Everyone wants to belong somewhere. However, Suzanne Capper longed to belong with a group of people who did not care for her in the least.
Suzanne Capper was born in 1976 in Manchester, England. She was very close with her older sister, Michelle, and generally described as a happy and gentle girl. She was well known around the neighbourhood, and often babysat for her neighbour, Jean Powell.
In 1990, Suzanne and Michelle went to live with their stepfather after their mother separated from him. The sisters’ lives were thrown into a bit of chaos, and, as a result, Suzanne began acting out.
She would play truant from Moston Brook High School, and was said to attend erratically. Her teachers, as well as others, also described Suzanne as ‘easily influenced’, and often blamed the company she was keeping.
After the breakdown of her own family home, Suzanne spent more and more time with Jean Powell, a 26-year-old woman, and her various friends. Powell and her acquaintances were known for dealing in drugs, and handling stolen vehicles.
Michelle spent time there as well, until she became increasingly uncomfortable with Powell’s ‘evil’ friends in August of 1992. These friends consisted of 24-year-old Bernadette McNeilly; 29-year-old Glyn Powell, Jean’s ex-husband who had multiple convictions; 17-year-old Anthony Dudson, Jean’s on-again-off-again boyfriend; 26-year-old Jeffrey Leigh, who also had convictions against him; and, 18-year-old Clifford Hayes, Jean’s brother and Suzanne’s ex-boyfriend.
Jean Powell’s house was always full of people, full of children, and had various illegal activities happening in the periphery. And Suzanne felt welcome. She felt more at home there than she did her own home, despite Michelle begging her to come back. Suzanne had friends – friends who ridiculed, bullied, and teased her relentlessly. Suzanne was a 16-year-old girl playing truant with adults who couldn’t care less about her.
After Jean and Bernadette had beat her bloody, Suzanne did try to go back home. But her mother turned her away. Suzanne felt as though she had nowhere left to go. All she could do was return to her ‘friends’ with her tail between her legs. To where she really wanted and hoped to belong.
In December of 1992, everything in Suzanne’s life went from bad, to worse.
The Powell house was a den of activity, and a lot of that activity was sexual. Cleanliness was not a priority. As a result, Bernadette McNeilly and Anthony Dudson contracted pubic lice. Anthony was sexually active with Jean, Bernadette, and Suzanne. He blamed Suzanne for the pubic lice, and Bernadette followed suit.
However, it was later stated that Bernadette was actually angry with Suzanne over her borrowing a pink duffle coat that belonged to Bernadette. The pubic lice was enough of an excuse to amp up the hostility everyone in the Powell house wanted to take out on Suzanne. In effect, she was a scapegoat for their frustrations, and a puppet for their sadistic fantasies.
On December 7th, 1992, Glyn Powell and Anthony Dudson were waiting for Suzanne’s arrival at the Powell house. As Suzanne entered, they held her down, and shaved her head, eyebrows, and pubic region. They made her clean up the mess, throw the shavings in the garbage, and then placed a plastic bag over her head. Then, Glyn and Anthony took turns walking around Suzanne, circling her, and beating her over the head.
As she fell to the floor, Jean and Bernadette took over the beating, kicking Suzanne over and over again, and then using a meter-long piece of wood, as well as a belt.
Suzanne was picked up off the floor, and then locked in a cupboard by Jean. But there was a problem. Suzanne wouldn’t stop moaning and crying. Jean and Bernadette both had children living in the squalor of the Powell house, and they didn’t want them asking questions.
So, the following day, December 8th, 1992, Suzanne was moved from Jean Powell’s house and taken to Bernadette’s house, which was more or less abandoned. Once there, Suzanne was tied to a bed with cables, and socks were stuffed in her mouth as a gag.
For five days, Suzanne was kept in that house and tortured. For hours on end, she was made to listen to rave music through headphones at high volume. In particular, Hi, I’m Chucky (Wanna Play?) by 150 Volts was played over and over and over again. The song featured lines from the film Child’s Play.
Whenever Bernadette inflicted harm on Suzanne, she would whisper the words “Chucky’s coming to play”, just to hear Suzanne scream.
In addition to that, Suzanne was regularly beaten, injected with amphetamines, and burned with cigarettes all over her hands, arms, and face.
Jeffrey Leigh and a friend were shown Suzanne’s state. And they did nothing other than comment on the filth that Suzanne was sitting in. For days, she was left to sit in her own urine and feces.
In order to ‘clean’ her, she was thrown into a bath containing disinfectant, and scrubbed mercilessly with a stiff wire brush. The bath didn’t so much as get Suzanne clean, as rip her skin off.
After that, for fun, Jeffrey’s friend, Cliff Pook, used pliers to rip out two of Suzanne’s teeth. Cliff kept the teeth at trophies at the Powell house.
Twice, Suzanne was close to rescue. Twice, she was let down. While held captive, Anthony Dudson had a visit from a friend, David Hill. He saw the state Suzanne was in. At one point, he was left alone with her, and she begged him to free her. He wouldn’t. He feared retribution. He knew the Powell house group would beat him bloody if he interfered with whatever they were doing.
Jeffrey and Anthony had also run into Michelle’s fiancé, Paul Barlow. He was looking for Suzanne, whom Michelle hadn’t heard from in some time, and the two boys needed help with their car. At no point did the boys inform Paul of Suzanne’s whereabouts. He was so close, and yet he had no idea.
The group knew they had to do something with Suzanne sooner or later. After Jeffrey and Anthony had run into Paul, they also ran into Michelle, who informed them that their stepfather was going to report Suzanne as a missing person to the police. The Powell house group had enough troubles with police as is – they didn’t want Suzanne making things worse.
On December 14th, 1992, Suzanne was taken from the house where she’d been held and forced into the trunk of a stolen with Fiat Panda, which had been fitted with false plates. Bernadette McNeilly, Jean Powell, Glyn Powell, and Anthony Dudson drove Suzanne down a road 25 kilometres (15 miles) away, on the outskirts of Stockton. As they drove, Bernadette giggled the whole way.
By this point, Suzanne had been beaten and battered bloody, forced to remain in her dirty leggings and underwear.
The car stopped in a narrow lane, and Suzanne was pushed down an embankment. Bernadette then poured petrol all over Suzanne, laughing at her. But Bernadette was having trouble igniting the petrol. Glyn turned to Anthony, who handed Bernadette an envelope to act as a starter.
It took three failed attempts before Glyn simply took the lighter from Bernadette, ignited it, and brought it straight down on Suzanne’s back. The Powell house group had lit Suzanne on fire.
Bernadette cackled with glee, singing “Burn baby, burn!” by The Tramps at the top of her voice. They believed that Suzanne was dead. She was no long their problem.
They left her there, and returned to the Powell house where they informed Cliff Pook and Jeffrey Leigh that the deed was done. Glyn then gave Cliff his lighter back.
Having left her for dead, Suzanne managed, somehow, to scramble up the embankment and stagger along the road before being found.
At 6:10 in the morning, Barry Sutcliffe and two of his colleagues found Suzanne. They took her to a nearby house, and woke up the residents inside. Michale and Magaret Coop immediately called for an ambulance.
As they waited, Suzanne asked for water. She drank six large glasses, but required assistance. Her hands were far too burned for her to hold the glass in her hands herself.
After the ambulance took Suzanne to hospital, she was able to tell the police who’d done this to her, and where they resided. She named everyone in the Powell house. After naming her attackers, Suzanne fell into a coma.
Four days later, on December 18th, 1992, Suzanne Capper died of her injuries. She was only sixteen years old.
With names and an address in hand, Detective Inspector Peter Wall of the Greater Manchester Police led the inquiry into the arrests of Suzanne Capper’s attackers.
At the house, they found Suzanne’s hair in the garbage bin, as well as her teeth and a bloody pair of pliers.
Jean Powell and Bernadette McNeilly made jokes and laughed with each other as they were being arrested – not a care in the bloody world.
Initially all six assailants denied any involvement in the torture of Suzanne Capper. However, Anthony was urged by his father to tell the truth, and told police what had happened.
No one could believe what they were hearing. It seemed entirely unconscionable that any human could inflict such treatment on a person. And yet, they had.
On December 17th, 1992, the six members of the Powell house group were charged with kidnapping and attempted murder. The last charge was upped to murder on December 23rd following Suzanne’s death on the 18th.
A coroner’s inquest showed that it was outstanding that Suzanne had survived long enough to name her attackers. Dr. William Lawler, a Home Office pathologist, stated that Suzanne had suffered greatly, and had no chance of survival. Her death was ruled as a result of the complications caused by burns to 75-80% of her body as a result of having petrol thrown on her, then ignited.
On November 16th, 1993, the trial of the Powell house group began and lasted 22 days. All six denied the charges against them, and tried to minimise their own roles while implicating all the others.
On December 16th, 1993, nearly a year to the day after Suzanne’s death, the jury began deliberations. It took them nine hours and fifty-two minutes to reach their verdicts against the group.
Bernadette McNeilly was found guilty of murder (life imprisonment with a minimum of 25 years), guilty of conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm (20 years), and pleaded guilty to false imprisonment (20 years).
Jean Powell was found guilty of murder (life, with a minimum of 25 years), guilty of conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm (20 years), and pleaded guilty to false imprisonment (20 years).
Glyn Powell was found guilty of murder (life, minimum of 25 years), guilty of conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm (20 years), and guilty of false imprisonment (20 years).
Jeffrey Leigh pleaded guilty to false imprisonment (12 years), and was acquitted of both murder, and conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm.
Anthony Dudson was found guilty of murder (detained indefinitely with a minimum of 18 years), guilty of conspuracy to cause grievous bodily harm (15 years), and pleaded guilty to false imprisonment (15 years).
Cliff Pook pleaded guilty to conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm (15 years), pleaded guilty to false imprisonment (15 years), and was acquitted of murder.
Jeffrey Leigh was released early in 1998. Cliff Pook was also released early in 2001. Bernadette McNeilly was released in December of 2014.
Suzanne Capper simply wanted somewhere to belong. And then she was tortured and murdered, over something as inconsequential as a pink duffle coat.
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Sources:
One Week of Sadism – The Murder of Suzanne Capper – Emily Thompson – Morbidology
Mens Rea podcast – Episode 38 – Tortured Teens
Murder of Suzanne Capper Wikipedia page