Kidnapping and murder of Lesley Whittle

rdf:langString Kidnapping and murder of Lesley Whittle

rdf:langString Lesley Whittle

rdf:langString Lesley Whittle

rdf:langString George Whittle

rdf:langString Dorothy Walker

rdf:langString British

rdf:langString British teenager Lesley Whittle was kidnapped on 14 January 1975, and her body discovered on 7 March 1975. Her kidnapping and murder dominated national headlines for 11 months. The investigation involved over 400 officers from the West Mercia Constabulary, Staffordshire and West Midlands police forces and the Metropolitan Police. Whittle, aged 17, was kidnapped from her home in Highley, Shropshire, by Donald Neilson, who by that time had committed over 400 burglaries and three murders. He was known to the British press as "the Black Panther", for the black balaclava he wore during robberies of post offices. Neilson held Whittle in an underground drainage shaft of a reservoir at Bathpool Park in Kidsgrove, Staffordshire. He had placed a hood over her head, left her naked, and tethered her to the side of the shaft by a wire noose. After what was later seen as a bungled police operation, including two failed attempts to engage with Neilson's demand for a ransom of £50,000, her body was found hanging in the shaft on 7 March 1975. After being arrested 11 months later in Mansfield, in July 1976 at Oxford Crown Court Neilson was convicted of the kidnapping and murder of Whittle, for which he was sentenced to life imprisonment. Three weeks later he was convicted of the murder of three post office workers, and given three further life sentences.

rdf:langString Highley, Shropshire, England