Christopher Coverdale

Innocents
How Justice Failed Stefan Kiszko and Lesley Molseed
Excerpt:

"At 1:45 p.m. on the Sunday Christopher Coverdale, a self-employed contractor from Rochdale, drove past the scene.  As he approached the lay-by he saw a man and a little girl on the embankment above the lay-by.  His attention was on these people, so that he had not noticed any car, he thought it foolhardy to be on the moor in poor weather conditions, especially with a child. He recalled the child was wearing a blue, hip-length gabardine coat with the hood up. He believed the child to be a girl, because he could see uncovered legs. The man was facing towards the road, reaching down the embankment and pulling the child up by the hand.  Coverdale described the man as being a 30 to 35 year-old white male, with light-brown or fair hair cut short and giving the appearance of being receding. He was five feet six to five feet eight, plump and dressed in a mid-brown jacket with a check pattern, matching trousers and a beige or mustard-yellow cardigan.


This was the first description obtained of a man and a child.  Dibb was anxious to act, and he personally took Coverdale to the lay-by.  It was not the cold which caused Jack Dibb to shiver when, asked to show the place where the man and child were standing, Coverdale pointed out a spot within yards of the place where Lesley had been found."