Richard Fielding

Name

Richard Fielding

Status

Richard Fielding was detained indefinitely at Rampton Hospital in Nottinghamshire under the Mental Health Act following a plea of guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility on May 16, 2000.

Background

Richard Fielding of Walthamstow carried out the attack because of a grudge he bore his former school friend Lee Day, who he claimed had ruined his chances of becoming famous. Fielding was an unemployed disc jockey. Probation reports spoke of Fielding having paranoid psychosis and narcissistic personality disorder, going back many years. One doctor said his prognosis was “appalling” and he had little chance of his illness improving.

Fielding suffered a severe hand injury during a burglary he carried out with Mr Day. Fielding bore a grudge against Mr Day and believed the injury made him unattractive to women and that Day had wrecked his dreams of being a top DJ. Prosecutor Orlando Pownall said Fielding “He seemed elated and buzzing. He was behaving like a small child.” Pownall also said: “He said it was revenge. He felt bad. He said 'If it had just been the kids, it would have been easier to say sorry'.”

The offence

On March 6 1999, Fielding set alight the family home of his school friend Lee Day in Bellamy Road, Chingford, after holding a grudge against Mr Day. The blaze killed Lee Day, his grandmother, mother, young twin daughters and son and his girlfriend. Petrol was poured through the letter box. Lee Day and Sandra Day’s bodies were found in the second floor bedroom where they had gone in a vain attempt to rescue the children.

The only family member to escape the fire was Brian Day, 52, the grandfather, who was rescued by ladder by neighbours from a first floor window before the windows were blown out by an explosion.

Fielding admitted killings including:

• Lee Day
• his 17-year-old girlfriend Yvonne Colverhouse
• twin daughters Maddison and Rhiannon, aged three
• son Reece, aged two
• mother Sandra, 50
• grandmother Kathleen, 76

Police treated the deaths as murder at the time of the initial investigation. A post-mortem examination revealed all seven victims died from smoke inhalation.

Victims

The victims named were:

• Kathleen Day, 75 (also referred to as Kathleen Day, 76 in the plea-related account)
• Sandra Day, 50
• Lee Day, 22 (also referred to as Lee Day, 22 in the plea-related account)
• Maddison Himphen-Day, 3
• Rhiannon Himphen-Day, 3
• Reece Himphen, 2
• Yvonne Culverhouse, 16 (also referred to as Yvonne Colverhouse, 17)

Investigation

Police were treating the deaths of seven people, six of them members of the same family, as murder. Detective Superintendent James Moore Sutherland said: “We are treating this as a murder. Somebody out there knows who has done this and we need their help. "This is a horrific attack on innocents. This is the worst I have seen in 31 years in the job."

A plain-clothed police officer was seen removing a red petrol canister in a sealed bag from the scene. The seven bodies were left in the burnt-out house until midday on Saturday because it was too dangerous for emergency services to remove them. Firefighters then used a crane to pass seven stretchers through a second-floor window as they began the task of retrieving the bodies.

Before daybreak, a bouquet of white flowers had been left on the pavement opposite the burnt-out house, with them was a hand-written note which read: “God bless, Sarah, Lee, Abbie XXX.”

Lisa Lewis, a neighbour and good friend of the family, described how she was woken in the early hours by the sounds of screams and cries, saying: “I could hear the kids coughing and crying. It was terrible ... there was nothing I could do. "I ran downstairs and called 999 and then went outside. I got ... a window cleaner, to get his ladders off the van. But it was too late. The screaming and crying had stopped. You couldn't see them anymore.”

Miss Lewis also said: “I just heard her screaming then 'Get my babies! Get my babies!' "She collapsed and they took her to hospital,” Miss Lewis added.

Another neighbour, Scott Witney, who had lived locally for 22 years and had known the family, said he was shocked at the tragedy. Mirle Edmonds described the family, saying: “They were very nice people, a lovely family. The children were beautiful, lovely children.”

Arrest and remand

A man was remanded in custody for a week accused of seven murders and an attempted murder in an arson attack. He was charged with murdering Kathleen Day, Sandra Day, Lee Day, three-year-old twins Maddison and Rhiannon Himphen-Day, two-year-old Reece Himphen, and 16-year-old Yvonne Culverhouse in a fire at 15 Bellamy Road, Chingford, London earlier that month.

The accused man was also facing an eighth charge, of attempting to murder 50-year-old Brian Day who managed to escape the fire by clambering down a ladder put up to a first-floor bedroom window by neighbours who rushed to help. He was remanded until Friday 26 March.

Fielding filled up a plastic canister in a petrol station and cycled round the corner to the Day house. Asked by the garage attendant if his car had broken down, he replied: “No, I am going to do a house”, but he was not taken seriously. The petrol can containing Fielding’s fingerprint was found in the area the next day and he was arrested.

At the hearing at Stratford magistrates’ court in east London, the victims were officially named by police for the first time following the hearing. The accused man could not be named after deputy stipendiary magistrate Hugh Vickers ruled it was “not in the interests of justice or public order” to identify him publicly.

Timeline

• 6 March 1999 — Fielding set alight the family home of Lee Day in Bellamy Road, Chingford, after petrol was poured through the letter box; seven people died in the fire.
• 6 March 1999 — Police treated the deaths of seven people as murder; a plain-clothed police officer removed a red petrol canister from the scene.
• 18 March 1999 — A man was remanded in custody for a week accused of seven murders and an attempted murder in an arson attack; the victims were officially named by police following a hearing at Stratford magistrates’ court.
• May 16, 2000 — Fielding was sentenced to be detained at Rampton Hospital in Nottinghamshire under the Mental Health Act for an indefinite period after pleading guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

Trial

Fielding pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. He was charged with murder, but the plea of guilty to manslaughter due to diminished responsibility was accepted.

Outside court, Kelly Himpfen, 21, the mother of three children who died in the fire, said: “It just goes to show you can get away with murder.”

The Recorder of London, Judge Michael Hyam, told Fielding: “If the crime had been committed by anyone with a normal mind, it would have been a crime of desolating wickedness.”

Fielding denied the attempted murder of Brian Day and the Recorder of London, Michael Hyam, ordered the charge to remain on file.

Orlando Pownall, prosecuting, said Fielding: “He seemed elated and buzzing. He felt bad.

Sentencing

In 2000, Fielding was sentenced to indefinite stay at Rampton Hospital after pleading guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

Appeals

The record does not describe an appeal.

Other details

Kelly Himpfen was the 21-year-old mother of the dead children. She had separated from Lee Day and the children were staying with him for the weekend. On the night of the fire, the dead children’s mother arrived at the scene shortly before 2pm, weeping and accompanied by two friends; she refused to comment.

Brian Day, 52, sat at the back of the court during sentencing.

The investigation described the property as a three-storey family home in Bellamy Road, Chingford, north-east London, at which flames were seen coming from the property shortly before 0100 on Saturday.