortured, and brutally murdered. The awful murder at the time provoked widespread indignation.
It is still unknown whether Watson knew Rikki before the murder because of his network of falsehoods and consistently shifting alibis, which allowed him dodge prosecution for 28 years.
However, the jury was informed that Watson’s DNA was discovered on adhesive tapes attached to Rikki’s clothing and that the act of posing the six-year-naked old’s body was done for Watson’s own sexual gratification.
The verdict also came 26 years after Ruth Neave, Rikki’s mother, was acquitted of her son’s murder by a Northampton Crown Court jury after a prominent 16-day trial.
Later on, she acknowledged to abusing Rikki during his brief life, including seizing him by the throat, forcing him up against a wall, and picking him up.
In October 1996, Ms. Neave received a seven-year sentence. She called the killer of her son a “monster” in a statement made today following the judgment.
In a statement following today’s verdict, Ms Neave said: ‘The only thing now is to close this chapter in my life and open a new one.
‘I wonder what Rikki would be like today, married, children? Who knows?
‘But this monster has taken that all from me and my daughters.’
She praised jurors for making the ‘right decision’ and thanked ‘people that believed in me and Rikki’.
‘This is not the time to celebrate, as it should never have happened,’ said Ms Neave.
She described police and social services in the original investigation as ‘framing me for my son’s murder’.
‘Neglect and cruelty were used by these people to cover their own failings, information was gathered from liars, who gave multiple statements with many different versions of their lies,’ she said.
‘Statements were released to the media and I was not allowed to defend myself because of a gagging order from social services, so anyone could say anything and get away with it.’
Rikki’s murder remained unsolved for a further 20 years following Ms Neave’s 1996 conviction for child abuse, until fresh evidence was discovered in 2015.
At the Old Bailey, the jury heard how Watson was detained after a new investigation into the case revealed a “definitive match” between his DNA profile and samples obtained from Rikki’s clothing.
In June 2016, Watson boarded a ship at Dover to leave the UK. Two months later, he agreed to be extradited from Portugal.
In the three-month-long trial at the Old Bailey in London, the jury heard how Watson strangled the younger boy by squeezing his throat with the collar of Rikki’s blue anorak from behind him for at least 30 seconds.
They were also informed that Watson, a convicted arsonist with “morbid fantasies” and a “sexual interest” in young children, had throttled a partner during sex and molested a five-year-old child a year before to the murder.