John O'Shaughnessy

Case record

Personal details

John O'Shaughnessy was born in 1965 in Chester, England. He was 31 at the time of sentencing.

O'Shaughnessy lived at the Blacon hostel. Kayleigh Ward and Kayleigh’s mother and sister had been living there after being evicted from their nearby council house for rent arrears two months earlier.

O'Shaughnessy arrived at the hostel a month earlier with his pregnant girlfriend and her three children from a previous relationship.

He had arrived at the hostel after being described as a “drifter and shifter” who hung around pubs.

O'Shaughnessy was described as a “drifter and shifter” who hung around the pubs.

The offence

Kayleigh Ward was last seen alive when she left her home to buy some chips.

O'Shaughnessy befriended Kayleigh when he and her family were living in the same homeless hostel in Chester. When the 31-year-old suggested that Kayleigh took a walk with him by the river bank she went along.

Mold Crown Court heard that, at a remote spot by the River Dee, O'Shaughnessy attacked the nine-year-old girl, “barely four feet tall,” and raped her.

During the attack, the girl sobbed: “I'll tell my mum, I'll tell my mum”.

As she walked away in tears, O'Shaughnessy determined that she could not escape. He strangled her with his belt and her tights, then threw her body into the river.

A BBC News account stated that O'Shaughnessy strangled Kayleigh and threw her body into the water at Mold Crown Court, North Wales, on Friday.

O'Shaughnessy later told the jury that he had killed Kayleigh in a panic because he feared that she would tell the police that he had raped her.

When police asked him why he had killed Kayleigh after raping her, O'Shaughnessy replied: “Because she was bound to have told people what I had done. It was the easiest way out of it.”

O'Shaughnessy was described as taking “carefully calculated steps” to avoid detection.

He told his girlfriend that his clothes had become muddy in a fight and returned his boots to the shop where he had bought them, saying they were marked.

Investigation

When Kayleigh’s mother became worried that her daughter had not returned home nearly a day later, O'Shaughnessy was one of the most zealous in the search party.

O'Shaughnessy was interviewed several times by police.

An attempted drug overdose fuelled suspicions.

It was nearly two months after Kayleigh’s disappearance before her body was washed up at low tide on the banks of the River Dee.

The body was found in the riverbed mud on 10 February.

O'Shaughnessy made a midnight call to police to say: “I killed Kayleigh Ward.”

Arrest

The material described O'Shaughnessy as having “finally cracked” in late February, two months after the murder, following earlier interviews.

Trial

O'Shaughnessy admitted the rape and murder of Kayleigh Ward at Chester Crown Court on 5 December 1997.

At trial, John Rogers QC, for the prosecutor, described the steps O'Shaughnessy took to avoid detection as “carefully calculated steps”.

Sentencing

O'Shaughnessy was sentenced to life imprisonment on December 5, 1997.

Mr Justice Maurice Kay told O'Shaughnessy: “It is difficult to imagine anything more depraved, cruel and cowardly than that.”

Mr Justice Maurice Kay recommended that O'Shaughnessy should serve at least 30 years before being considered for parole.

The judge said he would be recommending to the Home Secretary that O'Shaughnessy serve a minimum of 30 years.

O'Shaughnessy received a minimum of 30 years recommendation, which was stated as expected to keep him in prison until at least 2027 and the age of 62.

At sentencing, Mr Justice Maurice Kay said: “There is no crime more horrific than the murder of a child. What you did to Kayleigh Ward was unspeakable”.

He called the killing “depraved, cruel and cowardly”.

From the public gallery, Kayleigh’s mother, Yvonne, screamed at O'Shaughnessy: “I hope you rot in hell.”

Outside the court she said: “Our lives will never be the same now that Kayleigh has gone forever, and with the knowledge of the terrible circumstances around her death.”

Alex Carlile QC, for the defence, said that O'Shaughnessy had been “at risk” when very young but had been nothing more than “a drinker and a bit of a nuisance”.

Alex Carlile QC said that O'Shaughnessy was the father of “several” children from other relationships.

Alex Carlile QC said there was “never an inkling that he was a child-abuser” before Kayleigh was murdered.

Aftermath

The court sentenced O'Shaughnessy to life imprisonment for the rape and murder of a nine-year-old girl who disappeared from her home almost a year earlier.

Timeline

• 19 December 1996 — O'Shaughnessy raped and murdered Kayleigh Ward on the banks of the River Dee in Chester; her body was later dumped in the River Dee.
• 10 February — Kayleigh Ward’s body was found in the riverbed mud.
• 5 December 1997 — O'Shaughnessy admitted the rape and murder at Chester Crown Court; he was sentenced to life imprisonment; Mr Justice Maurice Kay recommended that he should serve at least 30 years before being considered for parole.