My sister’s killers scrubbed her with bleach & burned her alive… they walk free as I’m haunted by smell of torched flesh
STEPHEN Capper has been haunted by the same nightmare for over 30 years.
He relives the traumatising moment he saw his sister, Suzanne, covered in bandages, swollen beyond recognition, with burns covering 80 per cent of her body.
The tragic 16-year-old had been set on fire by a twisted gang of her supposed friends in what police described as the most brutal killing since the Moors murders of the 1960s.
In the week leading up to her death in December 1992, Suzanne was subjected to the worst abuse imaginable.
The teenager, from Moston, Manchester, was tied to an upturned bed and tortured for seven days as her kidnappers scrubbed her with bleach, stabbed her with cigarettes and pulled out her teeth with pliers.
The ghouls then tried to cover their tracks by bundling her into a car, driving into the countryside and setting her on fire, before leaving her for dead.
Brave Suzanne survived the ordeal and named her attackers before passing away from her injuries days later.
Bernadette McNeilly, who was aged 24, Jean Powell, 26, Glyn Powell, 29, and Anthony Dudson, 17, were all jailed for murder, while Jeffrey Leigh, 27, and Clifford Pook, 18, were locked up for false imprisonment.
But in a sickening gut punch for Stephen, all six have since been released, while he continues to serve his own “life sentence” of grief.
The distraught brother tells The Sun: “It’s disgusting that Suzanne’s killers have all been released. They are monsters.
“If you do something as bad as that you shouldn’t be able to get out of prison. I opposed their release at the parole board hearings but they were all treated softly.
“I shouldn’t have been fighting to keep them in prison all these years. It was traumatising every time.”
Hospital horror show
Speaking through tears, Stephen, who was just 12 when Suzanne was murdered, recalls the moment he found his sister in hospital after her torture ordeal.
He said: “My dad and I went to the hospital after a detective knocked on our door and when we got there one of the detectives told my dad ‘don’t let your child go in there, what he sees will not be recognisable’.
“Something in me was like ‘f*** that’ and I stormed straight into the intensive care room.
“Suzanne looked like she had gained 50 stone. She was normally a slim, cute girl but she had swollen up so much because of the burns.
“She was wrapped up in bandages and was in a medically-induced coma. But I could see some of the burns. And I can still remember the smell of burnt flesh.
“I sat down by her bed and started crying. I was in bits. A nurse said I couldn’t touch her because of the burns.”
Stephen’s dad, John Capper, took Suzanne in after falling in love with her mum, Elizabeth Dunbar.
Suzanne was just three when she and her mum moved into John’s house, with the couple going on to have Stephen in 1980.
However, the couple’s marriage did not last and they broke up in 1987, although Suzanne, a pupil at Moston Brook High School, remained close with her step-father.
She was staying at his home just before she was kidnapped.
Suzanne looked like she had gained 50 stone. She was normally a slim, cute girl but she had swollen up so much because of the burns
Stephen
Suzanne first became involved with her future killers after she started babysitting her neighbour Jean Powell’s three children.
The youngster saw Powell and her younger brother, Clifford Pook, as pals and often stayed at their house in Langworthy Road.
Suzanne’s sister, Michelle, also lived at the house for a short while as the families became closer with each other.
However, the ties of friendship were shattered when Bernadette McNeilly moved into the already cramped home of her pal, Powell, with her own children.
McNeilly fell in with the group and started bullying Suzanne, blaming the teen for giving her boyfriend, Anthony Dudson, lice, and the loss of a pink duffel coat.
Jurors later heard that it was these petty grievances that motivated the gang to lure Suzanne to Powell’s house on December 7, 1992 – although Stephen believes their real motive is still unclear.
'Keep monsters behind bars'
Stephen Capper is backing a new bill giving ministers the power to veto parole board decisions.
Suzanne’s brother hopes the Government’s Victims and Prisoners Bill will keep society’s worst killers behind bars.
He reveals his anguish at the release of Glyn Powell last year – the last of his sister’s murderers still in jail.
Stephen said: “This new bill won’t help me as Suzanne’s killers are all out now but if it saves one other family from the pain of their relative’s killer being released that will be good enough for me.
“I support the Government’s bill to veto parole board decisions 100 per cent.”
Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary Alex Chalk KC said: “My heartfelt sympathies remain with the family of Suzanne Capper.
“Awful cases such as this are exactly why life must mean life for sadistic child killers, and why I will change the law to bring in a ministerial check on parole decisions for the most dangerous offenders.”
When Suzanne entered the house, she was snatched by Dudson and Glyn Powell, who set about beating her.
McNeilly and Jean Powell soon joined in with the abuse and the gang went on to humiliate Suzanne by forcing her to shave her own head, eyebrows and pubic hair, before locking her in a wardrobe.
She was then moved to McNeilly’s house in the morning, tied to an upturned bed and tortured for seven days.
At the murder trial, jurors heard how McNeilly, then 24, was inspired by the 1988 horror film Child’s Play and used to start each torture session by telling Suzanne: “Chucky’s coming to play.”
Sharing the harrowing details, Stephen said: “They injected her with speed to keep her awake as they tortured her.”
Leigh and Pook joined in with the plot after visiting the group and discovering Suzanne had been kidnapped.
In a failed effort to cover their tracks, the gang smuggled Suzanne out of the house and drove to the outskirts of Stockport.
They doused the youngster in petrol and set her on fire before pushing her down an embankment and leaving her for dead.
McNeilly chanted “burn baby burn” – from The Trammps song Disco Inferno – as Suzanne was engulfed in flames.
However, Suzanne was still alive – and she managed to scramble back up the 40ft bank after the monsters had left.
She was rushed to hospital after flagging down a passer-by and named her killers to police before being put into a coma.
She died four days later on December 18, 1992.
Detective Inspector Peter Wall, who led the arrests after Suzanne’s tip-off, later said: “As the story began to unfold, we just couldn’t believe it. I kept asking how a human being could do this.”
After a trial in November 1993, Jean Powell, her ex-husband Glyn and McNeilly were all jailed for life with a minimum of 25 years.
Meanwhile, Dudson was given a minimum term of 18 years, Pook was jailed for 15 years and Leigh was sentenced to 12 years.
All six of the gang have now been released, with Leigh freed in 1998, Pook in 2001, Dudson in 2013, McNeilly in 2015, Jean Powell in 2017 and Glyn Powell last year.
Brother’s pain
To this day, Stephen – who was just 12 at the time – still heartbreakingly blames himself for Suzanne’s death, claiming he failed to act on a warning sign from Dudson.
He reveals that he heard Dudson say “let’s burn the b***h” just two weeks before she was killed.
He said: “Those words stick with me to this day. Suzanne and I were visiting their house to drop off my niece as my sister was living there at the time.
“My sister wasn’t in so we wanted to leave the baby with Dudson, Clifford and another man who I think was Glyn Powell.
Suzanne loved wild flowers and the seaside so every year I go to the beach with some flowers. She never got flowers growing up
Stephen
“They said it was nothing to do with them and didn’t want to take the baby until my sister came back.
“Then Dudson said ‘let’s burn the b***h’ and someone replied ‘you can’t do that to a baby’ and Dudson said he was talking about Suzanne.
“Suzanne told me afterwards that they were only joking but two weeks later they did it.
“I didn’t know how to tell my dad what Dudson had said at the time. I could have saved her if I acted on it.”
Three decades on from his sister’s murder, Stephen still marks the anniversary of her death with the same touching gesture every year.
He said: “Suzanne loved wild flowers and the seaside so every year I go to the beach with some flowers.
“She never got flowers growing up so I pick the flower petals off and drop them on the beach. She was my best friend.”
