‘DNA from 1976 trapped killer of girl, 15’
THE killer of a 15-year-old girl was trapped by DNA 40 years on from the crime even though another man had already been imprisoned, a court heard yesterday.
Janet Commins was raped and choked to death after being attacked on her way to meet friends on January 7, 1976.
Noel Jones, who was 18, confessed to the killing and was jailed for 12 years for manslaughter.
But the real killer was allegedly former soldier Stephen Hough, now 58, whose DNA appeared on the national police database after being stopped for a separate matter last year, the court heard.
Missing
Prosecutor Mark Heywood QC told the jury there was only a one in a billion chance the DNA found on Janet’s body and kept on record could have come from anyone else but Hough.
He said in 2006 there was a cold case review of Janet’s murder and the preserved DNA samples were reviewed. Mr Heywood told the jury at Mold Crown Court yesterday: “This major DNA profile matched the DNA profile of Stephen Hough.”
Hough, from Flint, North Wales, denies murder, rape and a serious sexual offence. The court was told that Janet went missing after sneaking out of her home in Flint to meet a friend at the local swimming baths. Four days later three young girls playing hide-and-seek found her body in bushes near playing fields.
Mr Heywood said: “Janet was choked to death while she was being forcefully raped. She was being subdued by preventing her from breathing.”
Hough, who was days away from his 17th birthday, was living with his grandparents on a road which overlooked the playing fields.
He was quizzed by police at the time. However, Noel Jones had confessed to a girlfriend that he had “killed a girl”. He made a signed confession to raping Janet and said that during the struggle she had died.
Jones, now 59, was prosecuted for murder but pleaded guilty to manslaughter and served six years of a 12-year sentence.
Mr Heywood said: “On his release, he set about re-establishing his life. He never challenged the circumstances of his conviction but asserts he always knew he was innocent and only confessed due to the pressure he felt placed upon him at the time.”
Mr Heywood added: “The prosecution case is that there is support for Jones’s claim that he was not Janet’s killer and, in all the circumstances, you can be sure that Stephen Hough was.”
The trial continues.