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The bodies of a teenage couple were
found in a dyke on the edge of the marshes
at Gravesend.
On 10th September 1961 the couple had
gone to evensong at their local Baptist Chapel and then gone for a walk
by the canal where they were confronted by 28 year old Edwin David Sims
who was armed with a shotgun.
He forced them to lie down then tied them up. He next
gagged and strangled them. He said that he killed them on impulse and
impulses are funny things". Next day the girl's clothes were found
scattered along the dyke. When found her body had been mutilated.
At Snow Hill police station, the same day, two
detectives received a telephone call from the Daily Mirror reporter Tom
Tullett. Sims was in his office confessing to the murders. As proof of
what he said he not only had the two wristwatches and the girl's handbag
but, in the newspaper parcel that he was carrying the girl's breasts.
Sims was arrested, DS Newdick is carrying the
newspaper parcels, Sims was sent for trial. He was diagnosed as a grossly
perverted sexual psychopath and that this condition had substantially
impaired his mental responsibility. The abnormality of his mind existed
at the time of he killings".
On 29th November 1961 Sims was found not guilty of
murder but guilty of manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility
and sentenced to 21 years imprisonment.
Rjerrard.co.uk
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