A man has been arrested on suspicion of the murder of a six-year-old boy nearly 22 years ago.
The suspect, from Peterborough, is in his 30s, meaning he would have been a teenager when Rikki Neave was strangled more than two decades ago.
Rikki was last seen leaving his home on the Welland estate in Peterborough to go to school on 28 November 1994. The following day his naked body was found in nearby woodland and his clothing – grey trousers, a white shirt, black shoes and a blue coat – were found in a wheelie bin.
Rikki’s mother, Ruth, 46, was charged with murder but cleared by a jury. She admitted charges of causing child cruelty to Rikki and his two sisters, Rebecca, then eight, and Rochelle, three, and was sentenced to seven years in prison. In recent years she has campaigned for Cambridgeshire police to reinvestigate the killing, claiming his killer remains at large.
Neave’s husband Gary Rogers said the arrest had left the couple “speechless and numb”.
“We always hoped this day would come,” he said. “We are speechless and numb, but it’s a good day.”
He later added: “It has been a bit of a surreal day. We had talked about what would happen if this day came, but it has knocked us for six.
“The police knocked on our door at 6.55am this morning and told Ruth straight away. She is numb at the moment, it hasn’t really sunk in.”
In June last year, the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire major crime unit relaunched the inquiry.
In November, detectives and Rikki’s mother took part in a BBC Crimewatch appeal, which revealed four possible sightings of the six-year-old, as well as an artist’s impressions of two men whom officers wanted to identify. As the anniversary of his death approached, detectives said they were closing in on Rikki’s killers.
The suspect was arrested on Tuesday morning and is in custody at a police station in Cambridgeshire. He is the first person to be arrested since Neave was acquitted.
The original case caused a national outcry after details of horrific abuse were presented in court.
Rikki’s mother called police when her son failed to come home from Welland primary school, Northampton crown court heard.
Prosecutors alleged the boy was killed in a sacrifice by his mother, who had an interest in the occult and black magic and told neighbours she was a high priestess.
Jurors were told that she had asked social workers to take her son into care because he was in danger if he stayed at home.
But lawyers for the defence said a sex attacker who had not been found could have been responsible for Rikki’s death.
Rikki’s mother was cleared of murder but jailed for seven years for child cruelty.
But Neave – who was labelled Britain’s most evil mother by some newspapers at the time of her trial – held a press conference last year at which she protested her innocence and said she had been pressured into admitting the cruelty charges.
She and Rogers compiled their own dossier of evidence, claiming Rikki was murdered by a sex gang operating on the estate at the time.
When the inquiry was relaunched, Det Supt Paul Fullwood, head of Beds, Cambs and Herts major crime unit, revealed there had been other similar incidents, including children being left tied up in woods, around the time of the boy’s death.
He said that despite the previous prosecution, Neave was being treated strictly as the mother of the victim. Fullwood also ruled out black magic or satanism as possible motives.
