Murder of Rosie Palmer

On 30 June 1994, Palmer was playing at a neighbour's house in Henrietta Street, Hartlepool, after being collected from nursery school by her stepfather, John Thornton.[15] At approximately 15:30, Gary Amerigo, the local ice cream vendor, arrived and Palmer went to ask Thornton if she could have money to buy an ice pop.[5] She was the only customer, and after serving her, the ice cream salesman left and continued his route.[15] Amerigo said later: "Only Rosie came up to my van that day. She didn't have enough money but I gave her the ice-cream anyway. She seemed just her usual self, bright and cheerful."[5] Armstrong — who was celebrating his 32nd birthday that day — abducted her as she walked away after making her purchase.[2] It was approximately two hours before Thornton realised Palmer was no longer at the neighbour's or playing outside the house.[16][17] He and other local residents began to search the local area for her, and at 20:45 she was reported missing to the police.[17]

The police search operation was headed by Detective Superintendent Doug Smith of Cleveland Police and involved door-to-door inquiries, tracker dogs, and local volunteers. Warehouses, industrial buildings, and disused buildings around the adjacent docks were searched while HM Coastguard, a police helicopter, and a Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) lifeboat searched the sea and shore.[15][16] Police first called at Armstrong's flat on 1 July while conducting initial door-to-door inquiries during which residents were asked to answer a questionnaire aimed at tracing her last movements.[5] On 2 July, they returned while carrying out "cursory searches" of houses in the area. On 3 July two detectives spoke to Armstrong; they noticed that his previously "co-operative, friendly and helpful" demeanour had changed, and that he then appeared "very shifty, on edge and looking very worried".[18] Acting on suspicion, the detectives arrested Armstrong and a second search of his first-floor flat was conducted.[5] Palmer's mutilated body was found in a bin liner inside an airing cupboard in the flat. Her shorts and underwear were found nearby in a separate bag. Armstrong denied any involvement in the crime and claimed that "someone else must have put the body there".[11]

Shaun Anthony Armstrong was born on 30 June 1962 in Easington and had lived in the County Durham and Cleveland area for most of his life, moving into a council-owned flat on Frederic Street in August 1993. He was unemployed, with a dependency on alcohol and prescription drugs, and had a string of previous convictions to his name. He had been investigated in relation to sex offences against children, although never charged. He was also diagnosed with a personality disorder and a psychopathic personality. He had obtained the flat after his psychiatric consultant wrote a supporting letter to the Housing Department stating that he was "vulnerable".[19] On the estate he was called "Tony the Pervert" and was generally considered "a loner, disliked or distrusted by all those who knew him".[5][6]

On 30 June 1994, Armstrong, who had been drunk "for two days solid, partying for his birthday, at different people's houses and pubs and clubs," arrived home by taxi at 15:30, about the same time that the ice cream van pulled in to Henrietta Street.[18][20] The rear of Armstrong's flat backed on to the cul-de-sac where Palmer purchased her ice cream. Post-mortem examination determined that she was dead by 16:30, although pathologists were unable to give a specific cause of death due to the condition of her body. Det. Supt. Smith told a news conference: "She had been severely sexually assaulted. That is a possible cause of death – the actual injury itself."[18]

At around 16:30 Armstrong called in at a local shop where he said he was going to "help look for the little girl who had vanished" – even though Rosie Palmer had not yet been reported missing. The shopkeeper noticed blood on Armstrong's hand, which Armstrong said was the result of being bitten by his dog, despite the absence of any wound. Armstrong then took his dog and a bottle of cider to the nearby beach and began running in and out of the sea for two hours until neighbours reported him to the police who arrived and told him to go home.[6][18]

A report in the psychiatric care given to Armstrong was published in June 1996, two years after he murdered Palmer, and the local health authority criticised the standard of care as "inadequate and full of shortcomings", but added that the murder of Palmer "could not have been predicted".

In June 1997, Palmer's mother, Beverley Yates, launched a £200,000 compensation claim against Tees Health Authority and Hartlepool and East Durham NHS Trust, alleging negligence for allowing Armstrong to be released from their care. This was thought to be the first damages claim against a health authority or NHS trust by a relative of someone murdered by a released patient.[22]

The claim was struck out in February 1998 in the High Court by Master Hodgson who ruled that Armstrong had made no direct threat against Palmer and her family. He said:

"In the absence of such a specific threat I think it is impossible, as the law currently stands, for me to hold that the hospital in these circumstances owes effectively a duty (of care) to the world at large."[23][24]

In June 1999, the case was appealed to the Court of Appeal.[25] On 1 July 1999 Lord Justice Stuart-Smith upheld the previous High Court ruling that there was no connection between the health authority or the hospital and Palmer.[26]

After a number of years during which very little was reported about the Rosie Palmer murder case, Armstrong returned to the headlines in September 2001 when he was granted Legal Aid to pursue a £15,000 compensation claim against Bernard O'Mahoney for "breach of confidence". Armstrong's solicitors backed up the case by claiming that O'Mahoney had pretended to be a woman and allowed police to see a written statement (the letter in which Armstrong admitted to killing Palmer, as well as his plan to feign mental illness) which was supposed to be kept secret.

The case was dropped in June 2002 after Armstrong decided he no longer wanted to pursue O'Mahoney for damages. Armstrong also dropped his bid to prevent O'Mahoney from publishing a book – Flowers in God's Garden – which included a section about Armstrong and the Rosie Palmer murder. By this stage, the proceedings had already cost thousands of pounds worth of taxpayers' money.

In March 2010, with Armstrong's earliest possible release date just four months away, Yates oversaw the launch of a campaign in Hartlepool for Armstrong to be placed on the sex offender's register when and if he is paroled – as the law stands he will not go onto the register once released, because he was not convicted of a sexual offence.[27]

• Murder of Leanne Tiernan
• Murder of Sarah Payne
• Soham murders

• Bernard O'Mahoney website, contains copies of numerous legal documents concerning Armstrong