Manchester Evening News
Neal Snowdon
The family of a girl murdered in 1975 whose killer has never been brought to justice are hoping a call to a TV programme could provide a vital breakthrough. Lesley Molseed, 11, was killed after leaving her home on Rochdale's Turf Hill estate to buy bread for her mother. She was found murdered, stabbed and sexually assaulted at Rishworth Moor, near Oldham. Now a woman calling herself `Julie from Lancashire' has agreed to speak to police after taking part in a phone-in on ITV's This Morning programme and speaking to presenter Judy Finnegan. Lesley's family believe details mentioned by the woman about her father in the two-minute call could lead detectives to the murderer.
Mild-mannered tax clerk Stefan Kiszko spent 16 years behind bars for Lesley's murder. He was freed in 1992 after a lengthy campaign by his mother Charlotte and aunt Alfreda Tosic. He died the following year and Charlotte died six months after him. Lesley's anguished family have been appealing for years for information. With solicitor Robert Lizar they are planning a private prosecution against convicted paedophile Raymond Hewlett. Hewlett fled to Ireland after lying to police about his movements the day Lesley was abducted.
Lesley's sister Julie Anderson is desperate to know if `Julie from Lancashire' is Hewlett's daughter. She added: "The programme was about skeletons in the cupboard and this woman called Julie rang up and said she had been abused by her father when she was six. "She said she thought her dad might have murdered an 11-year-old girl 20 odd years ago but another man was wrongly arrested for it. "The woman said her dad had a van like the one seen at the time of Lesley's murder and that he fitted the description of the man seen at the scene of the crime."
The book Innocents, written by M.E.N. reporter Steve Panter, outlined how Hewlett misled police. He was questioned again after Stefan's release, but the Crown Prosecution Service said it did not have enough evidence.
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