Schoolboy murderer Brian Field dies in prison

Brian Field died in custody in February

Killer Brian Field, jailed for life for murdering a schoolboy and linked to several other child disappearances, has died in prison.

In 2001, Field, from Solihull, admitted the 1968 murder of Roy Tutill whom he abducted as the 14-year-old made his way home.

The Ministry of Justice confirmed he died in February aged 87 at HMP Full Sutton in Yorkshire.

It added that as with all deaths in custody, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman would carry out an investigation.

Roy Tutill was hitch-hiking home when he went missing

Roy was abducted, raped and strangled as he hitch-hiked to his Surrey home from school so he could save his bus fare to pay for a new bicycle.

He went missing after leaving school on 23 April 1968 and his body was discovered in a copse at Mickleham, Surrey, three days later.

More than 30 years passed before Field - by then aged 65 - was convicted. DNA was matched to him when he was stopped by police for drink-driving in the Midlands.

After his conviction, police looked at several unsolved murder cases to see whether they were connected to him.

Field was also linked to the death of Mark Billington

Those cases included that of 15-year-old Mark Billington, who went missing from his home in Yardley, Birmingham in September 1984 and was found dead in Meriden, near Coventry, two months later.

Despite several arrests as part of a murder investigation, there have never been any charges.

Mark's family said in 2022 they still believed Field was a "good suspect", with him known to have lived "10 minutes' walk" away from where Mark was last seen, and had been released from prison in the months before the disappearance.

David Spencer (left) and Paddy Warren have not been seen since Boxing Day 1996

He was also linked to the disappearance of the so-called Milk Carton Kids, David Spencer and Patrick Warren, 11 and 13, who vanished on Boxing Day in 1996 after playing near their homes in Solihull.

They became the first children to appear on four-pint milk cartons in 770 Iceland stores as part of a campaign by the National Missing Persons Helpline.

But they have never been found and nobody has been charged over their disappearance.

In 2006, Field - who had lived nearby - was identified as a prime suspect.

He was questioned by detectives and officers dug up land he used as a dumping area, but Field denied involvement and there was insufficient evidence to charge him.

In 2021, a Channel 4 documentary also highlighted the possible connection between Field and the two cases.