13 November 2007
Manchester Evening News
Timeline:
October 5, 1975: Lesley Molseed, 11, disappears while running an errand for her mother. She leaves her Delamere Road, Rochdale, home for shops on the nearby Turf Hill estate around noon.
October 8, 1975: Lesley's body is found by police on moorland above the A672 Oldham to Halifax Road, near Ripponden, at 6.45am. She had been sexually assaulted and stabbed 12 times.
December 21, 1975: Tax clerk Stefan Ivan Kiszko, 23, of Rochdale, is arrested in connection with the murder.
December 23, 1975: Kiszko signs a police 'confession' and is charged with Lesley's murder.
July 21, 1976: Following a two-week trial, Kiszko is convicted of the murder by a 10-2 majority verdict.
July 1976: In the same month, Ronald Castree - who would later be revealed as Lesley's true killer - abducts and assaults a nine-year-old girl.
May 25, 1978: Stefan Kiszko appeals against his conviction. The appeal is rejected.
March 1991: Kiszko's solicitor, Campbell Malone, lobbies the Home Office for an official inquiry and his case is re-opened. Police tests prove he has a zero sperm count and is therefore incapable of being Lesley's murderer.
February 18, 1992: Sixteen years after he was jailed, Kiszko's conviction is quashed and he spends nine months in rehabilitation before returning home.
February 1992: Convicted paedophile Raymond Hewlett is interviewed in connection with the Molseed murder but there is insufficient evidence.
December 23, 1993: Stefan Kiszko dies of a heart attack, aged 41 - 18 years to the day after he signed his 'confession'.
May 11, 1994: The Crown Prosecution Service issues legal proceedings against former Det Supt Richard Holland, formerly of West Yorkshire Police, and Ronald Outteridge, a former forensic scientist, who were summonsed with charges of doing acts intended to pervert the course of justice.
1995: Magistrates decide the matter is abuse of process and should not proceed.
1999: Scientists launch the FSS SGM-plus profiling technique which would later lead to Castree's conviction and through which there is a billion-to-one chance of finding two unrelated people with the same genetic code. Police carry out a cold case review into the murder. and the inquiry is re-launched.
November 2000: A scientific breakthrough. Forensics experts have compiled a DNA profile of the killer from bodily fluid, left on items at the murder scene, allowing police to rule out suspects including Hewlett, Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe and child killer Robert Black.
February 2003: Detectives make public the existence of the profile and an appeal is made on the Crimewatch programme. Mouth swab samples for DNA are taken from all suspects.
March 19, 2005: Fred Molseed, the 41-year-old brother of Lesley, is found dead in his home. Depressed, he cut his throat with a kitchen knife.
November 5, 2006: Following a reported match on the DNA database, a 53-year-old man, later revealed as Ronald Charles Edward Castree, is arrested at his home in Brandon Crescent, Shaw, near Oldham, on suspicion of the murder.
November 6, 2006: Castree is charged with the murder of Lesley Molseed. between October 4, 1975 and October 9, 1975.
April 11, 2007: Castree pleads not guilty to the murder.
October 23, 2007: Castree's trial opens at Bradford Crown Court. Lesley's mum April comes face to face with her girl's killer for the first time.
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