Trial clippings: How CCTV helped catch a killer : Main CCTV feature: KDIS Online
Emma Dunlop, Wakefield Express 25/9/98
KILLER Stephen Hughes was today starting a life sentence for the brutal, sexually-motivated murder of his son's girlfriend.
Hughes, 47, of Stanley Street, Eastmoor, was convicted yesterday of killing Bradford teenager Rachel Barraclough on September 5 last year, A jury at Leeds Crown Court took less than four hours to find Hughes, who had consistently protested his innocence, guilty by a unanimous verdict.
His wife Irene collapsed in the public gallery on hearing the sentence. She was carried out by friends and an ambulance was called.
The Hon Mr Justice Holland told Hughes, a Mormon, that it was a "wicked, wicked crime".In jailing Hughes for life, the judge said: "I hope you never get out."
Rachel's mother Hilary then shouted from the public gallery: "I hope they throw away the key."
The jury heard how Hughes, a chef, lured Rachel to an isolated spot near the River Calder to have sex and then kill her. The prosecution said Hughes telephoned her at home from a call box down his street to lure her to the city on the pretext of reuniting her with her estranged boyfriend - his son Carl.
His lies were caught out by CCTV footage which showed him walking with the 18-year-old after meeting her off the bus from Bradford. The video pictures showed in detail all of Rachel's final movements as she took her last steps in Wakefield city centre.
She is last seen walking side-by-side with the man accused of her brutal murder as they head towards the towpath by the River Calder near Heath Common. Two hours later Hughes is spotted coming back from the same spot - alone.
Rachel's mutilated body was discovered on the secluded path almost 24 hours after she was last seen on the closed-circuit cameras She had been sexually assaulted, stabbed in the stomach four times and her throat slashed.
Rachel trusted Hughes and was considering going to the Mormon church with members of their family.
She was besotted by Carl and would have done anything for him - as detailed in her compelling diary accounts: "I love him like I've never loved anyone before," said one extract.
It was written even after she found out Carl had been cheating on her with another woman and had beaten her up the weekend before - leaving her with a black eye and cuts and bruises to her face and body.
In his defence, Stephen Hughes, represented by Robert Smith QC, said he had lied because he was scared he might be implicated in her death ' He was worried about the reaction of his son Carl said to be hot-tempered. Hughes said he walked Rachel to the Superbowl on Doncaster Road at her request. In his defence be told the court: "You could say I'm softhearted. Rachel asked me to walk her down there and 1 said 'Yes'."
However, six months after being charged with the young girl's murder, Hughes finally admitted to the police he had been with Rachel last September. Throughout the trial he denied the charge, telling prosecutor Paul Worsley that he "wasn't even there" when the QC suggested he had pulled a knife on her.
Hughes did admit he had lied to his son, wife and the police when asked if he had seen Rachel that night.
He was described by Mr Worsley as 'a pathological liar' "Hughes led us a merry dance" said Mr Worsley.
When Carl learned of the death he smashed a window at his home - with his head.
Det Sgt John Holt, speaking after the trial, said what made the offence so horrendous was the amount of planning by Hughes. "He preyed on a young girl he knew trusted him. He took her to a place where he carried out his evil, deed."
CLOSED-CIRCUIT television cameras played a critical role in helping the police catch the killer.
Following a campaign led by the Wakefield Express, cameras were installed around the city centre and switched on just a week before the murder.
Hughes was caught on film with Rachel and this proved the vital breakthrough police needed in solving the mystery.
Despite repeated denials to the police that he had seen Rachel on that fateful evening, footage showed him accompanying her near the bus station at the Bull Ring around 9.15pm. More damning, however, was video evidence shot later, around 11.30pm when he was again picked up on camera - alone back in the city centre.
Rachel, who was besotted with Hughes's son Carl, was lured by Hughes on to the riverbank where she was assaulted and then murdered.
On seeing the video clue, police turned their attention to Stephen Hughes.
He had also been spotted on the security cameras in Eastmoor of ironmongers Dixon Hall.
Emma Dunlop & Chris Neill (Wakefield Express 25/9/98)
AS MURDERER Stephen Hughes starts his life sentence this week, Express reporters visited the Eastmoor estate where he lived to find out more about the man described in court as a "pathological liar."
Walking along Stanley Street in the Eastmoor Estate this week the sun was shining, people were enjoying the last hint of summer and going about their daily business as if nothing was amiss. A few residents were happy to chat away about the Stephen Hughes trial and the effects it has had on their lives. Others seemed less inclined to talk about "those neighbours."
Perhaps the strangest thing about it all, however, is that despite its high-profile and obvious significance to Eastmoor, it is only when the murder is raised deliberately in conversation that its importance hits home.
For the most part it seems like a dormant memory, and not part of anyone's daily routine. This may, of course, change in the weeks 'following the verdict, but right now the Rachel Barraclough case is just an example of the world we live in."
One resident told the Express: "I don't think it's a deliberate decision by people not to discuss the family - it just doesn't seem to happen. I've known the family for more than 20 years. Even now they are pleasant and unassuming despite the circumstances. But deep down I don't think anyone really knows how they personally feel at the moment. It's a matter of getting on with your own life and not wondering what happens behind other people's closed doors."
The mood of the street seems to be reflected in the nearby pubs, clubs and businesses. Sit in the corner at the Primrose Hill WMC, stand at the bar in either the Rainbow or Butcher's Arms and the topic of conversation never gets round to the trial. Maybe interest levels are actually this low. Perhaps with it being 'so close to home' it's always better to say, or know, nothing. Whatever the reason Stephen Hughes is not a name on everyones lips.
A close neighbour of the family's tried to pinpoint the general feelings more specifically. He said: "I've known Stephen Hughes and his, wife Irene for more than 20 years. I've seen their youngsters grow up. With the whole family it has been a smile, a wave and always a friendly 'hello. Now no one really knows what to think."
"Yes, it takes some getting used to - and maybe everyone is still numbed, or in shock, by the reality of it all ' "
A former colleague of Stephen Hughes, who wishes to remain anonymous, recalls her impressions of the accused.
"I worked with him two years ago when he was a chef at the Cedar Court Hotel. I used to see him every day at breakfast. He was the chef who prepared the staff lunches. We used to chat together at breakfast and lunch. He was an okay sort of guy, but then again, I suppose anyone can rum into a murderer. He certainly didn't look like that sort of person, but who knows what he was like out of work? I think it was a one-off what he did because there was nothing about him at all that suggested he could be a killer. One thing I did notice was that he was never particularly smart or tidy. He wasn't dedicated to cleanliness and that wasn't a very good quality in a chef"
THE search for Rachel Barraclough's killer began at 9.10pm on Saturday, September 6 last year when her mutilated body was found dumped on wasteland near Eastmoor.
Described as a reliable, conscientious church-going teenager, police immediately set about tracking down the person responsible for this "horrendous and despicable act."
Det Supt John Holt had said: "The circumstances in which she met her death are violent in the extreme and it is vitally important the offender is caught."
One of the first things they needed to do was establish the reason why she was in Wakefield that evening. Her movements from Bradford were picked up on closed circuit television, but just who she was meeting remained the key to the inquiry.
Once boyfriend Carl Hughes was found the investigation quickly gathered momentum. And it was only a matter of days before his 47-year-old father, Stephen, was implicated. On September 19 he was brought before Wakefield magistrates charged with murder. An inquest was opened the following month, at which more details of her horrific death began to emerge.
Rachel died after being stabbed in the neck and stomach. She had apparently been attacked and killed at the spot where she was found - on scrubland between Eastmoor and Heath. Her bag was discovered 100 yards away.
In February Stephen Hughes appeared before Wakefield magistrates again and was committed for trial to Leeds Crown Court. At this stage an allegation he raped the teenager was discharged.
And just over a year to the day of Rachel's murder the first wave of evidence was heard, claiming she was lured to her death at the isolated spot...
CARL Hughes, the killer's son, told reporters of his misery when the police forbade him going to his sweetheart's funeral. The 21-year-oldwas told he wouldn't be welcome at the burial ceremony of murdered teenager Rachel Barraclough, despite the deep love the pair had for each other,
Officers even barred Carl from visiting her grave just to lay flowers. The grieving man said: "The police thought it was me. For three weeks they interviewed me. But I had an alibi. Then they went after my dad. They wouldn't let me go to the funeral and they said that I couldn't even go to her grave. We were in love."
18-year-old Rachel, who had lived with her parents, sister and nephew in Bottom Carr Road, in, Bankfoot, met Carl at a Christmas night out in 1996 at Silks nightclub in Bradford city centre. They fell in love and Rachel became a regular visitor to the Hughes' Stanley Street home in Eastmoor most weekends. The pair had even talked about marriage and setting up home together.
But things turned sour when a week before her death Carl told Rachel he had been seeing another woman behind her back. Rachel got upset and Carl lashed out at her with his fists - leaving her with a black eye and cuts and bruises to her face and body.
Carl said: "It was nothing serious, just a little row. We hadn't called it off or anything. I think she met my dad in Wakefield to ask his advice. She wanted to know what 1 felt for her and if 1 loved her.
"My dad would have been happy to help."
Despite the verdict, Carl believes Rachel may have left his father and then been picked up by the "real" killer. He was interviewed several times by the police and he provided an alibi.
The CCTV cameras showed footage of his dad picking up Rachel at the bus station and walking her through the town - only to return to the city two hours later alone.
Carl said: "Why would my dad go back into Wakefield? If he had killed her then he would have been covered in blood and surely he would have gone home to get cleaned up, not go to the pub? We went to see him in Armley and we asked him what happened, But all he said was 'no comment' and that it would all come out in the trial." Carl and his mother are now receiving psychiatric counselling since Rachel's death and the arrest of Stephen Hughes. All Carl wants now is to be allowed to visit the grave of his first love.
MURDERED teenager Rachel Barraclough wrote in her diary how her life would be over if her boyfriend Carl Hughes ever left her.
This was just days before 'her mutilated body was discovered lying in scrubland near the River Calder in Wakefield. Her throat was slashed and she had been stabbed in the stomach four times. She had also been sexually assaulted.
Carl, the boyfriend she was besotted with, was at first accused of her murder. But the finger was later pointed at his dad Stephen.
He was caught on CCTV with her despite his lies that he had ever met her the night she met her death, on September 5 last year.
Extracts from her diary read of her love for Carl and how she would have done anything for him - including going with his father to the isolated spot where she met her death, if it meant being with Carl.
Extract one:
I love him so much. I think if he leaves me I will die of a broken heart.
Extract two:
Who am I to stand in the way of his happiness? I just wish it was me who was making him happy.
This entry was in reference to his two-timing her with his new girlfriend Diane Sherrington. After finding out about this affair she wrote her love for Carl had been "the biggest test ever". This was after he left her battered and bleeding with a black eye after they fell out.
Extract three:
I love him so much I had to forgive him.
After the fight.
Extract four:
I love him like I've never loved anyone before. I would forgive anything he does.