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Brian FIELD
Real name: Brian Lull
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics:
Paedophile - Rape
Number of victims: 1 +
Date of murder:
April 23,
1968
Date of arrest: 2001 (33 years later)
Date of birth: 1937
Victim profile: Roy Tutill (male, 14)
Method of murder: Strangulation
Location: Mickleham, Surrey, England, United Kingdom
Brian Field was on the run for the murder of a 14-year-old
boy for 33 years - and wasn't arrested even when he committed further
sexual offences.
It would take advances in DNA testing and a 'cold
case review' to put him behind bars for the rest of his days.
The murder of 14-year-old Roy Tutill in 1968
horrified Britain and led to one of the biggest manhunts ever seen in
the county of Surrey.
Roy was Kingston Grammar schoolboy who vanished when
he hitch-hiked the 15 miles from school to his home in the well-to-do
village of Brockham, near Dorking.
He was 'a normal, happy, healthy child' who lived at
home in with his parents and older brother Colin.
Colin was allowed to hitch-hike home but Roy was not
given permission until he was 14 and he awaited his birthday on March 20
with excited anticipation because he was hoping to save his fares to buy
a new bicycle and model trains.
Field, who was working as a machine engineer for the
Milk Marketing Board, was later to tell police how he had been driving
towards London on 23 April after a heavy drinking session with friends.
The father-of-three who was then 32, picked up Roy
and promised to drop him further down the road but then began touching
his leg.
When the boy resisted, Field pulled his white Mini up
at a lay-by and ordered him to undress before sexually assaulting him.
Strangled in a lay-by
He told police drove up to another lay-by
and strangled Roy with a piece of rope.
Field described the boy convulsing and gasping for
air until his body 'suddenly went lifeless.'
The killer then drove home to his wife and their new-born
son who was less than two weeks old.
Roy's body was found dumped three days later in
woodland owned by newspaper tycoon Lord Beaverbrook near Givons Grove,
Leatherhead.
The boy was still wearing his striped school blazer
and his satchel was found nearby.
Bruises all over his body and his own nail marks on
his neck told of the desperate struggle he had put up against his
attacker.
The case dominated the front pages of newspapers for
weeks as detectives questioned more than 10,000 people and took more
than 2,000 statements.
Intimate samples were recovered from the lad's body
and clothes but in 1968 scientists could only use them to show the
maniac was either 'A' or 'O' blood group.
Roy had been seen getting into a car but a witness
mistook the Mini for another marque and police were led down a blind
alley.
The killer carries on ofending
Meanwhile Field carried on work and offending as if
nothing had happened.
On November 12 1969 at Wrexham Magistrates, Field was
convicted and fined for gross indecency, after he passed obscene notes
to undercover police in a public lavatory.
In November 1972 he was jailed for two years at
Aberdeen Sheriff's Court for indecently assaulting a 14-year-old boy.
On that occasion Field pounced on a young lad who was
walking along a quiet country lane.
His victim was forced to strip from the waist down
before Field molested him and then drove off.
In April 1982 he was fined for gross indecency at
Oswestry Magistrates Court after fondling a 17-year-old boy.
In September 1983 at Shrewsbury Crown Court Field was
jailed for four years after being convicted for two counts of buggery.
At Stafford Crown Court in June 1986 Field was jailed
for four years for falsely imprisoning two teenagers.
Threatened with a wheelbrace
The boys aged 13 and 16, were given a lift by the
pervert, who threatened them with a wheelbrace and then forced them to
remove their clothing. They escaped by jumping from the moving car.
By the mid 1990s scientific advances
had made DNA technology so sophisticated that suspects could be traced
from objects they had touched simply by the sweat they left behind.
In 1996 a sample from the crime scene was obtained
and placed on the national database.
Field was well aware DNA could lead to his death
behind bars and he had tried to live quietly in Solihull in the West
Midlands.
He had not been arrested for 13 years when he was
pulled over for drink driving on September 18, 1999 and the mouth swab
he gave was matched to the 1996 sample.
Field was arrested at his home in Solihull on
February 21 2001 and claimed to know nothing of the killing in three
interviews.
But when he was charged with buggery he started to
slowly confess and admitted murder in court.
Tortured by a killer at large
His arrest brought closure for Roy's surviving family
who had been tortured by the knowledge that the killer had remained at
large for so long.
Tragically both Roy's parents died before Field was
caught.
When he was sentenced at the Old Bailey Judge Gerald
Gordon told Field: 'This was the killing of a normal happy healthy boy -
an act particularly obnoxious for all right minded people.
'But your crime goes much further than that. Having
taken a just 14 year-old boy away in your car to satisfy your sexual
desires you then committed forceful dreadful sexual acts.
'And shortly thereafter you strangled
him, almost certainly with a rope.
'You dumped him in the boot of your car and returned
home to your wife and young son.
Two days later you discarded his body.
'These acts and the consequences must have haunted
his parents for the rest of their lives.
'The rest of his family and friends must still suffer
for what you did. Judge Gordon added: 'Modern science techniques have
led to your conviction, and stand as a warning there are few if any
hiding places for sexual and violent criminals from modern techniques.'
Speaking outside court Detective Superintendent
Philip Doyle who was on the original inquiry said: 'The one regret is we
did not catch him then to prevent him abusing all these other boys.'
The white haired detective said the case had remained
with him during every day of his retirement.
'You never forget,' he said.
Pervert murderer quizzed over
mysterious disappearance of two boys
DailyMail.co.uk
10 November 2006
A convicted paedophile and murderer has been
questioned about the disappearance of two schoolboys who vanished on
Boxing Day 10 years ago.
West Midlands detectives announced the new
development in the case of David Spencer, 13, and Patrick Warren, 11,
who went missing from the Chelmsley Wood area of Birmingham in 1996.
They disappeared after going out on a bicycle one had received as a
Christmas present.
Brian Field, a farm labourer who lived in the
Solihull area at the time the boys went missing, was jailed for life in
2001 for the rape and murder of a 14-year-old boy more than 30 years
earlier.
Officers from Operation Stenley are believed to have
visited Field, 70, in Full Sutton prison, York, to question him.
Police re-examined the boys' disappearance in 2001
after Field was convicted of the murder of 14-year-old Roy Tutill.
Since the double disappearance officers have made
extensive inquiries, but early indications suggested the youngsters had
planned to run away.
The two boys became the first missing people to
feature on milk cartons as part of a nationwide appeal launched by the
National Missing Persons Helpline.
Field abducted, raped and strangled Roy Tutill in
1968 as he hitch-hiked to his Surrey home from school so he could save
his bus fare to pay for a new bicycle.
Field, then 65, pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to
the 33-year-old murder, then thought to be the longest period between a
crime being committed and solved, after being caught through a DNA test
following a drink-driving offence.
Jailing Field, Judge Gerald Gordon told him that he
had killed a "normal, happy, healthy boy" and that the evidence against
him had been overwhelming.
Chief Superintendent Gordon Fraser from West Midlands
Police said that during two days of questioning under caution Field had
denied any involvement in the boys' disappearance.
He said: "There are many lines of inquiry, we may
interview Field again, and until we establish what happened to David and
Patrick, we cannot rule him out.
"The boys have been missing for 10 years, we have
made many appeals for them to come forward, and they have not done so. I
have no evidence to believe they are still alive."
He said officers were also investigating other people
convicted of sex offences in the area in the mid 1990s.
Mr Fraser said the time was right to re-open the
investigation. He said: "There have been huge developments in policing
techniques and technology in the past 10 years, and I am keen to use
these to shine a 2006 torch on to a 1996 incident."
The investigation will now focus on the local
community - 10,000 leaflets appealing for information will be delivered
to homes in Chelmsley Wood in the coming days, and officers have taken
more than 300 statements from local people.
Chief Supt Fraser said: "Somebody out there must know
what happened to David and Patrick, and we would ask them to come
forward now. They may have the last piece of information needed to
complete the jigsaw."
Mr Fraser said police would be searching a number of
locations in the Chelmsley Wood and Solihull areas in the hunt for David
and Patrick's bodies. He said this would involve using specialist
officers to dig up areas of land.
Mr Fraser said the decision to re-open the
investigation had the support of the boys' families, but they were "clearly
distressed". They are expected to make statements through the police in
the next few days.
He said: "We are mindful that the police activity may
cause anxiety in the community, but I would say that Chelmsley Wood is
as safe today as it was yesterday."
Police also questioned Field about the death of a 15-year-old
found hanged at his home in the Solihull area in 1997. An inquest ruled
the boy committed suicide, and Field denies any involvement in his death.
Science reaches into the past and
brings justice for boy who never came home
By Bob Graham and Ben Taylor - DailyMail.co.uk
November 16, 2001
It took more than 33 years for justice to catch up
with the man described by one of his victims as ' evil personified'.
And as Brian Field started his sentence yesterday, it
was difficult to avoid the conclusion that he effectively got away with
a child murder for half his life.
In today's fractured times, it is perhaps difficult
to comprehend the impact created by Field's killing of Roy Tutill, the
'boy who never came home'.
It was on April 23, 1968 - still an age of
comparative innocence - when the third-former finished lessons at
Kingston Grammar School in Surrey.
Smartly dressed in a red and grey striped blazer, he
paid eight old pence for a bus ticket but got off early.
He wanted to save money by hitching the rest of the
way back to the village of Brockham, where he lived with his parents,
elder brother Colin and sister Margaret. To families today, the thought
of a child hitching to save a few pennies for a train set is unthinkable.
But, as prosecuting counsel Wendy Joseph, QC, said,
these were 'really rather different times'.
So much so that when 14-year-old Roy - Tuts to his
friends - thumbed a lift at a roundabout in Chessington, he felt pride,
not fear.
Three days later, his battered body was found in a
lane. He had been strangled with a rope and sexually assaulted.
His blazer was found thrown over his heavily bruised
body, his leather satchel containing a raincoat and his homework, lay by
his side.
Within days, Roy's clean-cut smile haunted parents up
and down the country as the hunt went on for his perverted killer.
As Roy's parents grieved, Field - who lived little
more than ten miles from their home - was selecting his next young
victim.
So who was this man who hid such a terrible, secret
for so long?
Abandoned by his mother, a prostitute, only a day
after his birth in Bourne, Lincolnshire, in 1936, he was adopted and
grew up in a house with 12 foster boys.
His new father, social worker Paul Field, would be
honoured by the Queen for his work with children and even appeared with
his family on an early This Is Your Life.
By 1959, Brian had joined the Royal Marines where he
spent two years in Malta and Cyprus. It was during his time in service
that he had his first homosexual encounter.
He settled in Thames Ditton, Surrey, and worked for
the Milk Marketing Board as an engineer.
He married twice and fathered three children. His
first wife, Celia, died in a road crash in 1966.
His second, Mary, divorced him after his pursuit of
sex with boys came to the attention of police.
On the day he killed Roy, Field had been drinking
heavily.
His wife had just given birth to their son and it was
his first day back at work.
At around 4pm, he got to the roundabout and offered
Roy a lift in his Mini. Minutes later, Colin Tutill went past on his
scooter.
Field pulled into a lay-by and forced Roy to take off
his clothes and perform a sex act.
He set off again, only to stop in another lay-by. It
was then, Field told police, that he strangled Roy.
'He just sort of convulsed a bit, sort of gasping for
air and I just carried on and suddenly he went lifeless,' he said calmly.
Roy fought back desperately, trying to remove the
rope around his neck but lost his fight for life.
His killer put his body into the boot and drove home.
Three days later, he dumped the body. As police
searched for the 'local man' they suspected, Field was making plans to
move the family to Shropshire.
By the following year, he had been convicted of his
first offence - attempted gross indecency - and was fined £20 by Wrexham
Magistrates.
Three years later, Field had been locked up for two
years after the attempted abduction and indecent assault of a 14-year-old
boy in Aberdeen.
Detectives from Surrey went to question Field about
Roy's death.
He denied all knowledge and, starved of the science
which today's officers take for granted, they left empty-handed. Once
free, Field continued as before, shrugging off the inevitable collapse
of his marriage.
Convictions for indecency followed in Oswestry and
Shrewsbury. On June 4, 1986, Field was found guilty at Stafford Crown
Court of two counts of kidnap.
He had given a lift to two boys, aged 13 and 16, and
kept them in the car. They were threatened and forced to strip before
escaping from the moving vehicle.
It is hard not to conclude they could have suffered
the same fate as Roy. Field got four years, his last prison term.
One of his victims, who does not wish to be
identified, told the Mail last night: 'He was an athlete - an impressive
man who loved cricket, football and rugby.
'But he had a way of talking that was almost
effeminate. It was an era, too, when you didn't complain about what he
did to you or asked you to do to him.
'He was evil personified. He was a very dangerous man
who was consumed by lust.'
Field moved to Solihull in the West Midlands and
worked as a gardener for cash, often near children. He never claimed
benefits or paid tax.
The inquiry into Roy's death, meanwhile, appeared to
have been forgotten by all but his family. Then, in September 1999,
Field made a serious error.
He drove home from a Birmingham pub and was
breathtested. He was fined £150 and, crucially, a saliva swab was taken.
As he cursed his luck, detectives from the original
inquiry had decided to reopen the Tutill case.
All the exhibits were resubmitted for forensic tests.
DNA techniques meant the killer's unique profile - taken from the boy's
body - was available.
In January, police made a match and Field was
arrested.
A police source said: 'He was very
chatty. Then we asked him if he would mind giving some blood or hair for
a DNA test.
'He slept on it and said the next day, "I have been
telling lies. I murdered Roy Tutill".'
It was perhaps a cathartic moment, a time to finally
unburden himself of what he had done to an innocent boy.
But for the Tutill family there can be no sense of
relief.
His parents, Hilary and Dennis, passed away years
before. To her dying day, his mother kept a picture of the lad she never
saw grow up by her bed.
His brother and sister have both emigrated. Colin
Tutill, 50, who still admits to guilt that he wasn't able to protect his
brother that day, said: 'I don't know how it affected Dad because he
kept expressions inside.
'At the time of Roy's death. mother was very weepy.
For the rest of her life, there was a photo of Roy beside her bed. It
was like a shrine.
'The first year or so I wanted revenge. But things
evolve and that emotion is not there anymore.
'I always imagined if it had not been solved in the
early stages, it was not going to be solved. But I'm grateful to the
police for never giving up.'
Roy's aunt, Monique Guerin, said: 'Everybody went
into their own personal grief and communication between the family was
lost. Christmases and so on were never the same again.'
Only Field will know how many more boys he attacked.
Police believe it is almost inconceivable that such a violent, devious
man is not responsible for more crimes.
He is finally off the streets. But his appalling
legacy is the nagging fear of every parent in Britain today each time
their child walks out of the door.
Child killer 'had abused fo 40
years'
BBC News
November 15, 2001
The murder of a schoolboy 33 years ago has finally
been solved, after his killer pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey.
Roy Tutill was 14 years old when he was sexually
assaulted and then strangled by Brian Field, on 23 April, 1968.
BBC crime correspondent Stephen Cape reports that
Field may have been abusing children for more than 40 years before his
eventual arrest in Solihull.
It was near a busy roundabout that Brian Field spotted
the boy hitching to his home near Dorking, Surrey, from school.
Motivated by the need for sex he offered Roy Tutill a
lift, abused him and then strangled the teenager, dumping him a few
miles away in Mickleham.
The murder caused a public outcry and for surviving
relatives it has cast a deep shadow over the family.
Breakthrough
Field was never interviewed at the time of Roy
Tutill's murder.
He moved to the Midlands and only became a suspect
when a member of his family tipped off detectives.
By chance Field had provided a DNA sample after a
drink drive offence.
This was the breakthrough the forensic science service
needed.
They managed to match a stain found on the boy's
trousers with Field.
Child murderer
The officer who reviewed the case still has some of
the boy's belongings.
For Detective Chief Superintendent David Cook, Field
was not just a child murderer but a convicted paedophile.
Now aged 64, the former gardener and farm worker is
still regarded as extremely dangerous.
Field, who was born Brian Lull, was brought up at a
children's home in Lincolnshire.
He joined the choir and even took part in a BBC
programme in 1951 with the home's owner and founder, Paul Field.
The present chairman of the Children Family Trust,
Stephen Fieldsend, is clearly shocked by the behaviour of a boy who
turned into a serial paedophile.
Suspicious deaths
Detectives say there are still dozens of unsolved
suspicious deaths that will now be re-examined.
In 1984 15-year-old Mark Billington was found hanged
from a tree not far Field's home.
An inquest recorded an open verdict. His mother,
Winifred, believes he was murdered.
There is also the question of two boys who went
missing on Boxing Day in 1996.
They lived a short distance from Field's flat.
The police also think that Field, who showed no
remorse for Roy Tutill's murder, may have been carrying out sex offences
on young boys for the past 40 years.
Roy Tutill's belongings are still at the local police
station in Surrey - the books he was carrying on the day of the murder.
Man jailed for 1968 schoolboy
murder
BBC News
November 15, 2001
A 65-year-old farm labourer from the Midlands has been
jailed for life for the murder, 33 years ago, of schoolboy Roy Tutill.
The 14-year-old was abducted, raped and strangled in
1968 as he hitch-hiked to his Surrey home from school so he could save
his bus fare to pay for a new bicycle.
Divorced Brian Field, from Solihull, West Midlands,
pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to the 33-year-old murder - thought to
be the longest period between a crime being committed and solved.
Police believe Field may be responsible for other
murders and police forces around the country are expected to examine
dozens of cases of missing children and hundreds of unsolved sex attacks.
Jailing grey-haired Field, Judge Gerald Gordon told
him that he had killed a "normal, happy, healthy boy" and that
the evidence against him had been "overwhelming".
After satisfying his desires and hiding the body in
his car boot, Field had returned to his wife and newborn baby.
The judge said: "These acts and their
consequences must have haunted his parents for the rest of their lives
and the rest of the family must still suffer from what you did.
"When you strangled him, I have no doubt you
sought to destroy the sole source of evidence against you.
"Thirty three years later, you have been proved
wrong."
Killed in 'panic'
The judge warned that advances in scientific detection
techniques "should stand as a warning that there is no hiding place
for sexual and violent criminals".
Wendy Joseph QC, told the court that tests had shown
Roy had been strangled from behind with a rope and had been sexually
assaulted.
She said: "He described the boy convulsing,
gasping for air and said he carried on until Roy suddenly went lifeless."
Adrian Fulford QC, defending, said Field had told
police he killed the boy "as a result of panic".
Field had lived with a "terrible, corrosive and
all-consuming secret" over the years, he said.
DNA speck
Field, a loner with previous convictions for attacking
boys, is believed by detectives to have been one of Britain's most
dangerous paedophiles.
He was trapped only after a tiny speck of DNA was
matched to him when he was stopped by police for drink-driving in the
Midlands.
Field killed Roy to "eradicate a witness"
and police fear other boys may have met the same fate.
West Midlands Police in particular are believed to be
looking at unexplained deaths or disappearances in the area.
Other cases
Among them are the mysterious disappearances of David
Spencer, 13, and Patrick Warren, 11, who were last seen in Chelmsley
Wood, near Field's home, on Boxing Day 1996.
It was thought they had run away.
They are also understood to be reopening the inquiry
into the death of 15-year-old Mark Billington found hanged from a tree
seven miles from his home.
His parents always maintained he had probably been
attacked by a man who murdered him.
The murder of Roy Tutill remained Surrey's only
unsolved child murder until Field's arrest in February this year.
The Kingston Grammar School pupil, known to his
friends as Tutts, went missing after leaving the school on April 23 1968
at 3.30pm.
He boarded a bus with friends for the start of his 15-mile
journey home - but hitch-hiked after a few miles as he was saving
towards a new bicycle.
He was last seen trying to stop a car in Chessington,
close to his home in the village of Brockham Green, near Dorking, Surrey.
Stored body
His body was discovered nearby in a copse at the
entrance to the late press baron Lord Beaverbrook's estate at Mickleham,
Surrey, three days later.
His clothing, including his red and grey striped
school blazer, were found folded across his body.
After his arrest, Field confessed to killing Roy with
a rope and keeping the body in the boot of his white Mini car before
dumping it.
He moved from Surrey shortly afterwards and travelled
around Britain as a farm machine repair man.
Detective Chief Superintendent David Cook said outside
the court: "By his plea of guilty, Brian Field has publicly
admitted that he is a very dangerous person.
"When you take into account his previous criminal
history, it leaves you in no doubt what a danger he poses to society and
in particular, to young boys."
Police appealed for any other possible victims over
the last 30-odd years to come forward.
West Midlands police said that its officers had
liaised with their counterparts in Surrey.
A spokesman for West Midlands Police said: "We
have been liaising with colleagues at Surrey Constabulary and we will be
examining the possibility of links between Field and other uncleared
matters.
"One such matter is the death of Mark Billington,
which is now being reinvestigated.
"We are open-minded about the disappearance of
Patrick Warren and David Spencer, but this remains a missing persons
inquiry."
