Rikki Neave murderer James Watson appeals against conviction

A man who was jailed last year for murdering a six-year-old schoolboy in 1994 has challenged his conviction.

Rikki Neave's body was found in woods near his Peterborough home the day after he disappeared in November 1994.

James Watson, now 42 but 13 at the time, was convicted in April last year and was given a life sentence with a minimum term of 15 years.

The Court of Appeal heard there was a "wholesale loss and destruction" of evidence.

Appeal judges said they would give their decision in writing at a later date.

The body of Rikki was found naked and posed star-shaped with his arms outstretched and legs wide apart, in woodland near where he lived on the Welland estate. He had been strangled.

His murder was among the most high-profile cold cases on police files until DNA was identified on the victim's clothes following a re-examination of the case two decades later.

Watson denied murder but was found guilty by a jury and sentenced at the Old Bailey in London last June.

He has now appeared at the Court of Appeal in London via video link from HMP Wakefield.

Jennifer Dempster KC, for Watson, told the court there had been a "total disregard" towards preserving exhibits in the case.

"The reality we submit was that this was a wholesale loss and destruction of evidence, so much so that a fair trial of this applicant is no longer possible," she said.

"It closed down completely any opportunity for the defence to explore the potential of other suspects."

However, prosecutor John Price KC said there was no evidence that Watson's case had been affected.

"The applicant failed to demonstrate that there was any prejudice caused to him by the loss of the material that has been identified," he said.

"If there was... we do not accept that it was not capable of being ameliorated in the usual way."

Lord Justice Holroyde, sitting with Mr Justice Morris and Judge Angela Morris, said they would give their decision "as soon as we can".

Watson, who also lived on the Welland estate, was the second person to stand trial for Rikki's murder, after the boy's mother Ruth Neave was cleared by a jury in 1996.

A BBC investigation into the case uncovered evidence that the original police investigation ignored key scientific evidence to make the case against Ms Neave.

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