Murder of Emily Salvini

Emily was born in Italy in October 1989. Her mother was Katie and her father was Marco Salvini. Katie graduated from Sussex University with a degree in politics and met Marco on a holiday in Italy in the late 1980s. They were married for about a year before Emily was born and lived near Lake Garda for three years before moving to Caversham in Reading, close to Katie’s parents.[2] Emily had a brother, Zach, who was four years younger than her. At the time of the attack on the Salvini's’ home, Katie and Marco had separated and Katie and her two children were the only occupants of the semi-detached rented house on Hemdean Road in Caversham. Katie worked part-time in a local pub and Marco had regular contact with their children and was reported to visit every Saturday at 10.00am to take the children out.[3] Emily was a pupil at Caversham Primary School which was very close to her home.[4]

On the night of Friday 2 May 1997, Zach, 3, got into bed with his mother at some point early in the night and Emily, 7, was asleep in her bedroom at the back of the house. At 1.30am on Saturday 3 May, telephone lines were cut on three telegraph poles on Hemdean Road, this resulted in thirty houses losing their telephone connection.[3][1] Neighbours were woken by screaming and a ringing burglar alarm some time after 4.00am on Saturday morning. Flames were seen billowing out of the Salvini’s home. Katie was woken by Zach crying and got up realising it was very hot and there was a glow around the bedroom door. When she opened the door, flames rushed into her bedroom, they were as high as the ceiling. Katie put Zach, who was very distressed, out of the bedroom window and onto a small ledge on the top of the downstairs bay window. She was desperate to reach her daughter, Emily, but couldn’t get through the flames to her room. She handed Zach down to one of the neighbours who had arrived to help. He persuaded her to leave the house too, despite her wish to save her daughter. Katie fell from the bay window ledge, witnesses described her and Zach’s face, hands and feet as black and most of their clothing was burnt away. Neighbours tried to get to Emily in the back bedroom by putting a ladder up at the back of the house. Meanwhile a passing motorist had alerted the fire brigade on their mobile phone and the firefighters broke down the front door and managed to rescue Emily from her bedroom. All three of the family members were taken to the Royal Berkshire Hospital where Emily died of smoke inhalation. Her mother and brother’s injuries were so severe that they were transferred to a specialist unit at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire.[3][1]

Katie and Zach were seriously ill after the fire and both underwent surgery for their burns. Zach was able to leave hospital a few weeks later and was looked after by relatives.[5] Katie finally left hospital just over a month after the attack.[6]

Four hundred people were interviewed in the first few months of the investigation.[1] Thames Valley Police stated that the ‘calculated and pre-planned’ arson attack was a deliberate attempt to murder Katie Salvini and her children.[3] Petrol had been poured through the letterbox of the family’s front door and then set alight.[1] On the day of the attack, police closed off part of Hemdean Road and a mobile incident room was set up in the street. Police interviewed neighbours and searched gardens, among the items they were looking for was a can of flammable fluid. Two men were arrested and held for questioning over the weekend, they were later released without charge. Mrs Salvini had reported to police that her telephone cable had been cut two weeks previously, two men had been questioned then but released without charge.[3]

A few weeks after the attack, police appealed for two men to come forward. A neighbour saw them walking down Hemdean Road and then run back to a blue car at the time of the attack. Both men were described as Asian with one being in his 20s and the other in his 40s. Police were keen to speak to them in the hope they had seen the arsonist.[5] A man was arrested on 17 June, held overnight and then released without charge.[7]

In July 1997, police issued an unusual artist’s impression of a ‘man without a face’, which was based on a description given to them by two witnesses who were not close enough to see his facial features. They saw the man at the junction of Hemdean Road and Victoria Road, yards from the Salvini home at 4.40 am, shortly before the fire. He was described as being between 5ft 8in and 5ft 11in with short dark hair. He was wearing a padded light lumberjack-style shirt or jacket with a predominantly white check pattern.[8]

In August, police cleared an overgrown area at the junction of Hemdean Road and Victoria Road where the ‘man without a face’ had been seen standing. It was the second time the area had been searched and nothing of interest was found. Drains in the area were checked for discarded items as well as the River Thames.[9]

On 6 August 1997, 33 year old Stephen Duffy and his common-law wife were arrested at their home in Emmer Green. Forensic tests were carried out on his vehicle and the couple’s home was searched. Duffy had been previously interviewed by detectives and was arrested on suspicion of murder. His partner was arrested on suspicion of aiding and abetting.[10] Both were released without charge.

More details emerged about Duffy when police refused his application for the return of his gun licence in a court hearing in Reading on 23 October 1998. Counsel for Thames Valley Police described Duffy, a wine shop owner, as ‘cruel and dangerous’, that he remained a suspect in the Salvini murder and would remain so for the foreseeable future. It was reported that Duffy was one of two male suspects in the enquiry and neither had been eliminated. Police had interviewed three former partners of Duffy who had described his violent, abusive and controlling behaviour. He had reportedly caused one to miscarry after pushing her down the stairs and kicking her in the stomach.[11] Duffy denied all allegations against him and was never charged in connection with the Salvini murder. It was reported in 2002 that a 37 year old man, Stephen Duffy, of Cavendish Road, Emmer Green, was found guilty of sex with an underage girl. He was jailed for a year and ordered to be put on the sex offenders register for ten years after release.[12]

Emily Salvini’s funeral was held in Caversham on Thursday 19 June.[7] The inquest into her death on 4 November 1997 gave a verdict of unlawful killing.[1]

In April 1999, almost two years after the attack, Mrs Salvini made a plea for help to find her daughter’s killer and police stated that they believed someone was shielding him or her.[13] The appeal led to an anonymous call stating that bolt croppers and a machete were used to cut the telephone lines on the night of Emily’s murder.[14] The tools were never recovered.

In 2001, Emily's murder was featured on BBC’s Crimewatch TV programme. In 2017, on the twentieth anniversary of the attack, Katie and her son Zach, 23, made a new appeal for information to find Emily’s killer. Katie described the attack again and said that she had two more children, Laurie, 16, and Sebastian, 10. She also said that she believed there were two ‘very strong suspects’ who lived locally and who she had come face-to-face with in the years since the attack. She believed that one of them could have held a grudge against her for standing up for a friend. Thames Valley Police said they would be carrying out new forensic tests on fire debris retrieved from the scene of the crime.[15]