What happened to Wendy Sewell?

WENDY SEWELL was murdered in 1973 but her murder remains unsolved.

A 17-year-old man with learning difficulties was wrongly-charged with her murder.

Who was Wendy Sewell?

Legal secretary, Wendy Sewell was attacked in broad daylight on September 12, 1973.

She was believed to be hitchhiking to Catterick, North Yorkshire in order to pick up her boyfriend's car.

It was around 1pm when she was attacked in Bakewell Cemetery in the Peak District.

Wendy was hit in the head multiple times with a pickaxe and sexually assaulted.

She died two days later at the Chesterfield Royal Hospital after she was found with parts of her clothing removed.

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What happened to Stephen Downing?

The groundskeeper for the cemetery was Stephen Downing, a 17-year-old with learning difficulties.

He was the prime suspect and had told the police about how he had found Wendy lying on the ground.

There was blood on his clothes from shaking Wendy and, despite only having a reading age of 11, he was detained and questioned.

After nine hours of interrogation without a lawyer, Stephen signed a confession.

He was found guilty of the murder and sentenced to prison indefinitely with no chance of parole.

A witness saw Stephen leaving the cemetery at the same time as she saw Wendy alive.

This allowed him to appeal the verdict and campaign for his release.

It took two appeals but the conviction was eventually quashed after 27 years in prison and he received £750,000 in compensation.

Who killed Wendy Sewell?

The murder of Wendy will always remain a mystery but it is believed that she was a victim of Peter Sutcliffe.

Sutcliffe, also known as the Yorkshire Ripper, was convicted of killing 13 women in the 70s.

The manner of Wendy's death fits with his MO and he was a lorry driver who would drive through the Peak District regularly so it is possible he was in the area at the time.

There are believed to be multiple murders that were wrongly attributed to other people or left unsolved when they were likely to be the Yorkshire Ripper.

The case is explored in ITV's Yorkshire Ripper: The Secret Murders which airs tonight (February 24, 2022) at 9pm.

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