The victims were two teenage girls named Christine Reed and Barbara Songhurst who were ambushed by a lone individual as they cycled to their respective homes in Hampton Hill and Teddington.

The perpetrator, 21-year-old Alfred Charles Whiteway, was convicted of both murders in a trial held at the Old Bailey before Mr Justice Hilbery that October; he was hanged at Wandsworth Prison on 22 December 1953.

The forensic methods used to link the perpetrator to both the victims and the weapons used in the commission of the crime were described as "one of Scotland Yard's most notable triumphs in a century".

[5] On the afternoon of Saturday 30 May 1953, 16-year-old Barbara Songhurst informed her parents of her intention to cycle from her Teddington home to spend the evening with her friend, 18-year-old Christine Reed, who lived in nearby Hampton Hill.

[27] The decedent's autopsy was conducted by pathologist Keith Mant,[28] who described the victim as a brunette, Caucasian female in her mid-teens and 5 ft (150 cm) in height who had died approximately eight hours prior to her discovery.

She had received a deep laceration to her left cheek, which had fractured her cheekbone in addition to three stab wounds to the back—each of which had punctured her lungs and had had penetrated her body up to nine inches in depth.

[29] Mant was also able to determine the weapons used to inflict the injuries to the decedent were a distinctive Gurkha knife with a double-edged, one-inch-wide blade and a small hatchet and that the perpetrator had likely been "a man of unusual strength".

This conclusion was supported by the discovery of articles of Reed's clothing alongside garments belonging to Songhurst at the site were two individuals had evidently been violently assaulted and murdered.

[32][33] Shortly after the Port of London Authority opened the sluices at Teddington Lock on 2 June, an electromagnet located Reed's distinctive blue-and-cream BSA bicycle beneath the river approximately one hundred yards from the site where the girls had evidently been attacked.

[30] The pathologist who conducted Reed's autopsy placed the time of death as occurring between five and six days previous; he was also able to determine she had still been alive when thrown into the river.

As Songhurst was known to have frequently danced with United States Air Force servicemen stationed at Bushy Park, all personnel at the base were questioned and likewise eliminated.

[34] Initial public appeals resulted in the courting couple whom the girls had cycled past coming forward to inform police they had sat on the bank of the River Thames from 10 p.m. until midnight on the date of the murders; both revealed they had heard the male campers briefly chat with, then say "Goodbye", to the girls before both had cycled past them in the direction of Teddington Lock shortly before midnight.

[34] On 12 June, a 46-year-old woman was approached by a young man on a bicycle ostensibly asking for directions to The Holly Tree pub as she walked her dog in Windsor Great Park.

[46] Several days after the facial composite was released to the media, on 17 June, two builders spotted a man matching this description sitting on a tree stump alongside a parked bicycle close to Oxshott railway station.

Both the victim of this sexual assault and the man who had seen a suspicious individual waiting for a bus close to Oxshott Heath and Woods shortly after the 24 May rape of the schoolgirl positively identified Whiteway when asked to view an identity parade.

[48][49] Whiteway was remanded in custody in relation to both sex attacks on 1 July, having admitted to robbing one victim but denying any involvement in either of the sexual assaults, with his wife also corroborating his alibi for the date of the murders.

Upon learning of these developments and the fact the 21-year-old labourer and father-of-one had recently separated from his pregnant wife, was a body-building enthusiast, was also known to practice knife throwing as a hobby,[50] had been questioned by police the previous year in relation to a physical assault upon a young woman whom he had struck across the head with a section of lead pipe,[51] and lived at an address less than one mile from the scene of the murders,[52][53] DCI Hannam chose to question Whiteway with regards to his whereabouts on 31 May.

[54] Several days after Whiteway was remanded in custody at HM Prison Brixton, he was questioned by DCI Hannam in relation to both the sexual assaults and the towpath murders.

[56] When questioned with regards to an earlier admission he had owned a small axe, Whiteway first claimed the tool was in the cupboard of his wife's parents' home before admitting he had discreetly hidden the tool in his overalls before, in a moment of opportunism, placing the item beneath the driver's seat of a police car following his 17 June arrest and questioning at Kingston police station.

A forensic examination of the tool yielded no physical evidence linking the item to Whiteway, although the axe's dimensions perfectly matched wounds inflicted to both murder victims.

When asked if he wished to speak at this committal hearing, Whiteway stated, "I have denied the charges" before his solicitor informed the court his client intended to reserve his right to defend himself at a later date.

[70] The defence outlined their opening statement by claiming Whiteway had an alibi accounting for his whereabouts at the time the murders were committed and alleging much of the evidence to be produced by the prosecution had been fabricated by police.

[74] Upon cross-examination, Hannam's testimony pertaining to Whiteway's expletive-laden confession and police investigative procedures was subjected to intense scrutiny and criticism by Peter Rawlinson.

Over the course of two days, Rawlinson successfully outlined several discrepancies and inaccuracies in Hannam's accounts, including official records of interviews in which Whiteway had told police he did not know what he was actually being asked to sign when instructed to add his signature to the alleged confession before suggesting to the jury police had wilfully "fictionalised and manipulated"[5] his client's signed confession.

[16] Dr Lewis Nickolls, Director of the Metropolitan Police Laboratory, also testified to having discovered traces of human blood upon a shoe belonging to Whiteway.

[70] Officer Arthur Cosh also testified to the circumstances surrounding his discovering the axe alleged by the prosecution to have been used in the murders beneath the driver's seat of a police vehicle on 18 June and having later taken the tool home to chop wood, only to discover the weapon's significance in a widely publicised murder case the following month and return the item to Kingston police station.

"[58] Cosh was then subjected to an intense cross-examination by Rawlinson, who poured scorn on his claims regarding his discovery of the axe and subsequent actions culminating in his bringing the item to investigators after Whiteway's arrest and at a time when police were unable to locate the murder weapon.

Also to testify was Whiteway's sister, who agreed a similar weapon had been stored beneath a cupboard in her parents' home and typically used to chop firewood, although she insisted the item had been missing for "five or six weeks" at the time police first questioned her.

Referencing Songhurst's autopsy report, Rawlinson further stated pathologist Keith Mant could only estimate she had died "approximately eight hours" prior to her discovery at 8:15 a.m. on 1 June.

[81] Discussing the savagery of the murders, Rawlinson also referenced the fact no bloodstains had been discovered on any of Whiteway's clothes save for one shoe, which his client had stated sourced from either his shaving or his menial labour.