On Easter Sunday in 1996, a man walked into a police station in Manchester and calmly confessed to killing his girlfriend. This confession unveiled one of the most brutal and prolonged cases of torture in British criminal history, involving a teenage girl and a man three decades her senior.
A Dark Relationship Begins
Kelly Anne Bates was just 14 years old when she first met James Patterson Smith, a man 32 years older than her. Their paths crossed while Kelly was babysitting for a friend of Smith's. That night, he walked her home, an act that marked the beginning of a dark and secretive relationship.
Smith, a divorced man described by acquaintances as "house-proud" and "well groomed", had a history of extreme jealousy and violence. His previous partner, Tina Martin, recounted how he had held her head underwater in a bathtub and used her as a "punchbag".
Kelly Anne kept her relationship with Smith a secret from her parents, Tommy and Margaret Bates. It wasn't until she turned 16 that they became aware of his existence. In November 1995, after leaving school, Kelly Anne moved in with Smith at his home in a quiet cul-de-sac, concealing the vast age difference from her family.
The Descent into Torture and Isolation
Margaret Bates recalled her first meeting with Smith, saying, "As soon as I saw Smith the hairs on the back of my neck went up. I tried everything I could to get Kelly Anne away from him." Her instincts were tragically correct.
Over time, Kelly Anne began seeing less of her parents. On the rare occasions she visited the family home, she often had visible injuries like bruises and bite marks, which she dismissed as accidents. Eventually, the visits stopped altogether. The last time her parents saw her alive was on 30th November 1995.
She subsequently quit her job and phone contact became infrequent. In March 1996, her parents received two unsigned cards, which heightened Margaret's fears that Smith had written them himself because Kelly Anne was unable to.
A Horrific Discovery and a Shock Confession
On 16th April 1996, Smith went to the police station and confessed to the murder. Officers were directed to the upstairs bedroom of his semi-detached home, where they discovered Kelly Anne's body in a scene of unimaginable horror.
The Home Office pathologist, William Lawler, stated he had never encountered injuries so extensive in his career, despite examining almost 600 homicide victims. Kelly Anne had endured 150 separate injuries.
The catalogue of abuse included:
- Her eyes had been gouged out, an act performed between five days and three weeks before her death.
- She had been partially scalped.
- She suffered mutilation to her ears, nose, eyebrows, mouth, lips, and genitalia.
- She had been burned, stabbed, and scalded.
- She was starved, having lost around 20kg in weight, and deprived of water for days.
- In the final month of her life, she was kept tied up, sometimes by her hair to a radiator or by her neck with a ligature.
Her official cause of death was determined to be drowning.
Trial and Sentencing
The trial of James Patterson Smith began at Manchester Crown Court on 12th November 1997. The prosecutor, Peter Openshaw, told the court that Smith had "deliberately disfigured her, causing her the utmost pain, distress and degradation" over a long period.
Smith denied murder, offering wild claims that Kelly Anne had taunted him about his dead mother and had a "bad habit of hurting herself". He even alleged she had dared him to harm her. A consultant psychiatrist, Gillian Mezey, testified that Smith had "a severe paranoid disorder with morbid jealousy".
The jury took just one hour to find the 49-year-old Smith guilty of murder. Mr. Justice Sachs sentenced him to life imprisonment, recommending a minimum term of 20 years. The judge described the case as "a catalogue of depravity by one human being upon another" and stated his intention to ensure Smith would "abuse no more" women.
