Rikki Neave: Policeman who found schoolboy strangled in woods says moment has never left him

• Malcolm Graham described the moment he found Rikki Neave's body to ITV News Anglia's Matthew Hudson.

A retired policeman has described the moment he discovered the naked body of a strangled schoolboy in woodland - sparking a hunt for his killer that was to last more than 27 years.

Malcolm Graham was a police constable with Cambridgeshire Police when he was drafted in to the search for six-year-old Rikki Neave in November 1994, after he was reported missing by his mother.

His body was found less than 24 hours later, unclothed and arranged in a star shape, but it took decades for his killer - James Watson, then 13 himself - to be brought to justice.

On Friday, Watson was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 15 years in prison.

Mr Graham, who retired three years ago, still remembers the moment he discovered the young boy lying in woodland near the Welland Estate in Peterborough.

"He was there, lying on his back, spreadeagled, naked, in a slight opening in the trees on this cold November lunchtime," he said.

"He was clearly dead and, yes, it was a shock when it came."

Mr Graham was involved in identifying Rikki's body the following day, and quickly returned to his usual duties as a community beat officer elsewhere in the city.

Nearly 30 years on, the exact spot where Rikki was discovered is not easy to find - unmarked and overgrown with bushes - but the memory of that day remains.

"It's been with me ever since then in one form or another but it isn't something that has affected me deeply. I stayed with the police, I went back to work in the normal way," said Mr Graham.

He gave evidence to both murder trials - the first at which Rikki's mother Ruth Neave was acquitted, and the second, two decades later, at which Watson was convicted.

"My evidence was fairly simple and straightforward because I hadn't done anything complicated and I don't believe that I did anything controversial.

"I just happened to be the copper who was walking through the woods as deployed and Rikki was on my line of march," he said.

"I'm glad the case has come to an end. I'm glad the family as a whole has got justice. I'm glad that Ruth has now been vindicated."

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