Rikki Neave was born on 4 March 1988 and lived on the Welland Estate in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England.

She was hated by her neighbours due to her drug addiction and poor parenting, including physical abuse, which attracted visits by the police and social services during the early 1990s.

[1] Watson was convicted of the murder and on 24 June he was sentenced to life by judge Mrs Justice McGowan, with a minimum of 15 years.

His lawyer argued before the Court of Appeal that Watson was not able to get a fair trial because too much of the evidence from which the killer's DNA could have been recovered was lost or destroyed in the intervening years.

[7] On September 4, an appeals panel of three judges upheld the conviction, ruling that Watson had received a fair trial.