steven heaney Sexual Abuser

May 1996 Life for a loner who killed school friends A former army cadet instructor was given a life sentence yesterday for the murders of two schoolboy friends, Paul Barker and Robbie Gee, on a fishing trip.

Mr Justice Ognall warned the man, Steven Heaney, that there must be a “profound anxiety as to the continuing risk you present” if releasing him was ever considered.

Afterwards police revealed Heaney is to be questioned in connection with at least one other crime – a sexual assault on two schoolboys at a fishing pond in Lytham St Anne’s, Lancashire, in 1990.

Heaney, 37, a loner who lived with his parents in Eastham, Merseyside, had initially denied murder when Paul, 13, was found stabbed to death and 12-year-old Robert, known as Robbie, strangled and stabbed.

But he admitted the killings when his trial began at Liverpool Crown Court yesterday, more than nine months after the boys’ bodies were discovered by a pond near the M53 motorway in Eastham.

Mr Justice Ognall told him: “You put a brutal end to two innocent young lives.

The medical reports indicate that you are fully responsible for what you did.” Richard Henriques QC, prosecuting, said in the days running up to the murders Heaney had engaged in befriending children near his home, in at least one case using a water-testing device which was probably a sham.

He approached two 13-year-old boys and told them about nearby badgers and owls and arranged to meet them the next day.

They took a 12-year-old girl with them who Heaney attempted to grab.

Both the boys declined his offer to go with him in his car.

Then on the day of 29 July, he met Paul Barker and Robbie Gee and directed them to meet him at one of the ponds.

He separated the boys, who had been friends since infants school, by suggesting to Paul he went to look at another pond.

“At that pond, it is beyond question that the defendant strangled Paul Barker with a wire ligature that several times encircled his neck and was pulled tight from behind,” Mr Henriques said.

Paul was also hit several times around the head with a mallet, suffering a fractured skull, and was stabbed nine times with considerable force.

Mr Henriques said Heaney must then have returned to the other pond where he strangled Robbie, an only child, with his hands and stabbed him 10 times in the chest.

Both boys had their trousers pulled down, their shirts pulled up and baseball caps over their eyes when they were found during a police search the next day.

Heaney had gone for adrink at his local pub after carrying out the killings.

David Steer QC said Heaney, a factory worker, regretted his actions and felt contempt for himself.

The defendant had a hitherto unblemished character, and the court heard he had a record of running a “good detachment” with the army cadets for several years where the children had responded well to him.

Mr Steer added: “These were, of course, dreadful deeds for which the sentences are fixed by law.

We fear that anything we have to say will pale into insignificance.” Neither the Gee nor the Barker family felt able to attend court yesterday, but will be sent transcripts of the 30-minute hearing.

Detective Constable Paul Tomlinson, one of the police liaison officers who looked after them, said: “Their lives have been devastated by what happened.” A Ministry of Defence spokeswoman said they had no record of any suggestions of wrongdoing on Heaney’s army cadet-force records.

May 1996 MURDER..

THEN A PINT; Boys’ killer went off to the pub for lager and dominoes – Jailed for life Double murderer Steven Heaney coolly played pub dominoes while drinking a pint hours after slaughtering two schoolboy pals on a fishing trip.

And when the bodies of 13-year-old Paul Barker and 12-year-old Robbie Gee were found, the evil fiend even suggested forming a vigilante group to catch the killer.

He told fellow drinkers in a local pub: “Let’s kill the bastard.” Yesterday, 37-year-old Heaney was jailed for life at Liverpool Crown Court after pleading guilty to the murders that shocked the nation last summer.

Judge Mr Justice Ognall told him: “You put a brutal end to two innocent young lives.

The medical reports indicate that you are fully responsible for what you did.” Heaney – smart in a charcoal-grey suit and blue check shirt – left the dock without a word, shaking and stumbling.

Factory worker Heaney, a lonely misfit who lived with his parents, was a compulsive liar with a fantasy world.

The balding bachelor had a fierce temper and a passion for knives.

In the days before the murders he made several chilling attempts to befriend other youngsters – including a 12-year-old girl.

Heaney put his hand on the girl’s arm and suggested she take off her shirt because the weather was so hot.

But she broke away and ran off.

Then, on a sweltering Saturday afternoon last July, life-long pals Paul and Robbie cycled on their mountain bikes to a fishing pond near their homes at Eastham, Wirral, Merseyside – into the clutches of the killer.

Heaney was already fishing with four other teenagers at a pond known as The Carpies.

There wasn’t enough room for all of them, so he sent the new arrivals to Brookhurst Ponds across the field and followed 30 minutes later.

Only Heaney knows exactly what happened next.

He has claimed he snapped when one of the lads called him “Baldy“.

Police dismiss his story as a pack of lies.

Neither boy was molested, but detectives believe Heaney’s motive for murder was sexual.

Paul was the first to die, battered with a mallet, strangled with fishing wire, then stabbed nine times through his T-shirt.

He put up a fierce fight as Heaney grabbed him from behind and wound the wire around his neck.

The mallet blows smashed his skull.

Heaney then strangled Robbie with his bare hands and stabbed him 10 times in the chest beside another pond 200 yards away.

Both boys were found on their backs with their tracksuit trousers pulled down and their baseball caps laid neatly over their faces.

Heaney was to claim he yanked down their trousers to stop them running away – and could not explain why he killed them.

A huge police search was launched when the boys had not returned home by 6.30pm.

Meanwhile, Heaney had been calmly continuing his normal routine.

The boys died between 2pm and 2.30.

At 2.45 the killer drove in his white Skoda car to his local, the Merebrook, at Eastham.

He had a couple of pints of lager and returned to the pub around 4pm when he joined in a game of dominoes with a local couple.

They chatted about favourite holiday spots.

Despite the heatwave, Heaney wore a sports jacket.

He then went back to the ponds for his fishing net before going home to watch television and have his tea.

At 7pm, the killer left his parents’ semi-detached home in a pleasant tree-lined road at Eastham and drove to Dillon’s newsagents to buy a lottery ticket.

By then Heaney had decided to do some washing to remove the blood from his clothing.

He dumped the murder weapons – a four-inch fishing knife, wire and mallet – on wasteland opposite the railway station at Spital.

Then he went home and watched the detective series Columbo on TV with his unsuspecting parents.

Next day, a police helicopter swooped over the Heaney home as it searched for the missing youngsters.

The killer told his 75-year-old dad Bill and mum Marie, 72, that there must have been an armed robbery.

When the bodies were found on the Sunday, he went back to the pub and joined in the chorus of rage against the knife maniac.

Detectives later called at a house opposite Heaney’s.

Brazenly, he ambled across the road and offered his help.

The following day his sickening charade was rumbled – and police arrested him.

Heaney had a clean police record, but he had quickly become a prime suspect.

Detective Chief Inspector George Denton said: “Call it police intuition, but the interviewing officers had a very strong feeling he wasn’t telling the truth.” In court yesterday, Heaney’s barrister said the killer was full of “remorse and contrition“.

Heaney stood with head bowed as the judge hinted he might never be freed.

Police said last night that months of probing Heaney’s twisted mind has failed to solve the mystery of why he became a killer.

They also want to talk to him about an assault on two boys in nearby Lytham St Anne’s six years ago.

The youngsters, aged 10 and 11, were almost strangled and left for dead in a pond where they had been fishing.

Officers said it was a miracle they survived.