A man who left Britain after being arrested on suspicion of murdering a six-year-old boy and then posted pictures of himself sunbathing online has been detained in Portugal.
The suspect, 35, breached conditions of his bail by leaving the country and appeared to taunt police as he published pictures and comments on Facebook.
The man, from Peterborough, who has not been identified by police, was arrested in April on suspicion of murdering Rikki Neave, strangled to death more than two decades ago. He was released on bail to return to a Cambridgeshire police station on 20 September.
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.
Cambridgeshire police said the suspect was arrested in Lisbon by Portuguese police and will remain in custody while extradition proceedings begin. “He has been arrested under a European arrest warrant on suspicion of breaching his licence,” the force said.
Officers from the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire major crime unit are expected to travel out to Portugal in the coming days.
Rikki’s mother, Ruth Neave, 46, was charged with murder at the time but cleared by a jury. She admitted charges of causing child cruelty to Rikki and his two sisters, Rebecca, then eight, and Rochelle, then three. In recent years she has campaigned for Cambridgeshire police to reinvestigate the killing, claiming his killer remained at large.
In June last year, the major crime unit relaunched the inquiry. In November, detectives and Ruth Neave made an appeal on BBC1’s Crimewatch, which included artist’s impressions of two men officers wanted to identify.
The original case caused a national outcry after details of horrific abuse were presented in court. Ruth Neave had 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 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.
Ruth Neave was cleared of murder but jailed for seven years for the child cruelty charges.
Neave, labelled Britain’s most evil mother by some newspapers at the time of her trial, held a press conference last year at which she said she had been pressured into admitting the cruelty charges.
When the inquiry was relaunched, Det Supt Paul Fullwood, head of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire major crime unit, revealed there had been other similar incidents around the time of the boy’s death, including children being left tied up in woods.
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