The murder of Roy Tutill occurred in 1968 in Surrey, England. The victim was a 14-year-old schoolboy who was raped and murdered on his way home from school. The crime went unsolved for 33 years, until Brian Lunn Field confessed to the crime after DNA evidence surfaced in 2001. It is the oldest cold case to be solved in the United Kingdom.
Murder
Tutill, known as "Tuts" to his friends, disappeared on 23 April 1968 on his way from Kingston Grammar School in Kingston upon Thames to his home in Brockham. He left school at 3:30 p.m. and boarded a bus with his friends. To save on bus fare to buy a new bicycle, he then decided to hitchhike the rest of the way home, something he did regularly. Tutill was last seen in Chessington trying to hail a car. Tutill's parents, Dennis and Hilary, notified police when he failed to arrive home by that evening. The police took a missing person's report, but did not begin investigating until the following day. The body of the schoolboy was found by a policeman three days later outside the gates of Cherkley Court, in Mickleham, Surrey. He had been strangled and sexually assaulted.
Investigation
The only information police had was that a bus driver had seen a schoolboy talking to a driver of a silver-grey Austin WestminsterMark II car. The driver was described as a "short, stocky man with whitish-grey hair." The same car had been reported seen near where the body was dumped. Samples taken from his body and his clothing were analysed at the time, but provided no evidence except that the suspect was of either 'A' or 'O' blood group. Scotland Yard was called in to assist in the investigation, but there were no breaks in the case. The investigation remained open and was regularly reviewed. Detectives, however, held the belief that the perpetrator was a repeat offender and the murder was not a random act. In the 1970s, investigators travelled to Scotland to interview a man named Brian Lunn Field from Solihull, West Midlands, who had been sentenced to two years in prison for the attempted abduction and indecent assault of a 14-year-old boy in Aberdeen. Field denied having anything to do with Tutill's murder. In December 1996, a partial DNA sample was recovered from samples taken from Tutill's trousers, which had been kept in a freezer. In the late 1990s, a national review was held to investigate unsolved murders and see if any could be traced to current convicts or other crimes. Investigators in the Tutill case became aware of assaults of two young boys in Scotland. They were not able to locate the suspect, Brian Field, who had last been heard of in the 1980s. In 2000, a hit came back on the DNA sample from the Tutill case that was matched to Field, who had DNA taken when arrested for drunk driving in September 1999 in Birmingham. Field had been living off the radar for many years, working as a gardener, and not paying any taxes. Surrey police set up surveillance on Field in Birmingham. Field's record included a 1969 fine for gross indecency, the 1970s assault in Aberdeen, and two sentences in the 1980s of four years each for two counts of unlawful sex with underage boys and falsely imprisoning two teenage boys.
Arrest and confession
On 21 February 2001, police arrested Field at his flat in Birmingham. Field was held in police custody during which time his detention was extended for more than the initial 24 hours in order to assist the investigation. He denied knowing Tutill or having anything to do with his death, and whilst admitting to his historic offences against boys said he had put that behaviour behind him. Just before Field was put into his cell for a third night he had been asked to submit DNA samples. Field could not sleep that night and the following day he confessed in detail to the abduction, rape and murder of Tutill. He said he had seen a boy get off a bus and thumb for a lift and that he had picked him up. He said he drove the boy to a layby where he anally raped him over the front seat. He said when he finished he panicked and then strangled the boy with his own school tie. He kept the boy's body in his car's boot for several days before dumping him in woodland.
Sentence
On 15 November 2001, the 65-year-old Field was sentenced to life in prison for the death of Roy Tutill. He pleaded guilty to the murder but not the sexual assault. Tutill's parents did not live to see his murderer sentenced. Until Field was convicted, Tutill's murder had been the only unsolved child murder case in Surrey.
