5 November 2007
Halifax Evening Courier
A defence barrister has named a man who may have murdered schoolgirl Lesley Molseed more than 30 years ago. Rodney Jameson, QC, told Bradford Crown Court today there was "an overwhelming possibility" the man who murdered Lesley, of Delamere Road, Rochdale, was convicted paedophile Raymond Hewlett, formerly of Todmorden. Mr Hewlett was investigated by police in 1992 after Stefan Kiszko, who was wrongly accused of the murder and spent 16 years in prison for it, had his conviction quashed.
No prosecution was ever brought against him despite his van being seen at the layby on the A672 Halifax to Oldham road near where Lesley's body was found.
His teenage girlfriend at the time also provided him with a false alibi.
Ronald Castree, 54, denies murdering 11-year-old Lesley Molseed on moorland above Ripponden in October 1975. Castree, of Brandon Crescent, Shaw, Oldham, today started giving evidence himself.
He told the jury today that he did not kill the 11-year-old.
Castree was asked if he was guilty almost as soon as he took to the witness box at Bradford Crown Court. Mr Jameson, defending, asked him: "Did you murder Lesley Molseed?" Standing with his hands clasped in front on him, bald-headed Castree replied: "No, sir. I did not kill Lesley Molseed."
Wearing a grey suit and a white shirt with a blue tie, he was giving evidence at the start of the third week of his trial. The jury has already heard how an innocent man - tax clerk Stefan Kiszko - was wrongly convicted of Lesley's murder and spent 16 years in prison. After Mr Kiszko's release scientists built up a DNA profile of whoever left the semen which was found in Lesley's pants.
The court has been told how a DNA sample taken from Castree when he was arrested on an unrelated matter in 2005 was a direct match with the sample from the 1975 murder scene. Castree, of Shaw, Oldham, denies one count of murder.
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