Who Really Killed Claire?

Book excerpt: Who Really Killed Claire? re-investigates the brutal yet apparently motiveless murder of 16-year-old Claire Tiltman in Greenhithe, Kent in 1993. It describes how police investigations faltered for almost 20 years until Colin Ash-Smith, due to be released from a long prison sentence for attacks on young women, was belatedly charged with this cold case murder. One of the UK’s very first cases involving ‘bad character’ evidence under a controversial new law. Expertly researched, the book revisits the crime scene, investigation, prosecution, media frenzy and questionable urgency that led to Ash-Smith’s pre-emptive arrest and conviction for murder. Meanwhile, a predatory serial killer was eliminated from the investigation despite ‘hallmarks’ making him a strong suspect. Well placed to raise doubts, ex-cold case investigator Alan Jackaman analyses the wholly circumstantial evidence and explains why he believes police became too preoccupied with the wrong man.