James Patterson Smith

Case overview

James Patterson Smith murdered Kelly Anne Bates, an English teenager, at the home they shared in Manchester. Kelly Anne Bates (c. 1979 – 16 April 1996) was 17 at the time of her death on 16 April 1996. She was tortured over a period of four weeks, including having her eyes gouged from their sockets up to three weeks before her death, before being drowned in a bathtub.

Smith denied murdering Bates but was convicted of her murder and sentenced to life imprisonment on 19 November 1997.

Timeline

• 16 April 1996 — Kelly Anne Bates was murdered in Manchester; she was drowned in a bathtub after being tortured over a period of four weeks.
• 17 April 1996 — Smith presented at a police station and said he had accidentally killed his girlfriend during an argument in the bath.
• 19 November 1997 — Smith was sentenced to life in prison (minimum 20 years).

The victim

Kelly Anne Bates was an English teenager born circa 1979. She died on 16 April 1996, aged 17. She had wanted to be a teacher, attended college, and worked for a graphics firm. She was from Hattersley, Greater Manchester.

Bates had started a secretive relationship with Smith when she was 14 or 15 and later moved in with him.

Background

James Smith was an unemployed divorcee living in Gorton, Manchester. Acquaintances described him as “house-proud and well-groomed”, and he was a teetotaller and non-smoker.

Smith’s marriage ended after ten years in 1980 due to his violence towards his wife. He then began an affair between 1980–1982 with 20-year-old Tina Watson, whom he “used as a punch-bag”, including subjecting her to severe beatings while she was pregnant with his child. Watson managed to escape from the relationship. During that relationship, Smith attempted to drown her while she was bathing.

In 1982, Smith began a statutory rape relationship with 15-year-old Wendy Mottershead. Mottershead was also described as a victim of his violence. In one attack, Smith held her head under water in the kitchen sink in an attempt to drown her.

In 1993, Smith began another statutory rape relationship with Kelly Bates while she was only 14 years old. When Bates left school, she moved in with Smith at his home in Furnival Road, Gorton. She concealed the relationship from her parents.

Bates’ mother said: “As soon as I saw Smith the hairs on the back of my neck went up. I tried everything I could to get Kelly Anne away from him.”

Bates briefly left Smith because of arguments, but in November 1995 she was once more living with him in Furnival Road. Her parents noticed bruising which she explained away as the results of accidents. She became increasingly withdrawn and resigned from her part-time job in December 1995.

In March 1996, Bates’ parents received cards purportedly from her for their anniversary and a birthday, although only Smith had written in them. When Bates’ brother tried to see her at the house, Smith said she was not at home. When a concerned neighbour asked after her, she was briefly shown at an upstairs window.

Investigation

The murder inquiry was headed by Detective Sergeant Joseph Monaghan of Greater Manchester Police. Monaghan said: “I have been in the police force for 15 years and have never seen a case as horrific as this.”

Police attended Smith’s address after Smith presented at a police station. Bates’ naked body was found in a bedroom. Bates’ blood was found in every room of the house.

A post-mortem examination revealed over 150 separate injuries on her body.

William Lawler, the pathologist who examined Bates’ body, described her injuries as: “the worst he had seen on a murder victim”

A further description was given by William Lawler, saying that although he examined almost 600 victims of homicide, he had never come across injuries so extensive.

Arrest / reporting to police

On 17 April 1996, Smith presented at a police station and said he had accidentally killed his girlfriend during an argument in the bath. He claimed she had inhaled bathwater and died despite his attempts to resuscitate her.

Police were also told by Smith that he had “I've killed her. I know I have.” He also told another officer: “I know I'm going away. I know there is no point. I'm going to get found out anyway.”

Trial

Smith denied murder. He claimed Bates “would put me through hell winding me up”. He also claimed that Bates had “taunted him” about his dead mother and had “a bad habit of hurting herself to make it look worse on me”.

When asked to explain why he had blinded, stabbed and battered Bates, he said she had dared him to do it, challenging him to do her harm.

A jury at Manchester Crown Court took one hour to find 49-year-old Smith guilty of Bates’ murder.

The prosecutor Peter Openshaw said: “It was as if he deliberately disfigured her, causing her the utmost pain, distress and degradation ... The injuries were not the result of one sudden eruption of violence, they must have been caused over a long period [and] were so extensive and so terrible that the defendant must have deliberately and systematically tortured the girl.”

Bates’ cause of death was drowning. Openshaw also said: “Her death must have been a merciful end to her torment”

Injuries and last month details

During the last month of her life, Bates had been kept bound in the house. She was sometimes tied by her hair to radiators or chairs, and at other times with a ligature around her neck.

The injuries included scalding to her buttocks and left leg; burns on her thigh caused by the application of a hot iron; a fractured arm; multiple stab wounds caused by knives, forks and scissors; stab wounds inside her mouth; crush injuries to both hands; mutilation of her ears, nose, eyebrows, mouth, lips and genitalia; wounds caused by a spade and pruning shears; “\ both eyes gouged out”; later stab wounds to the empty eye sockets; and partial scalping.

The pathologist determined that her eyes had been removed “not less than five days and not more than three weeks before her death”.

She had been starved, losing around 20 kg in weight, and had not received water for several days before her death.

The record also stated that immediately prior to drowning, she had been beaten about the head with a shower head.

Sentencing

Smith was sentenced to life imprisonment. The judge, Mr. Justice Sachs, recommended that Smith should serve a minimum term of 20 years.

Sachs said: “This has been a terrible case; a catalogue of depravity by one human being upon another. You are a highly dangerous person. You are an abuser of women and I intend, so far as it is in my power, that you will abuse no more.”

The jury was provided with professional counselling to help them deal with the distress of seeing the photographs of Bates’ injuries and the “sickening violence” of the case.

Other details

Independent.ie stated: “A 17-YEAR-old girl was "deliberately and systematically tortured" by her 49-year-old boyfriend for up to four weeks before she was murdered, a court in Britain was told yesterday.”

Independent.ie also stated that Bates had 150 separate injuries, her eyes had been gouged out, she had been stabbed, burned, scalded, partially scalped and starved of food before drowning in a bath, and that police found her naked body in the upstairs bedroom of her boyfriend's house in Gorton, Greater Manchester.

Independent.ie also reported that Smith was unemployed and denied murder, and described Bates as a “strong and sporty girl” who had wanted to be a teacher, who was at college and worked for a graphics firm.

Independent.ie also described that Bates’ parents, Margaret and Thomas, noticed bruises and a bite mark which she passed off as an accident, and that at Christmas she gave up her job. It also stated that in March Bates failed to sign cards for her parents’ wedding anniversary and for her father's birthday, and that the family heard nothing more from her after those cards.

Independent.ie also reported: “Little is known about the last month in her life. She was, in effect, a prisoner in her home.”

A report described events around the confession and police statements including “I've killed her. I know I have.” and “I know I'm going away. I know there is no point.

An account stated Smith was a sadist who systematically tortured his 17-year-old girlfriend for up to a month before drowning her in the bath and that he gouged out her eyes, probably with his hands, up to three weeks before her death and stabbed her in the face and body with scissors and forks. It also stated the jury heard a post-mortem revealed 150 separate injuries and that in the four weeks leading to her death she was kept a prisoner, rendered helpless after being blinded and kept without food tied by her hair to a radiator in an upstairs bedroom.