First Crime story you remember?

[TazzyDrunk]

I would say the first one I remember was Damilola Taylor briefly , I was about 7 and remember seeing it on the news.

Gennette Tate was the first one I remember being aware of as I was the same age. I remember asking was "he" moving north or south. I seem to think even then they were trying to link it to other child disappearances. Then I remember being scared about the Yorkshire Ripper. I was at school about a mile away from one of his murders in 1980. My mum & I parked the car & literally ran to get inside a safe space.

Canary Wharf bombings. We lived fairly close by, I remember the house shaking and my mum running upstairs to check on me. I had friends playing over and she thought one of us had launched ourselves off one of the bunk beds.

Millie Dowler was the same age as me when she disappeared and always stuck with me, and lots of the girls I went to school with.

I remember my Mam bring glued to the Louise Woodward trial in the states.

Jessica And Holy.

Not well known but Julie Perigo - a lady murdered on the small council estate we lived in at the time in the 80s

Caroline Hogg in the esrly to mid 80s. I recall seeing her picture outside a newsagents and it's always stuck with me.

I was the same age as Sarah Payne too, I knew something terrible had happened but not what.

Probably the Great Train Robbery.

*almost sorry (a year or two of a difference)

Sarah Payne and Holly and Jessica are the ones that stick with me, I was around the same ages as them at the time of the crimes.

Harold Shipman

Those 3 stories I heard about on the news at my Gran's where my dad lived. I think my mum probably shielded me a lot from the news so I may not have known about them otherwise.

And I always remember my mum lighting a candle after Dunblane happened.

9/11 the one story my mum couldn't shield me from although she did send me up to my bedroom when I got home from school as she didn't want me watching.

James Bulgar, I would have been 9. I’m not sure that I would let my own children see the details of his murder on the news but I remember a lot about it and it was heartbreaking.

Dunblane, our own school was only a few miles away and our whole school was put in the assembly hall. I remember our teachers hugging and crying. My teacher’s niece was a pupil at dunblane. I have never forgotten that day, those poor tiny souls.

The Soham murders, Hollie Wells and Jessica Chapman I was around 8 years old.

The murder of Carl Bridgewater. He was only a year older than me when he died.

Mary Bell strangling 2 male toddlers on separate occasions in the 60s in the Newcastle area.

Closest I came was that my elder sister was at the 1984 Conservative conference in Brighton, was feeling a bit drunk and went for a walk on the beach. 2 minutes after leaving the hotel she heard the explosion behind her.

Moors Murders.

As a kid I was so interested in Jack the Ripper (know idea why). As an ongoing news story - James Bulger - I was about the same age as the perpetrators (around 10) so found it hard to understand.

I also remember reading so much newspaper coverage on the Hillsborough disaster

Yorkshire ripper. I was very very young and I was worried about my mum. We didn't live anywhere near Yorkshire though.

James Bulger when I was 12 in the car with my dad on the way to school. Then Holly and Jessica when I was 20 I think. I was working two jobs saving and I remember seeing the news reports at work on breakfast news. Both so very sad ☹️

Jill Dando. I have slightly vague memories of hearing the news then watching the next episode of Crimewatch with Nick Ross’s introduction. After that was Sarah Payne. And then Holly and Jessica is the first case I remember clearly and followed closely on the news.

Christine Derby killed and found at Cannock Chase.

Me too. It was all over the local papers, I could see the Chase in the distance from my bedroom window.

We live in the area and it was before I was born but my Mom has told me about how everyone stopped allowing their children to walk home from school without an adult (my older sister's school was half a mile from the Chase) which was deemed a safe thing to do up until then, and no one played out.

For me it's the Birmingham pub bombings in 1974 when I was 5. We used to shop in Birmingham quite often so this happening in a place I knew was too close to home and I was scared that our house would be bombed.
It didn't help that there'd be news stories about IRA letter bombs being received and I remember asking my parents to tape the letterbox shut just in case.

Also, the kidnap and murder of Lesley Whittle which would've been around the same time as the bombings.

Jamie Bulger here too. His killers were the same age as me at the time, and James was the same age as my youngest brother, and I can remember reading the paper and being utterly horrified that someone as young as me could do such dreadful things.

I remember the hijacking of a Kuwaiti plane in 1988, it went on for days, passengers were killed and dumped out of the plane. I was obsessed by that story.

I have vague memories of western men in danger of being executed somewhere in the middle East and being terrified that might happen to my dad, even though he was never anywhere near the middle east and was never likely to be. I remember the TV evening news updating the story then I didn't want to go to bed. I can't remember how old I was, must have been mid-80s maybe because I must have been quite young, but I remember being scared.

For me it was Lynn and Megan Russell and survivor Josie.

I believe in recent years, a link to Levi Belfield has been made with regards to that case.

I grew up in what was then west Germany as my dad was in the forces - a little girl, Similar age as me, was abducted from the local shop - Katrice Lee - I don’t remember the details but I was about 3-4 and remember not being allowed out to play or being more than about 6 inches from my mum for ages!
It’s sad, I don’t think that she was ever found and it must have been agonising for her parents