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| For nine months Hazell, a window cleaner with a long criminal history, kept up a campaign of lies. |
Tia Sharp trial: Stuart Hazell will serve at least 38 years for murder of schoolgirl - To shouts of “beast” from the public gallery and sobs from the family of his victim, Stuart Hazell was today jailed for a minimum of 38 years at the Old Bailey after he admitted the murder of Tia Sharp. A day after the 37-year-old window cleaner changed his plea in his trial for killing the 12-year-old he considered his granddaughter, he was told by a judge that he had breached the trust placed in him to look after Tia “in the most grievous way possible”.
But Mr Justice Nicol stopped short of imposing a whole life tariff on Hazell, which would have meant he joined around 30 murderers in Britain who must die in prison, because the judge said he could not be sure that Tia’s murder was sexually motivated and pre-meditated. During the trial it emerged that Tia’s body, which was missed by police during three searches of the loft of Hazell’s home, was so badly decomposed that a cause of death could not be established and evidence of sexual assault could not be ascertained. Members of the schoolgirl’s family leaving the central London court today shouted “nowhere near long enough” in reference to the sentence.
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| Deception: Window cleaner Stuart Hazell made a TV appearance where he begged for the safe return of Tia, despite having murdered her days earlier. |
Hazell, a convicted drug dealer who had spent much of his childhood in care and claimed he had suffered sexual abuse, abruptly changed his plea on the fifth day of his trial, which had heard harrowing evidence, including details of a picture taken of Tia’s apparent corpse by the killer for his sexual gratification. The judge said he was certain that Hazell, who put on a grotesque display of concern for seven days last August as police searched for Tia while her corpse remained concealed in his home in south London, had taken a sexual interest in the schoolgirl and had committed a sexual assault.
It emerged that the alcoholic, who took pictures of Tia while she slept and images from his attack which he hid in his house, had searched the internet for pornographic material using terms including “violent forced rape”, “little girls in glasses” and “incest”. Mr Justice Nicol said: “There is no doubt that you had developed a sexual interest in Tia. The records of your internet searching on your mobile phone make abundantly clear that you were looking out for pornographic pictures of pre-teen girls.”
The court heard that Hazell, who will become eligible for parole when he is 75, was only being given “the most modest credit” for changing his plea before he was due to give evidence, noting that Tia’s family had had to endure days of harrowing evidence about the murder. Detective Chief Inspector Nick Scola, the officer who led the investigation, said the sentence imposed on Hazell was “satisfying” for police and Tia’s family. Scotland Yard has previously apologised to relatives for the failure to find the schoolgirl’s body sooner. He said: “Hazell will have a very long time in prison to think about what he has done.”
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| Tia Sharp- the popular schoolgirl from Croydon murdered by her step-grandfather Stuart Hazell. |
New Addington window cleaner, Stuart Hazell, 37, has been a jailed for life with a recommendation he serves at least 38 years at his Old Bailey sentencing hearing for murdering 12 year old Croydon schoolgirl Tia Sharp in August last year. Somebody cried “Beast” from the public gallery as he was quickly taken down to the cells. Mr Justice Nicol told him: “She was a sparky girl who was full of life but you took that life from her. All that lay ahead of her – a career, loves and family of her own – will now never be.
And the loss of her has been devastating for her mother, her father and all her relatives and friends.” “The tragedy of their loss and her death is because of your act in murdering Tia Sharp. You are responsible,” he added. The judge said he had to make a difficult assessment on whether he could be sure it was a sexually motivated murder. Pathologists could not be absolutely sure of the cause of her death and the judge needed to have evidence beyond reasonable doubt in order to impose a whole life term. The scientific evidence was not definitive.
During the sentencing hearing the judge heard that Hazell had an insecure background, grew up in care, lived rough on the streets, and developed an addiction to alcohol in his early teens. The court heard he was a youth offender. He claimed he was the victim of rape in a Soho hostel at the age of 16. He has a history of depression, self harm and suicide bids. For most of his life he has been a petty criminal serving short periods in prison, though in 2003 he was sentenced to almost three years for dealing in cocaine.
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| Natalie Sharp, mother of murdered schoolgirl Tia Sharp, appearing on Daybreak and Stuart Hazell. |
Tia Sharp's mother wants to visit Stuart Hazell in prison: The mother of murdered schoolgirl Tia Sharp wants to visit Stuart Hazell in prison so she can ask why he killed her daughter, she has said. Hazell, 37, was jailed for life with a minimum of 38 years on Tuesday for killing the 12 year-old and hiding her body in the loft. He changed his plea to guilty on the fifth day of his trial at the Old Bailey on Monday, having forced Tia's family to sit through days of graphic evidence, including a picture of her taken after she died.
He had claimed Tia was killed in an accident when she fell down the stairs, but the court heard that the window cleaner sexually assaulted her before murdering her in the home he shared with her grandmother Christine Bicknell. Hazell had lived with Ms Bicknell in New Addington, south London, for more than five years before Tia died, and developed a sexual attraction for the schoolgirl who often stayed with them, and secretly filmed her while she was asleep.
August 1, 2012, 4pm: Tia texts Hazell: “Can I stay at your house all weekend?”
11.18pm: Hazell replies to Tia: “I will ask Nanny :)” August 2, 3.47pm: Hazell meets Tia in Croydon. They return to New Addington.
7.14pm: Christine Bicknell calls Hazell, hears Tia laugh.
10.12pm: Hazell texts Bicknell: “Tia going to bed after Family Guy baby but I’m going to pass out.”
11.44pm: Hazell texts Bicknell: “Night night baby.”
August 3, 12.48am: Last use of Tia’s phone, connecting to GPRS.
3am to 6am: Hazell takes a picture of Tia’s naked, dead body, then hides her in the loft.
10.19am: Hazell texts Bicknell: “Morning baby just got up xx.”
2.30pm to 3pm: Bicknell arrives home. Hazell claims Tia went to Croydon to shop and will be back by 6pm.
7.50pm: Hazell and Bicknell start searching for Tia.
10pm: Tia is reported missing.
August 4: Police look in the loft but find nothing.
August 5, 5am: Police search loft for 20 minutes. Bin bags are seen but not checked.
11.42am: Hazell texts his boss — who had texted him earlier — saying: “This is a f***ing nightmare.”
August 7: The Sun offers a £25,000 reward.
August 8: Hazell is voluntarily questioned by police and insists that Tia left the house alive.
1.44pm: Hazell texts his boss: “They are making me look like Jack the Ripper.”
August 10: Hazell leaves home early prior to a search of the house. He leaves note saying: “Went for a walk.”
3.20pm: Police search the loft, pulling away part of a bin bag to expose a foot.
7pm: Hazell is arrested in Merton after being seen stumbling around crying.
August 11: Hazell is charged with murder.
Stuart Hazell told his boss the media were making him look like “Jack the Ripper”. The jury were told that the window cleaner exchanged a series of text messages with Adrian Van Aalst after he failed to turn up to work on August 3. Mr Van Aalst, who ran AVA Windows and sublet some of his work to Hazell, described his employee as “polite, friendly and well presented”.
He added that Hazell was “not the sharpest tool in the box” and had the ability to change version of events. In February 2012, Hazell told Van Aalst that his father had died of a heart attack. He went into “great detail”, breaking down in tears while on the job and taking time off work. Mr Van Aalst later read a newspaper interview with Hazell’s father following Tia’s disappearance. “If this was not true and his father is not dead, I would say he is a fantastic liar,” said Mr Van Aalst in a statement read to the jury.
Hazell was supposed to be working on August 3. His boss sent a text asking if he was okay but received no reply. The following morning he asked if Hazell was “calling it a day”. Hazell replied: “Sorry mate but my granddaughter is missing. We reported it to the police. She is 12 years old. We have been scouring the parks. It’s on the critical list. It’s all over Facebook and Twitter.” While the search for Tia focused on New Addington, and the pressure grew on Hazell, he appeared to contradict himself.
He told Mr Van Aalst that Tia had gone missing at midday on August 3. His boss replied: “What happened to you with work in the morning?” “Stuart started to stutter, he was very hesitant, there was a lot of umming,” said Mr Van Aalst. “He went on to say he had his granddaughter and was mumbling away.”
On August 5, with the media camped outside the house, he texted: “Still no news. This is a ******* nightmare come true. Didn’t even think this would or even could happen.” Three days later he messaged Mr Van Aalst again: “Bastards are getting everything wrong, they are making me look like Jack the Ripper.” He added: “Hand on heart mate, I don’t know where she is. I wish I did. This is madness. I had nothing to do with it.” Hazell told his partner Christine Bicknell, Tia's grandmother, he could not go to work on August 3 because his colleague's car was broken. Mr Aalst said there had been nothing wrong with the vehicle.
Also see most hated window cleaner in the UK.
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