How Rikki Neave's mum was wrongly accused of murdering boy, 6, when cops found Da Vinci picture at home

RIKKI Neave's mum was wrongly accused of murdering him after a picture of Leonardo Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man was found at the family home.

The six-year-old was strangled with his coat zip in a "surprise attack" just five minutes from his home in Peterborough, Cambs, in 1994.

James Watson was just 13 when he carried out the gruesome killing but evaded justice for 27 years in one of Britain's longest cold case mysteries.

The monster, now 40, "deliberately posed" the naked youngster into a "star shape with outstretched arms and his legs placed wide apart".

This led police to wrongly accuse Rikki's mum Ruth of murder after they discovered a picture of the Vitruvian Man at her home.

The famous picture shows a man with his limbs outstretched in a chilling echo of how the youngster's body was arranged on the ground.

Officers thought the mum killed Rikki then transferred his body in a buggy to the woods before reporting him missing.

"Vulnerable" Rikki was known to social services and had been placed on the "at risk register" at the time of his death.

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Ruth stood trial six months after her son's death charged with murder and child cruelty.

Prosecutors claimed how the mum – obsessed with the occult and black magic – killed the youngster in a sacrifice.

Ruth admitted child cruelty – with jurors hearing how she would turf Rikki out the house at midnight barefoot in his pyjamas.

She was jailed for seven years for the "persistent and systematic cruelty" but was acquitted of murder.

The case was opened again in 2015 with tests on adhesive tape from Rikki's clothes showing a DNA match with Watson.

He was first interviewed in 1994 where he told officers he came across a "small boy" while walking to his dad's home.

Watson then claimed they shared a brief exchange about a nearby digger before parting ways.

But during an interview in 2016, he introduced a "wealth of new detail" when asked again about meeting Rikki".

This included convenient ways Watson's DNA could find itself on the youngster's clothing – such as the fiend claiming he picked the boy up to see a digger.

Importantly, Watson was able to answer the "crucial question" of how his DNA was found on Rikki "before it had even been asked of him".

He had been seen with the youngster on the day he vanished and was spoken to by police at the time.

The fiend was "exhibiting a grotesque interest in the subject of child murder".

Teachers also allegedly noticed a "conspicuous pre-occupation with the extensive reporting of the fate of Rikki Neave".

But he told "many lies", claimed he did not know Rikki and made no mention of "physical contact".



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