Do you know this man?

13 January 2002
The Sunday Mirror
Nicola Tallant

Probe into girl's murder 26 years ago switches to Ireland as police track runaway Hewlett...A suspected child killer and convicted paedophile is on the loose and thought to be hiding in Ireland

UK police say Raymond Hewlett, 56, who has been jailed for a catalogue of child sex crimes and assaults in Britain, is known to have lived in Donegal, Louth and Kerry and visited at least nine counties.

Hewlett, a father of eight, is wanted in connection with the multiple stabbing, assault and murder of 11-year-old Lesley Molseed whose body was dumped on the Yorkshire Moors in 1975.  Officers believe he may still be living in Ireland under an assumed name and have warned he is 'a serious danger to children'.  They have released two photographs of him and issued an urgent plea for anyone who knows his whereabouts to get in touch. 

One picture is a passport snap taken in 1995 prior to a trip to Milan.  The other shows him in Forres, Scotland, with pregnant 21-year-old German girlfriend Marianne Schmucker in 1997,  Hewlett is known to have spent a considerable amount of time in Ireland throughout the 1990s. 

The UK officer leading the investigation, Det Chief Supt Max McLean of West Yorkshire Police, said: "We know that Raymond Hewlett leads a nomadic life.  "He often stays in communes and bed and breakfasts for short periods of time, before moving on.  "We also know that he has travelled widely in Europe - he was in Italy in 1995, in Scotland in 1997 and that he was planning to travel to Italy again in 1997."

Hewlett turned up in Ireland for the first time in 1993 after being investigated by police.  He had been quizzed about young Lesley's killing while in jail and was arrested on suspicion of murder as soon as he was released - but later freed because of a lack of evidence.

He fled Britain and was later was discovered hiding out in a cottage in Co Donegal with his girlfriend.  He was claiming social security benefits and doing odd jobs. But when he realised Gardai in Donegal were on to him he moved with his lover to a quiet suburb one mile from Tralee, Co Kerry.  They camped in a tent outside Little River hostel - but fled after two detectives called to check on him.

His details were subsequently distributed to Garda stations all round Ireland - along with warnings that he was a danger to children.  In 1998 he showed up in Co Louth where he was living in a quiet cottage near the Cooley mountains. 

In all, Gardai have tracked Hewlett across nine counties, and he has been sighted in Dublin, Kildare, Louth, Laois and Westmeath.  He was last spotted in Eniskillen but police no longer know where he is. 

Another man Stefan Kiszko spent 16 years in jail after being wrongly convicted of Lesley Molseed's murder in what is recognised as one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in British legal history.  It was only the persistence of Kiszko's widowed mother Charlotte that eventually led to his freedom. 

Stefan was 24 when he was jailed for life in 1976, mainly on the basis of a written confession.  His defence team didn't know that forensic evidence showed the killer was fertile but, due to a medical condition, Stefan, who had a mental age of 12, was infertile.  Charlotte Kiszko refused to accept her son was a killer and began a long battle to prove his innocence.  The case was referred back to the appeal courts after DNA evidence proved Stefan was not the murderer.  Stefan was freed in 1992 but died later that year. 

The story of Charlotte's fight for justice was turned into an ITV drama, A Life For a Life, in 1998 starring Oscar-winning actress Olympia Dukakis as Charlotte and Tony Maudsley as Stefan. 

Officers investigating the unsolved murder say that Hewlett, a former Scots Guardsman, is their chief suspect. 


At the time of her murder he was living in Scotland just 10 miles from where the child disappeared. 

Schoolgirl Lesley was abducted in Rochdale in 1975 while walking to a local shop.  She was sexually assaulted, stabbed 12 times and her body was dumped on moors in Ripponden, West Yorkshire. 

West Yorkshire Police launched a new inquiry into the murder last year - and Hewlett emerged as the prime suspect.  Hewlett, a former trawlerman and fairground worker has a horrific record of crimes against young girls. 

In 1972, he was jailed for a year after raping a 12-year-old girl he had lured into his car and knocked out with paint stripper. 

In 1978, he attempted to rape a 14-year-old after holding a gun to her head and was jailed for four years. 

In 1988, he kidnapped another 14-year-old girl at knifepoint and indecently assaulted her.  He was jailed for six years. 

Hewlett is also wanted for questioning in connection with an alleged serious sexual assault in Manchester in 1975. 

Anyone with information on Hewlett or his whereabouts is asked to contact West Yorkshire Police on 0044 1422 337 048 or their local Garda station.