Fresh call to catch killer of schoolgirl

It was on the night of December 8 1984 that the body of 14-year-old Lisa Hession was found in an alleyway only a few dozen yards from her home in Boneywell Road, Leigh.

The Bedford High School pupil had been sexually assaulted and strangled as she walked back from a party.

The horrific death triggered a huge manhunt, hit national headlines and has been subjected to numerous re-appeals and investigations, not least because of advances in DNA technology to which precious samples taken from the scene behind Rugby Road can still be subjected.

But in the years since that tragic night, no one has been charged.

Last year a £50,000 reward was offered in the hope of finally cracking one of the few unsolved murders but sadly it did not bring the hoped-for breakthrough.

It was revealed much later after the killing that a man had been arrested soon after the killing but released without charge. He died 13 years ago and is said still to be a “person of interest.”

Lisa’s tale took a further tragic twist two years ago when her 69-year-old mum Christine went to her grave without seeing the perpetrator brought to justice.

Martin Bottomley, head of Greater Manchester Police’s cold case unit, said: “Until the perpetrator of this awful crime is brought to justice the file on Lisa Hession will never be closed.

“It is a particularly sad case. A schoolgirl went for night out shortly before Christmas and never came home.”