Kelly Higgins, the daughter of Bernadette McNeilly, has spoken out about her terrifying childhood. McNeilly, ringleader of a group that tortured and murdered 16-year-old Suzanne Capper, was jailed in 1993. Kelly described how she and her brother James were “constantly being beaten and tortured” by their mother and her accomplices, who would tie them to chairs and attack them with belts.
Childhood Abuse and Cruel Tricks
Kelly said her mother and her friends, aged 16 to 29 at the time, played sick tricks on them, like putting their hands in a fish tank and pretending piranhas were inside. She recalled an incident where they brought a swan into the house and chopped its head off in front of the children. “They just enjoyed every minute of causing that weird reaction from them children to be feared,” she said in an interview with LADbible.
On other occasions, Kelly and James were forced to stand on one leg on a glass table. Whoever dropped their other leg first would be beaten, and Kelly did so on purpose to protect her brother, but they were both beaten anyway.
Murder of Suzanne Capper
McNeilly and her gang held Suzanne Capper captive for several days. Suzanne, who was a babysitter for Jean and Glyn Powell, had shown love to Kelly and James. Kelly, who was seven at the time, remembered Suzanne’s screams during the torture: “They’ve removed her hair. They’ve removed her fingernails. They’ve pulled her teeth. She’s been injected, she’s been drugged. They’ve shaved her pubic hair. They’ve sexually abused this girl.”
Suzanne was lured into McNeilly's home, then taken to a woodland, doused in petrol, and set on fire. Kelly said: “Bernadette walks away from a 16-year-old child who is on fire and sings ‘Burn Baby Burn’.” Suzanne managed to survive long enough to name her attackers. McNeilly, Jean and Glyn Powell, and Anthony Dudson were jailed for murder, while Jeffrey Leigh and Clifford Pook were imprisoned for false imprisonment.
Prison Visits and Campaign for Change
Kelly was sent to live with foster parents, but her mother retained rights to see her children. Kelly described visiting her in prison as “horrendous,” yet she saw a different side: “When you’re in this prison, this mum’s everything you wanted her to be.” She said it was confusing for a child to receive love from a mother she feared.
Kelly later became a mother herself at 18 and now lives a “beautiful life” with her husband and children. She has been campaigning for a change in the law so abusive parents lose the right to see their children. McNeilly was paroled in 2015 after serving 25 years.
