Calls for memorial to girl murdered 50 years ago

Lesley Whittle, 17, was kidnapped and murdered in 1975

A memorial to a 17-year-old girl who was kidnapped and murdered 50 years ago should be installed near to where her body was found, a historian has said.

Lesley Whittle, from Highley, Shropshire, was kidnapped from her home by Donald Neilson – known as the Black Panther – in January 1975.

The case sparked a huge police operation and culminated in the discovery of her body in Bathpool Country Park in Kidsgrove, Staffordshire, on 7 March.

Dave Waterhouse, a historian from Kidsgrove, told BBC Radio Stoke he began studying the case during the Covid pandemic and spoke to many local people.

He said: "There was a fondness there for Lesley – there was sadness but also a fondness. People remember, people do talk about it quite often."

Mr Waterhouse said he often walked through Bathpool Country Park, describing it as a "beautiful place", and would regularly go past the drainage shaft where her body was found

Donald Neilson was given four life sentences in 1976

"I think something should be done and I've been asked this question many times," he added.

"There could be a memorial garden or a bench there. There should be something."

Mr Waterhouse said the case had an enduring impact on the Kidsgrove community and Lesley's name would "always be known".

He said the legacy of the case would be the number of errors made by police, which included botched attempts to deliver a £50,000 ransom at the Swan Centre in Kidderminster, Dudley Zoo and Kidsgrove.

But Mr Waterhouse said it also created a bond in the community, which remained "so good to this day".

Neilson was given four life sentences in 1976. The builder turned career criminal, originally from Bradford, died in prison in 2011.