Traveller jailed for killing girl used as a scapegoat
Noel Jones, now 59, said officers in Flint bombarded him with questions and 'put words in my mouth,' until he confessed to killing Janet Commins, 15
A traveller jailed for killing a schoolgirl 40 years ago claims he was used as a 'scapegoat' and was set up by police because he 'fitted the bill' as a young gipsy.
Noel Jones, now 59, said officers bombarded him with questions and 'put words in my mouth,' until he confessed to killing Janet Commins, 15.
'They (the police) wanted someone and I fitted the bill,' he told a jury.
Mr Jones, who spent six years in jail after admitting Janet's manslaughter, made the bombshell claim yesterday while giving evidence at the trial of another man â€" Stephen Hough.
Prosecutors say ex-soldier Hough, now 58, was, in fact, the real killer. He was arre sted last year after his DNA was matched to that of Janet's killer following a cold case review.
Janet was raped and strangled after going to meet a friend at a swimming baths close to her home, in Flint, north Wales, in January 1976. Her body was discovered by a group of girls playing hide and seek in bushes next to school playing fields four days later.
Yesterday Mr Jones, who belongs to the travelling community, told a new jury, sitting at Mold Crown Court, that he was coerced into confessing to the teenager's killing by police.
He said that, in 1976 he was aged 18, but could not read or write. He claimed he was grilled by officers for two days straight without a solicitor and that they wrote two statements in which he confessed to Janet's rape and murder.
Noel Jones (shown far right in 1976) pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Janet (left) and was jailed for 12 years, but has always maintained he is innocent
He claimed the policemen read both statements to him but that he couldn't read them himself.
'I didn't know what was going on,' Mr Jones said. 'Everything was going so fast, they (the police) were saying to me: 'You done it, you done it.'
'They were bombarding me with questions, question (after) question. They were saying: 'We know you done it, we're going to make sure you get time. I was agreeing with everything they said.
'They were showing me papers, but I couldn't read them. I didn't know if they were telling the truth or lies. It felt like - because I was a gypsy - they were taking advantage of me…They just wanted somebody, it was such a big thing in such a small place and I fitted the bill at the time.'
Stephen Hough arrives at Mold Crown Court for the first day of the trial. He was only arrested 40 years later for the murder after a billion-to-one match of his DNA
When asked how he felt after being charged with the schoolgirl's murder, Mr Jones added: 'Terrible, sir. I was a scapegoat. That's what I felt like, there was nobody to say anything on my behalf, it seemed like everyone was against me.'
He added: 'They were putting words into my mouth…I was coerced into what was going on and under that much pressure I would confess to anything.'
Mr Jones told the court he was told to plead guilty to manslaughter at his trial, in June 1976, by his solicitor.
He said that, after his conviction, in June 1976, he was 'too scared' to appeal after his lawyer told him he could go to prison for even longer if the case didn't go his way.
Mark Heywood, QC, prosecuting, asked Mr Jones directly: 'Did you kill Janet Commins?'
Janet was raped and strangled after going to meet a friend at a swimming baths close to her home, in Flint, north Wales, in 1976
He replied: 'No sir, no, no 100 per cent. On a stack of Bibles, no.'
He added: 'I did not commit this crime. I have been saying it for 40-odd years…I have never hurt anybody. I had a girlfriend at that time, we were happy, I had plenty of friends, I had no reason to do it.
'I've had this burden around my neck for 40-odd year. I've had no life, I've had family and friends turn against me, my life's been turned upside down.'
Mr Jones, who is now married with three sons, claimed he was beaten up in prison, spat at by other inmates and spent 18 months in solitary confinement for his own safety. On his release he was shunned by family and friends and even considered committing suicide.
'It was a nightmare,' he added. 'I was running the gauntlet every day. People spitting on you, calling you beast and animal, threatening to stab you. It was horrendous… I had to survive the best way I could. It destroyed my life.'
He added: 'If I hadn't been such a coward, I considered several times topping myself.'
Under cross examination, Patrick Harrington, QC, defending Hough, asked Mr Jones why, if he was innocent, he signed a statement confessing to the murder of Janet within five hours of his arrest.
Mr Jones insisted: 'They put it in front of my face but I couldn't read and write. That paper could have been anything.'
Mr Harrington said Mr Jones had several 'golden opportunities' at remand court hearings and his trial, when he had legal representation, to say the confession was false, but did not take them.
But the court was told he had confessed the crimes to his then girlfriend.Â
Mr Jones, a traveller who was illiterate, was arrested by police after his 15-year-old girlfriend Linda Iball told them he had confessed to murdering the schoolgirl.
Patrick Harrington QC, defending, read notes of police interviews in which officers told Mr Jones his girlfriend had contacted the force to say he had admitted the attack and asked her to give him an alibi for the night she died.
Interview notes recorded Mr Jones telling officers: 'Yes I might have told her that but I was only joking.'
He told the court he had not confessed the crimes to his then-girlfriend.
He said: 'I never told Linda I killed anybody at all. Alls I said to Linda was I'm locked up, that's all I said, and if police ask you what happened sa y I was with you. I've never killed anybody.'
Hough, who denies murder, was stopped by police over a separate matter last year and when his DNA was entered into the national database it matched that of Miss Commin's killer.
The jury has already heard that he was living in Flint at the time of Janet's murder and that there is a billion to one chance that DNA samples taken from her body belonged to anyone else.
The trial continues.
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