Cannock Chase killer Raymond Morris lodges fresh appeal at European Court

May 15 2011 by Adam Aspinall, Sunday Mercury

CANNOCK Chase killer Raymond Morris has made a final bid for freedom with a fresh legal challenge, the Sunday Mercury can reveal.

The 81 year-old, one of Britain’s longest serving prisoners, has lodged an appeal with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

The former factory worker was jailed for life in 1969 after being convicted of abducting seven year-old Christine Darby from a Walsall street and later murdering her at the Staffordshire beauty spot. He was also prime suspect in the murders of six year-old Margaret Reynolds, from Aston in Birmingham, and Bloxwich schoolgirl Diane Tift, aged five, but their cases were left on file by prosecutors.

Last night the convicted child killer’s solicitor, Amy-Jo Cutts, confirmed her client had made his latest appeal last week after a previous failed bid at the Court of Appeal.

She said: “Mr Morris has now lodged his appeal with he European Court of Human Rights and we will do everything in our power to make sure he wins it and is freed.’’

The Cannock Chase murders shocked the nation during the 1960s and drew comparisons with the Moors Murders at the time.

It was in January 1966 that the bodies of two little girls were found buried in a ditch in the heart of the wooded Staffordshire beauty spot.

Diane Tift had gone missing while playing with friends outside her Bloxwich home two weeks earlier.